13 Now Accuse Fox of Racial Bias

Network 'vehemently' denies the claims
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 26, 2017 7:00 AM CDT
13 Now Accuse Fox of Racial Bias
A pedestrian walks past posters of Fox News Channel personalities at the News Corp. headquarters in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Eleven current or former Fox News employees are alleging "abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination" at the network already laden with sexual harassment complaints. Most have joined a lawsuit filed last month by two payroll staffers accusing comptroller Judith Slater of "top-down racial harassment." The latest complaints allege Slater, who was fired in February, hurled racial insults and forced black and white employees to battle each other in "highly offensive" arm wrestling matches, purely for her own "entertainment and amusement," report New York and the New York Times. Executives said "nothing could be done because Slater knew too much about senior executives," including Roger Ailes, the complaint states.

Anchor Kelly Wright claims Fox co-president Bill Shine has shown an "obsession with race," adding Wright has been "effectively sidelined and asked to perform the role of a 'Jim Crow'—the racist caricature of a Black entertainer," per CNN. Wright also says he was shunned from Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor after being told his stories on the black community "showed Blacks in 'too positive' a light." Another employee claims "a number of Black employees" had security passes revoked after he mistakenly entered Ailes' office. "21st Century Fox has been operating as if it should be called 18th Century Fox," lawyers say in a statement. A rep for Fox says it "vehemently" denies the claims and "will vigorously defend these cases." (More Fox News stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X