A senior producer at Fox News who currently works for Tucker Carlson’s show has filed a pair of lawsuits against the network covering multiple allegations – including pressuring her to be evasive in testimony during the Dominion lawsuit, scapegoating her in that lawsuit, and sexual harassment.
The suits were filed by Abby Grossberg on Monday, who was a producer at Maria Bartiromo between the 2016 presidential election and the present. The first was filed in Manhattan federal court, while the second was filed in Delaware state court. Fox also filed a lawsuit asking for a New York judge to issue a restraining order against her to “prevent” her from disclosing public information related to the suit, filed by Dominion Voting Systems, NPR reports.
Grossberg claims that she skipped pre-trial prep sessions because she believed she should avoid answering questions and give evasive answers.
“Ms. Grossberg left the deposition preparation sessions without knowing that by giving such false/misleading and evasive answers like the ones Fox’s legal team reacted to positively to during the prep sessions, she not only opened herself up to civil and criminal liability for perjury, but was subtly shifting all responsibility for the alleged defamation against Dominion onto her shoulders, and by implication, those of her trusted female colleague, Ms. Bartiromo, rather than the mostly male higher-ups at Fox News who endorsed the repeated coverage of the lies against the Dominion,” Grossberg’s lawsuit filed in federal court states.
Fox News issued a statement in response to Grossberg’s suit suits.
In a statement issued after Grossberg filed her lawsuits, Fox says, “Fox News Media engaged an independent outside counsel to immediately investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg, which were made following a critical performance review. Her allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless and we will vigorously defend Fox against all of her claims.”
Fox News filed a lawsuit against Grossberg on Monday before she filed her lawsuits. This was in the hope that Grossberg would not disclose publicly confidential information it claims to have about the Dominion lawsuit.
Fox New’s media malpractice in the aftermath of the 2020 election has been a lesson in how to keep credibility. Even though almost everyone at the news agency believed it to be a conspiracy theory, hosts were inviting Sydney Powell and other guests on the Fox News show to exaggerate the stolen election theory. They were also doing it out of fear that they would lose their audience, rather than provide any journalistic value.
As previously reported, Fox News is losing some of its audience, but this is not due to its reporting. According to polling data, it is because people are aware that Fox hosts believe one thing and say another. Their credibility has been damaged by their attempts to chase their audience.
Grossberg’s lawsuits are not limited to the Dominion case. Grossberg is also claiming rampant sexism, misogyny, and racism behind Fox’s scenes. According to the suit, images of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing costume revealing her cleavage” were posted at the workplace.
Grossberg claimed that NPR also stated that staff was polled on two occasions on which of the two Michigan female candidates they preferred to have sex.
Grossberg’s lawsuit states that she was also asked to read text messages written by Carlson while being questioned. These messages indicated that Powell felt they were lying and Carlson called her a “c –,” along with other derogatory terms.” NPR reports that Grossberg’s lawsuit claims that the Dominion lawyers asked Grossberg if the messages made her feel uncomfortable. She said she didn’t think so, but Grossberg disagreed.
“In reality, Ms. Grossberg understood that Mr. Carlson could use such degrading language about women. The lawsuit claims that she also felt how awful it was to hear her male colleagues and superiors at Fox News use misogynistic language about women on a regular basis. “Ms. Grossberg knew that, but she was also conditioned to remember that she couldn’t do anything to compromise her new position. Grossberg, Dominion’s star witness, so she once again kept silent.”
This is a new twist in Fox News’ legal problems stemming from the aftermath of their 2020 election coverage.
