{"id":28556,"date":"2016-07-24T13:03:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T17:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=28556"},"modified":"2016-07-24T13:03:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T17:03:38","slug":"fox-news-workplace-sexual-harassment-a-primer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=28556","title":{"rendered":"Fox News workplace sexual harassment: A Primer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve never read a narrative as exemplary of workplace sexual harassment as today’s New York Times article on Fox News.<\/p>\n

Let it serve as a primer for every career woman who faces this kind of ugliness, tries to evade it and is fired as a result.<\/p>\n

Current and former employees describe instances of sexual harassment and intimidation, suggesting that Roger Ailes\u2019s exit may not be the end of the network\u2019s woes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: At Fox News, Kisses, Innuendo, Propositions and Fears of Reprisal – The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Read it, and you’ll understand the maze women can be trapped in when pressured to provide sexual favors at work.<\/p>\n

A couple of paragraphs highlight the difficulties women face when settling cases involving rejected sexual harassment and quid pro quo<\/em> termination.<\/p>\n

In 2006, after nearly a decade at CNN, Rudi Bakhtiar came to the Fox News Channel\u2019s headquarters in New York with a command of foreign policy, an appealing personality and a delivery that easily switched between light and serious.<\/em><\/p>\n

After a six-month freelance arrangement, the network signed her to a three-year deal. Pretty quickly, she said, she was spending half her time in Washington, where the network sent her to fill in temporarily as a weekend correspondent, a post she hoped to win permanently.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo<\/span><\/p>\n
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Rudi Bakhtiar said she rebuffed sexual advances from a colleague, which she claims led to her dismissal at Fox News.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0Her break seemed to come in early 2007, she said, when she met for coffee in the lobby of her Washington hotel with a friend and colleague, Brian Wilson. He told her he would soon become Washington bureau chief and wanted to help her get the weekend job. Then he said, \u201cYou know how I feel about you, Rudi.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Recalling the encounter in a recent phone interview, Ms. Bakhtiar said she was thrilled and told Mr. Wilson she would make him proud. But, she said, he repeated himself, asking, \u201cYou know how I feel about you?\u201d When she asked him what he meant, he said, \u201cWell, I\u2019d like to see the inside of your hotel room,\u201d adding that he wanted a friends-with-benefits relationship.<\/em><\/p>\n

She politely rebuffed him, she said, apologizing for giving him any wrong impression. After that rejection, she felt caught in a whirlwind in which, she said, network executives canceled her Washington appearances, directed her to report her allegations to human resources and, a few weeks later, let her go, with the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes<\/a>, telling her that her tenure was ending because of her performance. On Saturday, a senior Fox News executive repeated that assertion.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a short time, she went from thinking she was in line to land the job she coveted to unemployment. After a mediation process, she reached a settlement in which Fox News paid her an undisclosed amount.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, in the final paragraphs, you learn how the non-disclosure clause in her settlement might inflict further indignities upon Ms. Bahkiar for speaking out now:<\/p>\n

Ms. Bakhtiar, who now works as a producer for Reuters, said she was risking a lawsuit to speak out because her experience \u201cruined my life\u201d and also because she said she believed that \u201cthis environment has to change.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

When The Times contacted Fox News on Thursday about Ms. Bakhtiar\u2019s story, the network contacted her old lawyer…to warn her that she was in breach of her agreement. She decided to go forward anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they going to do? Come after me for money? Garnish my wages? It\u2019ll make a bigger story out of it,\u201d she said. \u201cI just feel like I shut up because I didn\u2019t want to hurt my career,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s awful what happened to me, and to other people, with a nod from management.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Good for her and good for us that she’s speaking out, but yes–going after her money is precisely what Fox can and might do. It’s that non-disclosure clause.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve never read a narrative as exemplary of workplace sexual harassment as today’s New York Times article on Fox News. Let it serve as a primer for every career woman who faces this kind of ugliness, tries to evade it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1055],"tags":[1056,60,71,518,438],"class_list":["post-28556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-war-on-women","tag-american-war-on-women","tag-employment-lawsuits","tag-non-disclosure-settlement-agreements","tag-settlements","tag-sexual-harassment-lawsuits"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t