1. I see that six more Fox News employees have come forward in the wake of fired Fox Blonde Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit alleging sexually harrassing conduct from Fox News head Roger Ailes. New York Magazine’s Gabe Sherman published six accounts from women who say they were also harassed by Ailes, and two of them identified themselves by name.
This doesn’t prove Carlson’s case, but it is typical of harassers that they do not engage in such conduct just once, and typically not with only one employee. That ethics alarm doesn’t ring, and thus this is normal conduct for them that their power and control over employees’ lives allow them to engage in without consequences, until something breaks the dam. Familiar examples are Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Joe Biden, Herman Cain, and Senator Bob Packwood. The fact that no other women came out with public accusations that Clarence Thomas had harassed them was strong evidence that Anita Hill’s last-second accusations were a panned political hit.
2. The fact that so many conservative pundits and websites are defending Ailes is revealing regarding both their integrity and attitudes regarding women… and not in a good way. This is one reason the Democratic Party’s “war on women” smear is effective. The whole sexist vibe of Fox News under Ailes is another reason: I keep expecting Fox to have its female anchors dressed in bikinis and sarongs.
It isn’t just Ailes; it’s Fox. Here are some Fox Sports anchors:
Don’t get me wrong now: I’m certain all of them got their jobs because of their sterling commentary and analysis, just like Gretchen did.
3. Deluded Ethics Dunce: Greta Van Susteren. Greta, who owes her career to Ailes, pronounced Carlson’s allegations unbelievable, saying, “I deal with Roger Ailes often. I’ve often been alone with Roger Ailes in his office over the course of 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like what I’m reading about in the papers and the magazine.” Ah. So the fact that Ailes didn’t hit on Greta once is evidence that he wouldn’t hit on Carlson. Keen analysis, there, Greta!
It’s funny: Madeleine Albright and Carly Fiorina said the same thing.
How can I explain this to Greta in a nice way? Is this subtle enough?
To be fair, their first names both do begin with “GRET,” so maybe that’s why Greta thinks her experience with Ailes is relevant.
3. Sean Hannity, who is, incidentally, an idiot, dealt with the New York magazine report by attacking the reporter as a “Fox stalker.” This is a classic ad hominem attack. Let’s say Sherman is a “Fox stalker”…so what? Have six women come forward, or haven’t they?
On Twitter, Hannity pronounced the lawsuit “BS” based on this typically acute Hannity analysis:
“I have spoken to many woman who work at Fox that have the most amazing stories of how kind Roger is to them.”
…as if a harasser being kind to them and requesting sexual favors are inconsistent in any way. Then…
“[T]alk to the hundreds of woman at Fox that I talked to this week both on air and off. They say it all BS.”
Yes, and Carlson might have said the same thing while she was working at Fox, because she wanted to keep working there, even it meant keeping a horny, fat old man at bay.
There seems to be a culture of sexual harassment at Fox, coming down from the rotting fish head in charge, Roger Ailes. Hannity’s reaction just affirms that diagnosis.
And the diagnosis that he’s an idiot.
Ethics Alarms 
To be fair though, when Greta first started with Fox News, was a bit of a looker….
I have no idea how to embed an image into a post 😦
Well, I’ll be! It happens automatically! 🙂
You learn something every day!!
Greta NEVER looked like that. She’s always been plain, not that there’s anything wrong with that. That photo was lit carefully at a minutely calculated angle and probably airbrushed. I like to support Greta as the only woman at Fox who looks normal, but she’s nuts if she thinks her experience as an objectified female has anything in common with Carlson’s.
I wonder how many readers there are for whom the thing that they learned today is that Sean Hannity is an idiot. My guess is “not many”. Or “none”.
I’d go with the “none”. Hannity was the one who started the “Stop Hillary Express” the first time Obama ran. Well, we apparently did stop her and look what we got instead
I apologize for stating the obvious.
You are apologizing for being funny? Nothing is much funnier than reading the skewering of a pompous ass.
The thing is… it is probably obvious to most of your readers, but I have heard many ordinary citizens make the proclamation that Sean is a genius. Needless to say, I have a bottomless pit of dumb-founded looks with which to meet those statements.
To the extent that it’s true, it’s not a “smear” is it?
To say that it’s always true for all Republicans is obvious nonsense and counter-factual. To say that there’s a systemic problem here, to some extent – “so many conservative pundits and websites” supporting GOP legislators with attitudes best described as Neolithic – well, look at the evidence.
It’s a cultural thing.
Is it true to say that police are out to kill blacks? Or that all blacks are likely criminals, and should be stopped and frisked? It’s the same kind of smear: representing the worst of a group as characteristic of the group.
