Fox News Says Andrea Tantaros Is Big Honking Liar Who Lies So Much

We know she is A Idiot, but is she A LIAR?

Last week, we OOH-ed and AAH-ed over how extensive and damning former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros's sexual harassment lawsuit against the network was. It implicated everybody from Roger Ailes to Bill O'Reilly to executive vice presidents of the network (as part of the cover-up), and even nudie centerfold former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (as a hands-y motherfucker). So clearly, because it is a lawsuit , Fox News has responded, and surprise, the network says Andrea Tantaros is a big L-I-A-R. (If that's so, then we guess everybody at Fox should submit to Tantaros's demand that they all take lie detector tests!) The response ALSO seems to leave Roger Ailes hanging, as if he might be a gross pervert or something.

Let's see what's fun about this response:

Over the last few weeks, 21st Century Fox (Fox News' parent company) has made clear its commitment to providing a safe and dignified workplace at Fox News: by immediately launching an investigation in which women were encouraged to report their experiences under conditions of confidentiality, and by committing to make things right with those women who were not treated with the respect that they and every employee deserve.

WEEKS, children, WEEKS. Fox News has been a nice, warm, safe space for all gentlemen and ladies for solid WEEKS, ever since Roger Ailes was forced to slime his slime-body back into whatever slime-cavern would give him shelter (Donald Trump's campaign, obviously).

But Tantaros is not a victim; she is an opportunist.

Told you they're calling her a liar. The network says Tantaros is just mad because she breached her own contract by "writing an unauthorized book," and that she's just jumping on the "I got bad-touched by Roger Ailes" wagon:

[S]he claims now that she too was victimized by Roger Ailes, when, in fact, contrary to her pleading, she never complained of any such conduct in the course of an investigation months ago. Not to be outdone by anyone, she contends that she was sexually harassed by an ever-shifting collection of employees at Fox News ...

Well, it's true, as we said, that Tantaros's lawsuit is MUCH broader than any other allegations we've heard so far. Is Fox saying Tantaros is claiming she was harassed by half of Fox to one-up Gretchen Carlson, who only says A FEW Fox dudes are pigs? HMMM!

[wonkbar]<a href="https: //wonkette.substack.com/p/derp-roundup-andrea-tantaros-does-bondage"></a>[/wonkbar]The crux of Fox News's argument is that Tantaros is makin' shit up, as a "smokescreen" to distract from how she violated the terms of her employment by writing that book -- remember, the one where she is Tied Up In Knots on the cover? -- whereas Tantaros says her suspension was retaliation for raising hell about sexual harassment at Fox. Fox News also says that, per her contract, Tantaros is required to go through private arbitration to resolve these matters, that she was already supposed to be in arbitration over the book, and that a courtroom is not the appropriate place for all of this to be resolved, because that's what Fox and Tantaros agreed to, when they signed her contract. Is this all true? Who can say??? Wonkette is willing to believe BOTH that Fox News is a nasty, molest-y, rapey place, and ALSO that Andrea Tantaros might have violated her employment contract because #Reasons. Hell, we don't know.

The truly fun part comes after the actual response (WHICH IS BORING), in an addendum that names all the people in Tantaros's lawsuit, and explains that she only named them in order to make them TOTALLY 'BARRASSED. It also says, "The complaint's allegations of sexual harassment by each of several men are false," noting that John Roberts has been a journalist for 40 years, and that his alleged comments about Tantaros freezing her eggs were taken out of context. It also says that Scott Brown used to be a Senator and a JAG officer in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, which we guess means he can't possibly sexually harass people. The response finally says that the Fox defendants will respond to all these allegations and more, during the arbitration.

And whose names are mostly missing from this response? Well first of all, it does not say, "Bill O'Reilly is not a gross falafel pig," because everybody knows he is that. But also, aside from the passing reference to Tantaros SUDDENLY claiming harassment by Roger Ailes, his name is otherwise mostly missing. As the Washington Post   notes, that fact combined with the thing about how Fox has been Very Good for literal WEEKS gives the whole thing a subtle veneer of "Fine, Roger Ailes is gross, we are not gross, so SHUT UP" (not the WaPo's exact words):

Fox News does not mention Ailes by name and does not use the term "sexual harassment," but it acknowledges women "were not treated with ... respect" and references Ailes in the most thinly veiled way imaginable. [...]

Read between the lines, and Fox News's argument is this: We've proven that we take legitimate harassment charges seriously by pushing out Ailes, so you can believe us when we say Tantaros's allegations are false.

See, it's all good now, and that lady is a liar, and Fox News would like to go back to its normal racist, sexist, yucky-bad programming now, if this Andrea Tantaros lady would please go away.

[ Fox News response / Washington Post ]