Fox News sexual "culture" behind the scenes again exposed in new lawsuit, but in front of the camera, it is still "selling" sex and racism

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson returned from his “vacation” yesterday without mentioning the real reason why: his copy writer, Blake Neff—who supplied him with his white nationalist and anti-immigrant harangues—“resigned” after the discovery of racist and sexist missives on a message board, and Carlson was hoping the public would lose interest in the topic after a week. And you thought that Carlson was “oblivious” to the nature and intent of his commentary? At the very end of the show Carlson went on a bizarre spiel against the New York Times, falsely claiming that a reporter and the paper was about to put his family in “danger” by revealing his home address. The Times quickly put out a denial of any such intention, but Carlson knows his audience will believe any conspiratorial bullshit.

But one suspects that Carlson was actually more upset by a real Times story: about a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York claiming that the sexual “culture” at Fox News has actually gotten worse. That is certainly true, but in more ways than just what happens behind the scenes. Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu are the plaintiffs, demanding a jury trial against the defendants: Fox News Network, Carlson, Ed Henry, Sean Hannity, and Howard Kurtz. Laura Ingraham was not named, so she is still home free to spew her anti-immigrant and white nationalist vitriol. Henry was already fired earlier this month, but don’t hold your breath if you are hoping that Carlson and Hannity are in “trouble.” 

I read the pdf file of the complaint. First of all, the charges against Carlson and Hannity are by Areu, and her complaint is relatively “personal” in nature and doesn’t have much if any relevance since she technically was not an employee of Fox News. Areu claims that Carlson and Hannity each made one suggestion of having “personal” time with her, and when she demurred, they made comments that she felt “disrespected” her, and after which she was ignored or not invited to speak on their shows since 2018. 

Not that this wasn't a "good" thing. There are some videos out there in which we can observe a few of Areu’s appearances on Carlson’s show; there is no doubt that the only reason why she was invited to speak on Fox News is because her “liberalism” and gender activism is so far out there, unfair and so clearly a product of her own self-image that she didn’t need Carlson to even try to suggest that she was some kind of wince-inducing “socialist” wacko; viewers could see that for themselves. Areu’s commentary, when it wasn’t uber, self-obsessed feminism, fed into the racist paranoia of Fox News viewers. For example, when she claimed that illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote; yes, they contribute to the economy through their labor and pay taxes, but maybe Areu should bone-up on the U.S. version of the Constitution, which states that only citizens of this country can vote. I’d be surprised if CNN or even MSNBC would have her on their show making such claims. 

Areu is the type who apparently is easily “offended,” and her involvement in the lawsuit is plainly opportunistic and self-serving. The charge against Henry by Eckhart, however, is another matter altogether. According to the complaint, 

Mr. Henry, approximately twice Ms. Eckhart’s age, preyed upon, manipulated and groomed Ms. Eckhart starting at the young age of 24, by exerting his abuse of power over her and her career. Mr. Henry not only leveraged this imbalance of power for control over his victim, Ms. Eckhart, but asked her to be his “sex slave” and his “little whore,” and threatened punishment and retaliation if Ms. Eckhart did not comply with his sexual demands.

Ms. Eckhart’s counsel described to Fox News, in graphic and specific detail, how Mr. Henry groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced Ms. Eckhart into having a sexual relationship with him, and that, when she would not comply voluntarily, he sexually assaulted her on office property, and raped her at a hotel where Fox News frequently lodged its visiting employees, thereby facilitating, whether knowingly or unknowingly, Mr. Henry’s conduct.

Ms. Eckhart’s counsel also explained to Fox News, in graphic and specific detail, that Ms. Eckhart was violently raped while helpless and restrained in metal handcuffs, as Mr. Henry preformed sadistic acts on her without her consent that left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists.

To be clear, Ms. Eckhart did not consent to any part of this violent, painful rape. The day after this rape, Ms. Eckhart told Mr. Henry in writing that he had physically injured her. Ms. Eckhart told him that she had sore wrists (they were actually bleeding), a mark on her buttocks, a broken nail and a bruise on her leg, among other injuries. Ms. Eckhart’s counsel shared this information with Fox News.

On the face of it, Henry should see some dire punishment, especially given the fact that he is married, and he has faced sanction before. But this shouldn’t have been a surprise to Fox News management. The former award-winning White House correspondent and news anchor certainly had an inflated view of his celebrity, and his sexual prowess; a Las Vegas “hostess” reported that "Whenever he was in town, we would pretty much just have sex. He has a really high sex drive.” Henry apparently had the wrong “idea” about Eckhart, who when she was hired fresh out of journalism school (well, after a brief stint with ESPN Radio) by Fox News, had expressed her insistence of how she “admired” Henry and desperately wanted to meet him. It is interesting to note that Eckhart first spoke to Henry before she talked to management—and that after she left Fox. Why, if she was raped as she claims? Was she just complaining to him that his “sex” was “rough”? Why would she do this unless she “consented” to sex (it was certainly implied that some of their dalliances were “consensual,” if only for “professional” reasons) but not the kind of “violent” sex Henry liked to engage in? I’m not trying to be “contrary,” but to point out what Henry’s “defense” might claim.

Not to leave the women out of it, but Eckhart also had issues with Fox Business anchor Liz Claman, who according to the complaint "demanded that Ms. Eckhart perform a variety of humiliating tasks, including cleaning and organizing Ms. Clama's shoes, organizing and color coordinating Ms. Claman's dresses, cleaning Ms. Claman's office and refrigerator, getting Ms. Claman lunch and coffee, often times even having to pay with her own money, and even babysitting Ms. Claman's daughter outside of normal office hours." It sounds like she was being treated like an intern, which was probably her technical job description. 

On her website Eckhart certainly seems to have a very high degree of “admiration” of her own “celebrity,” the kind of thing that would make eyes roll, and she boasts that she is “a female powerhouse in the media industry who bridges the gap between producing and being an on-air personality” and who “single-handedly produces television segments with headline newsmakers, such as Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.” I wonder how she accomplished all of that “single-handedly.” Eckhart also certainly makes no effort to disguise her sexual “appeal,” with “enhanced” fashion-model photos and screenshots of her appearing on camera with super-short skirts and exposing ample cleavage. I’m not saying that it was “OK” for someone with a “high sex drive” like Henry to get the “wrong” messages from Eckhart and act on them, but in the complaint, Eckhart admits that before she moved on she saw rapid promotion within the Fox News organization, but is careful to avoid saying that her continuing “relationship” with Henry helped her advancement. 

Let’s be frank: Fox News sells anti-immigrant, racial and “cultural” paranoia as well as white nationalism; why would people like Eckhart work for such an organization knowing that? I have little or no respect for such people. Many of those personalities and “journalists” spewing this hate are Aryan-Nordic women who look like fashion models (well, except for Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro).  Does Fox News also sell sex, meaning that it prefers to put on-air tight skirt-wearing, cleavage-exposing “professional journalists” like Eckhart? Does Fox News hope to boost ratings by offering “titillation” to certain viewers? Of course it does. Let’s be honest about this: Fox News sold itself on racism and sex. We can assume that there was (and is) sexual transgressions behind the scenes; but the women who work for Fox News knowingly sell racism, and they sell sex. If Fox News had fewer “telegenic” women displaying themselves, you can bet that fewer people would be watching it and being conned into the network’s “product.”

In the meantime, Carlson and Hannity will go on poisoning the minds of the gullible as usual along with Ingraham. It is too bad that Areu’s part in the complaint is more like a lamprey attached to a whale, for all the “good” it is likely to do.