Roger Ailes is finished. He is finished at Fox and he is finished in broadcasting. His illustrious career has effectively come to an end. Whether the network fires him or allows him to resign is a mere formality. What is clear is that his days at Fox News are numbered. His entire working day is surely divided between the Gretchen Carlson lawsuit and planning for retirement.
A sexual harassment lawsuit is a career-ender for the average man. Roger Ailes is quite a bit more than the average man so what was needed was something more than an average-looking woman bringing a charge of sexual harassment.
But his accuser is up to the challenge: She is a former Miss America. It is a sexual harassment charge that can bring down the most powerful of men.
Gretchen Carlson may win or lose in court. But in a case that has attracted world-wide attention, the courtroom verdict is trivial. It is trivial for the plaintiff. And it is trivial for the defendant.
The damage to Roger Ailes has been done. And he has been damaged beyond repair. He is simply incapable of functioning in the Fox environment. He is now incapable of holding private meetings with the gorgeous women of Fox for fear that they will accuse him of something. He is under heightened scrutiny right now. And if he cannot hold private meetings with his subordinates, then what good is he as an administrator? At the very least it would significantly reduce his effectiveness as a leader.
As for his male subordinates, they no longer respect him. He has lost his aura. He was once a feared and respected man. Now he is a beast and a predator. The men at Fox need someone they can look up to and revere. For a long time Roger Ailes was that man. No more. Surely they are talking and laughing at him behind his back.
Roger Ailes has lost control of his network. Just like a teacher who has completely lost control of his classroom. This will happen when his students don’t respect him anymore. For a teacher to lose the respect of his students all he has to do in front of the whole class is tell the hottest girl in the class: “You are gorgeous today.”
And so Roger Ailes is finished. And it took a former Miss America to finish him off. A lesser woman could not have done it. A lesser woman is incapable of bringing down the most powerful man in conservative television. But a former Miss America can do it.
Gretchen Carlson is undoubtedly the big winner. And she doesn’t need to wait for a court verdict. She doesn’t even need to wait for the case to get to court. She has single-handedly brought down the Almighty Ailes.
And so it is not about who is right and who is wrong. It is not about who is lying and who is telling the truth. It is not about who we believe and who we do not believe. Everyone hates Roger Ailes now. And everyone sympathizes with Gretchen Carlson and sees her as the victim. The case has been decided.
Courtrooms are for people with no life. Courtrooms are for people who are trash.
Celebrities are tried in the media. Social media decides the outcome. Celebrities don’t have patience for the slow wheels of justice. Social media offers a quick resolution to disputes between celebrities. Celebrities hate to wait in line. And disputes take forever to get to court.
If they had to wait in line they wouldn’t be celebrities. If they had to wait for their court date to arrive they wouldn’t be celebrities.
Courtrooms are for the poor. Courtrooms are for low-lifes.
And so Gretchen Carlson is the clear victor. She is the winner because she has brought down a giant of the broadcasting industry.
When you bring a giant to his knees, you are the winner. When you end the career of a giant, you are the winner. When you humiliate a giant in the public arena, you are the winner.
Gretchen Carlson doesn’t need a courtroom verdict. And when that verdict comes, she will urinate on every single page of that decision. But it is her awesome urine that will give it respectability.
The former Miss America Gretchen Carlson is beautiful enough and classy enough to bring down any man she wants to bring down. A sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former Miss America is not something that you can defend yourself against. It is something that you bow to.
When Gretchen Carlson accuses you of sexual harassment you don’t fight back. You don’t malign her in the media. You don’t tell her she is a liar.
What you do is get on your knees and you kiss her pumps. You take off her pumps. You kiss her feet. And then you lick the sweat off her feet. And if that itself is sexual harassment, then you have indeed proven her right.
And why not prove her right. You were never going to win anyway.
How awesome her feet must be. The feet of Gretchen Carlson. We all know the enormous powers contained within her thighs.
Nor does Gretchen Carlson need any bolstering. The six women who are now coming forward were not sought out by Gretchen. Gretchen Carlson doesn’t need the help of other women. She doesn’t need help proving that she is a highly desirable woman. A woman desired by men everywhere.
The six women who are now coming forward to accuse Roger Ailes were likely brought into the case by Roger Ailes himself. He told them to come forward with their accusations.
He knows that he is finished and that having more accusers won’t matter. But it is better to be defeated by seven than to be defeated by one. Always for the male ego it is better to be defeated by seven and not by one. To be defeat by a single woman acting alone is so hard for any man to accept. It so hurts the enormous male ego.
But make no mistake about it: This is Gretchen’s fight. She is fighting her fight. And she is fighting it alone.
Gretchen Carlson is acting alone because Gretchen Carlson is perfectly capable. When it comes to proving her desirability she is perfectly capable. When it comes to proving that men are obsessed with her she is perfectly capable.
Cowabunga!