Lame Chicks Sue Roger Ailes, Fox News Some More, Again, For No Reason At All, We Are Sure!

Former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes

Gross old creep Roger Ailes and his former employer, creep enabler Fox News, have been sued yet again for sexual harassment, this time by Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky, who alleges Ailes made inappropriate advances and that she faced retaliation for turning Ailes down. Also named in the suit are Fox News co-president Bill Shine and Fox corporate attorney Dianne Brandi, whom Roginsky accuses of complicity in the harassment and of punishing her for speaking up.

Ailes's attorney, Susan Estrich, treated Roginsky's lawsuit with precisely the gravitas one would expect from people in the Fox orbit, telling NPR in a statement that Roginsky's allegations were "total hogwash":

"The idea that Mr. Ailes would pressure Ms. Roginsky or any other women to have sexual relations with him is total nonsense," the statement reads. "This is about someone who wants to pile-on in a massive character assassination in order to achieve what she did not accomplish on the merits."

Yup, poor Roger Ailes, just an innocent victim who's the target of baseless attacks by ladies who are out to get him, like Gretchen Carlson, who accepted a $20 million settlement and an apology from Fox for Ailes having been a gross sex pervert to her, in a nonsensical sort of way. Perhaps he whispered filthy demands for sex in limerick form. Of course, the settlement with Carlson was only half the golden parachute reportedly paid out to Ailes on his departure from Fox last July, so you get a pretty good sense who the network considered more valuable.

Among other allegations, Roginsky claims she was punished for not joining in the network-approved disparagement of Carlson, too. In what we hope bodes well for Roginsky, her attorney is Nancy Erika Smith, who also represented Carlson in her suit against Ailes.

So, in what ways was Roger Ailes a disgusting old perv to Ms. Roginsky? The usual charming stuff we've come to expect from the loutest voice in the room:

In the complaint, Ms. Roginsky stated that Mr. Ailes made sexist comments and unwanted sexual advances toward her during one-on-one meetings in his office, including requiring that she “bend down to kiss him hello” when he sat in a low armchair and telling her that they would get into “so much trouble” if he took her “out for a drink.”

Mr. Ailes also would tell her that she should “engage in sexual relationships with ‘older, married, conservative men,’” the suit stated.

“These comments and their delivery made it clear that Ailes wanted a sexual relationship with Roginsky,” the suit stated.

Well that seems like a stretch. Maybe Ailes was merely suggesting Roginsky should have sex with older, married, conservative men because he wanted to watch. He's a very visually-oriented person, you know.

The complaint also alleges Ailes demanded a quid pro quo (Latin for "You want this job, don't you?") for Roginski's career advancement: If she wanted to become a regular host of Fox's "The Five" program, she'd have to do sex things for Ailes. He also said some lovely things about Roginsky's colleagues on "The Five," stating that one of the women would "get on her knees for anyone." (Can you believe Wonkette is being so delicate and maiden auntly, taking the name out? It's just so dirty and meanspirited. Roger Ailes is grosser even than we are!) After Roginsky turned Ailes down -- like a true gentleman, he suggested they could avoid public opprobrium by discreetly boning right there in his office -- he gave the full-time host slot to Geraldo Rivera. Happily, there's no suggestion Rivera got the job with a handy, but we just made you think of that anyway. Sorry.

In addition to Roginsky's lawsuit, Monday also brought other indications Fox hasn't quite become the reformed workplace management promised in the wake of Ailes's departure. After a New York Times investigation turned up additional sexual harassment accusations against Bill O'Reilly, Mercedes-Benz announced it would pull its ads from "The O'Reilly Factor," saying in a statement,

Given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now[.]

You've got to figure they decided all those old newsreels of Hitler riding around in a Benz were bad enough without another unpredictable neurotic screamy man being associated with their products.

Also Monday, Wendy Walsh, a former guest on O'Reilly's show who was featured in the weekend's story about his nastiness toward women, held a news conference with her attorney to talk about what it was like to work for O'Reilly:

She said that Mr. O’Reilly did not follow through on a verbal offer to make her a contributor to his show after she declined an invitation to go to his hotel suite after a 2013 dinner in Los Angeles that was arranged by his secretary. She has not received a settlement and said she does not want any money. She did not report her complaints to Fox News at the time, she said, because she did not want to jeopardize her career prospects.

Walsh is not suing Billo, but did call for a public investigation of Fox News and its treatment of women; in typical Fox fashion, O'Reilly has sicced his lawyer, Fredric S. Newman, on her: In a letter, Newman demanded Walsh retract her statements to the Times and leave poor Mr. O'Reilly alone.

“Your segment was a failure,” Mr. Newman wrote. “That is established as matter of undisputable fact in the minute-by-minute analysis of your segment, which showed that the segment was unsuccessful.”

So yeah, Fox News sure sounds like a great place for women to work. They've really learned their lesson, huh?

O'Reilly made no mention of the Times story or the advertising loss on his show Monday, although Yr Wonkette has fabricated several completely meritless reports of Billo having to be physically restrained from keying the paint of Mercedes vehicles in the Fox parking lot while screaming about traitors, sluts, and falafels.

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[ NYT / NPR / NYT ]