Fox News has dropped its legal analyst Andrew Napolitano after a male producer accused him of sexually harassing him.
John Fawcett, who works on the Kudlow show hosted by Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network, is suing the network claiming he was sexually harassed by Napolitano who he claims stroked his arm and made suggestive comments while they were on an elevator together.
Fawcett also claims in his lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, that ‘sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and racial discrimination are still tolerated at Fox.’
On Monday, Napolitano was fired in the wake of the allegations becoming public.
Fox News confirmed they’d let the business analyst go after an internal investigation.
‘Upon first learning of John Fawcett’s allegations against Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News Media immediately investigated the claims and addressed the matter with both parties,’ the networks said in a statement Monday.
‘The network and Judge Napolitano have since parted ways.
‘We take all allegations of misconduct seriously, are committed to providing a safe, transparent, and collaborative workplace environment for all our employees and took immediate, appropriate action.’
Fawcett, 27, was hired to work at Fox in March 2019. Prior to starting at the network he had worked as Assistant Campaign Manager in Congress, according to his LinkedIn page.
Fawcett said he was in an elevator with Fox personality Napolitano later that year when Napolitano stroked his arm and made suggestive comments.
‘Even though the two had never met previously, Judge Napolitano stood awkwardly close to the plaintiff, started stroking his arm, and asked who the plaintiff worked for,’ the lawsuit states.
Napolitano asked if he was looking for a new job and the pair spoke about Dobbs’s horse farm and Napolitano’s maple syrup farm.
‘You see these hands? They look clean, but they get really dirty,’ Judge Napolitano is alleged to have told Fawcett in a suggestive manner.
Napolitano went on to invite Fawcett to his Manhattan apartment or New Jersey farm. Fawcett ‘politely excused himself.’
‘When the plaintiff reached his office and told his co-workers about the encounter, they immediately started laughing,’ the lawsuit states.
‘It was common knowledge that Judge Napolitano sexually harassed young men at Fox News, and it had even happened to one of the plaintiff’s co-workers. The plaintiff did not initially report the incident to human resources, however, because he did not want to jeopardize his career at Fox, but he did tell Mr. Dobbs.’
Fawcett told Dobbs who in turn reported allegations to Fox’s chief human resources officer, Kevin Lord, who is alleged to have responded dismissively: ‘Well, what are you going to do about it?’
Fawcett claims the network did nothing to intervene despite there being two similar outstanding lawsuits against Napolitano.
He has said executives ‘will bend over backwards to protect such behavior so long as it is perpetrated by senior management or prominent on-air personalities.’
Fawcett alleges that Napolitano’s reputation for sexual harassing young men was well-established by 2019, the year Fawcett says he began working for the Fox Business channel.
Napolitano has previously called the allegations against him ‘pure fiction.’
Fox said the network investigated and ‘took immediate, appropriate action.’ The company said it and Napolitano had since ended their relationship.
Fawcett also said that while working at Kudlow’s show, which he started working after Dobbs’ show was canceled, he has heard Kudlow use slurs and make sexually inappropriate remarks ‘in front of multiple staffers,’ including himself and a senior vice president, with no recrimination.
Fox has dismissed Fawcett’s other allegations as ‘nothing more than a desperate attempt at a payday’.
Fawcett claims in his lawsuit that inappropriate comments by Kudlow included him expressing a desire to have a ‘three-way’ with a Fox anchor.
The remark occurred during a telephone conference with a company vice president, according to court documents.
During a phone conference to discuss a segment on immigration, Kudlow is alleged to have remarked, ‘Why don’t we just let the Mexicans in?’ before suggesting ‘we’ need more ‘jalapeño pickers.’
He also claimed that Kudlow nixed the appearance of Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) on the show because of his race.
‘No, no, no, I don’t want the black on the show,’ Kudlow is detailed in court documents as having stated.
The senior vice president of programming at Fox Business who on the call at the time, Gary Schreier, who did not serve to reprimand Kudlow.
‘Whatever happens on this phone call stays on this phone call,’ Schreier allegedly said.
Fawcett said the executive producer of the show, a woman, discriminated against male staff in an effort to replace them with female staff, and that she tried to force Fawcett’s resignation or firing.
A ‘zero tolerance’ policy for sexual misconduct preached by Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott is ‘a fraud,’ Fawcett says.
‘Sexual harassment, sex discrimination and racial discrimination are still tolerated at Fox, snd Ms. Scott and her executive team will bend over backwards to protect such behavior,’ the lawsuit states.
Scott had been brought in to Fox News in 2018 in order to deal with the aftermath of the #MeToo scandals that brought down Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly.
The network released a statement on Monday night dismissing Fawcett’s other charges.
The additional allegations laid out in this claim are completely baseless and nothing more than a desperate attempt at a payday by trying the case in the court of public opinion as the complaint does not meet the standards of the law. We will defend the matter vigorously in court.’
Hahahhahha
scary actually
It is utterly delightful to see TRAITOR NAPOLiTANO in trouble. And it’s just one more example of all the major media outlets being rotten to the core.
So, executives ‘will bend over backwards to protect such behavior…,’ well, I’m sure they’ll bend over forwards, too. Anyhow, trouble at the network with Andrew on ‘the receiving end.” Heeheeheeheehee!!
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