Tucker Carlson’s abrupt departure from Fox News sent shock waves through the American political and media landscapes and immediately many US pundits linked it to the huge settlement the rightwing channel had just reached with Dominion Voting Systems.
Carlson, as a far-right provocateur, had been instrumental in the channel’s airing of conspiracy theories around the 2020 election that had often put Dominion’s voting machines at the heart of false claims of ballot rigging.
But there is another legal case involving Carlson, his show and Fox that is also now gaining attention in the wake of his firing: one that casts a brutal spotlight on the internal culture of Carlson’s show and some of its top executives, with claims of bullying, antisemitism and sexism.
It is a lawsuit by Abby Grossberg, Carlson’s former booker. Grossberg had been fired by Fox News shortly after she filed two lawsuits against the company in March claiming that Fox News, Fox Corp, and employees including Tucker Carlson fostered a workplace riven with abusive behaviors.
Grossberg’s complaints centered around Tucker Carlson Tonight (TCT), one of the most watched but not the most profitable cable talkshow on Fox News (that accolade goes to The Five). Grossberg claims she was “isolated, overworked, undervalued, denied opportunities for promotion, and generally treated significantly worse than her male counterparts, even when those men were less qualified than her”.
Fox News, meanwhile, has described Grossberg’s claims as “unmeritorious” and “riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees”. The company said it had hired an independent outside counsel to investigate the concerns raised by the former employee.
But Grossberg’s legal complaint makes for brutal reading.
On her first day on the show, Grossberg claims, she found that the office was decorated with mock-up pictures of the former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage”. The lawsuit claims “the joke” was that Pelosi looked terrible in a bathing suit.
Grossberg was also asked if the Fox host and Grossberg’s former boss Maria Bartiromo was having a sexual relationship with the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy.
In the lawsuit, Grossberg claims she was “mortified by what she was witnessing and began to experience a sinking feeling in her stomach as it became apparent how pervasive the misogyny and drive to embarrass and objectify women was among the male staff at TCT”.
A multi-front war at Fox News – politically, between the cable channel’s news division and opinion-led prime-time hosts like Carlson, and in terms of gender discrimination dating back to Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly – appears to have coalesced in Grossberg’s complaints.
The former journalist and booker said as much in her statement after Carlson’s abrupt firing: “This is a step towards accountability for the election lies and baseless conspiracy theories spread by Fox News,” Grossberg said in a statement, “as well as for the abuse and harassment I endured.”
But there is also legal jeopardy for Fox News in Grossberg’s lawsuit from its interplay with a separate lawsuit her team has filed in Delaware – the same jurisdiction that Fox settled a $1.6bn defamation claim brought by Dominion last week.
Grossberg said in her New York discrimination lawsuit that she was coerced by Fox lawyers into providing a misleading deposition in the Dominion case, that Fox lawyers had not searched her company cellphone despite a court-ordered discovery, and that they had failed to give her the opportunity to review and correct her testimony.
In the separate lawsuit in Delaware, Grossberg alleges there was a conspiracy, described by her lawyer, Gerry Filippatos, as an effort “to throw her under the bus, [and to have her] testify falsely to cover up Fox’s misdoings” in the Dominion case.
Fox News has said Grossberg’s allegations in connection with the Dominion case are “baseless” and it would “vigorously defend Fox against her unmeritorious legal claims which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees”.
But Grossberg’s employment discrimination claim against Fox, Carlson and a handful of his senior producers alleging bullying, sexism and antisemitism is what some believe pushed Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News; Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corporation; and Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corp and executive chair of News Corp, to fire Carlson.
The lawsuit alleges that Carlson created an environment where “unprofessionalism reigned supreme, and the staff’s distaste and disdain for women infiltrated almost every workday decision” and that her salary, at $145,000, was significantly less than the typical salary for senior producers of prime-time TV shows and a violation of the equal pay laws.
Grossberg alleges that when she complained to her superior, she was told: “This is Tucker’s tone and just the pace of the show.” The male staffers who mistreated her were “inspired, permitted, and enabled to do so by Mr Carlson himself”, she claims – engaging in that way because the “misogynistic fish rots from the head down”.
Grossberg, who is Jewish, claims she was subjected to religious discrimination by a senior producer, Alex McCaskill, who had placed three inflatable Christmas decorations in the bookings area – “a preposterous display that was distracting and loud” and a smaller one by her desk with a sign that read “Hannukah bush”.
When, in December last year, the TCT team discussed the upcoming Fox News employee spotlight awards, McCaskill quipped that the “entirely Caucasian” TCT team could never win a $10,000 prize for “Inclusion Ambassador of the Year”. But an “Israeli Jew” in bookings might and could then use the money “to buy the team pizza for a year”.
McCaskill, the lawsuit claims, “habitually belittled female employees”. While pitching a promotional idea for Carlson’s End of Men documentary, McCaskill remarked that the breastfeeding “mother’s room” was a “waste of space” and should be replaced with a “room of tanning beds for the guys to tan their testicles”, a practice featured on TCT.
When Grossberg complained to McCaskill, the lawsuit claims, she was scheduled for an HR meeting to “discuss [her] work performance”. A Fox News HR officer warned her that “immediate improvement is required”.
TCT producer Justin Wells – who also exited Fox on Monday – chose female guests based on their appearance and made inappropriate remarks, the lawsuit claims. In one instance, Grossberg claims, Wells and McCaskill remarked that a junior TCT booker who reported to Grossberg “should use her sex appeal to the TCT team’s advantage, such as by ‘sleep[ing] with Elon Musk to get [an] interview’”.
Legal experts see discrimination lawsuits as notoriously difficult to prove at trial as they often rely on circumstantial evidence. The establishment of a pattern of prior gender-based and sexual harassment claims against Fox News, many of which were settled, would not necessarily be admitted into court.
But Grossberg’s attorneys could ask for documents and evidence from prior legal complaints to be unsealed, setting off a new round of unwelcome attention for Fox.
“Proving these types of claims in court can often be challenging; especially when the only available evidence is circumstantial and witnesses are needed to substantiate them. Ms Grossberg’s claims also present unique challenges,” said Eric M Baum at Eisenberg & Baum in New York.
‘Ms Grossberg’s testimony in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox creates other complexities in this case. With that said, it is of utmost importance that Ms Grossberg’s accusations be heard and fully investigated,” he added.
• This article was amended on 26 April 2023 to correctly state that Fox News’ most profitable cable talkshow is The Five, not Tucker Carlson Tonight as an earlier version said.
