1. Find out if you work in a state that mandates two-party consent for recording. New York lets one person record a conversation without telling the other.
2. If you think your boss is likely to lech on you, get it on tape. There are so many good apps for that.
[FOX News] has agreed, on behalf of Ailes, to settle [Gretchen] Carlson’s suit for a stunning $20 million, according to three people familiar with the settlement. To reinforce their seriousness about creating a new culture in a post-Ailes world, the company is expected to offer Carlson a public apology as part of the settlement. (The company, according to two people familiar with the discussions, has also reached settlement agreements with two other women.)
On Friday Gabriel Sherman reported that she had him on tape. FOX’s lawyers probably found out around the same time.
Beginning in 2014, according to a person familiar with the lawsuit, Carlson brought her iPhone to meetings in Ailes’s office and secretly recorded him saying the kinds of things he’d been saying to her all along. “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better. Sometimes problems are easier to solve” that way, he said in one conversation. “I’m sure you can do sweet nothings when you want to,” he said another time.
After more than a year of taping, she had captured numerous incidents of sexual harassment.
That was a very short negotiation and a very large payoff. Jon Stewart had it right, Ailes made a huge mistake typecasting Gretchen Carlson as another blonde pair of legs. FOX probably has $20 million to spare but that apology will leave a mark.
Ruckus
I wonder how much they figured it would cost them if they didn’t make a large offer right away. And I wonder if they think it’s going to make everything better for them.
WereBear
Couldn’t happen to a nicer pile of crap.
Major Major Major Major
As my dad would say, mamma mia, that’s a spicy meatball. Damn.
Also, I did not know that was state-by-state. I see that California is a two-party consent law. That’s too bad.
ETA: Even if the recordings were illegal, isn’t it sort of a “what are you going to do, bleed on me?” situation?
Joey Maloney
So Carlson gets $20 mil. Word is that Ailes’ golden parachute will be worth three times that. So I guess we know who wears the pants in the FOX family, even if he actually has to wear them from now on.
gbear
I hope that the settlement also requires the apology to be delivered on Tucker Carlson’s show. I wish.
Mr. Mack
@Major Major Major Major: IANAL, but admissibility is probably the issue.
JPL
Wonder if the NYTimes will now say that a cloud is over the Fox organization. I wonder if the NYTimes will report it.
WereBear
@Mr. Mack: Even if it were illegal in court, there are other venues.
PPCLI
Unfortunately, this means that much of the information will be buried behind nondisclosure clauses.
For the lawyers here: What effect could this have on the New York mag,/Gabriel Sherman defence against the Ailes lawsuit? I would hope that signing such an agreement wouldn’t interfere with Carlson (etc.) being deposed under oath if the Ailes lawsuit were to go forward.
I would guess that Ailes/Fox would be very reluctant to pull all of the details of the sleaze into the open air after paying so much in hush money to keep it hidden, but I don’t know the legal details.
It is a shame that Carlson’s taping didn’t stay hidden long enough for Ailes to deny all her claims under oath….
rikyrah
TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS!?!?!??!
WOW
Damn.
What she has on tape must be OUTRAGEOUS.
Tim F.
@Joey Maloney: He gets a big parachute because FOX is backstopped by a billionaire who loves Roger Ailes more than his own kids. If you set aside that his purpose in life is horrible and wrong in every possible way, it is hard to deny that Ailes has delivered for the team.
Major Major Major Major
@Mr. Mack: @WereBear: ‘Zactly. The other networks would lovvvve to publish these recordings that were just mysteriously leaked right into their lapsp.
Judge Crater
You would hope that Ailes will be permanently stigmatized. But he still has powerful friends, like Donald Trump.
Tim F.
@Major Major Major Major: Depending on the state and the details, recording without consent could be a criminal offense. Better not to do it unless you know exactly where you stand legally.
Patricia Kayden
@Ruckus: Other women have come forward to accuse Ailes of sexual harassment so perhaps this will be the first of many such settlements. It’s hard to believe that Ailes only harassed one woman.
WereBear
Shame and misbehavior has no meaning to RWNJs. The only true sin is liberalism!
Gindy51
She should have held out for what Ailes got in his platinum parachute.
Tim F.
@Patricia Kayden: Apparently FOX is already trying to settle two more suits. This mess will cost them big time.
Patricia Kayden
@Judge Crater: That’s a great point. Secretary Clinton needs to go after Trump for associating his campaign with a proven sexual harasser — especially given Trump’s own sexist comments against Megyn Kelly and other prominent women.
geg6
See, FOX bought into the fiction, one she willingly went along with to be sure, that she was just a bimbo beauty pageant winner. Guess she showed them.
ETA: And just damn them for making me give props to Gretchen fucking Carlson. I feel so icky right now.
Joey Maloney
@Tim F.:
Dare we speculate about what was going on behind that closed wooden door to Ailes’ office when Rupe was in town? About those strange grunts and muffled squeaks, like flabby flesh sliding across a leather couch?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate, sez I.
Ruckus
@Tim F.:
He didn’t get chump change while he was there either. He’s been paid well to be the asshole he is.
geg6
@Patricia Kayden:
Tantaros is the one to watch. Everything I’ve read about her accusations portray her as super pissed off and completely willing to do whatever is required to make FOX and Ailes pay.
Ruckus
@Patricia Kayden:
Of course. Wasn’t meaning it in that way. A fast, large settlement acknowledges to me that they knew all along and are hoping to pay off anyone, everyone quickly to make this go away smoothly, quickly, and hope it stays away.
ETA and remember that 20 mil sounds like a lot but it’s chump change to Rupert. Loose pocket money.
Gemina13
Gretchen Carlson is not someone I’d ever esteem, but in this case – good for her. She nailed the rat bastard. I don’t particularly care that she got away with 1/2 to 1/3 what he collected in his golden parachute; she has proof in the face of all his slavering fanboys on Fox that she told the truth.
I hope Tucker Carlson is weeping in his cornflakes. For that matter, I hope Steve Doocy is next on the plank, with no chute to save him.
Gin & Tonic
I posted downstairs that Greta van Susteren is leaving the network effective *immediately* – as in Brit Hume is hosting her show tonight and for the foreseeable future.
Wonder what the back story is there. On-air talent doesn’t leave on zero notice after a decade or more all that often.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: unsure what MO law is or was at the time, but I was in a custodial situation where the possibility of getting shot was well above zero. I recorded all interactions because #1, i was not about to be accused of something and not have proof that it was in fact a lie, and #2 if it did in fact come to gun play I was going to be damn sure there was proof of exactly what happened. Therefor I recorded all interactions with both video AND audio.
Fortunately my worst fears never came about so I had no need for any of the recordings, tho I did get to shut a lawyer up in court by telling him I had recorded the threatening phone calls (the dumbass would actually leave messages threatening death and destruction- very admissible) and would be more than happy to play them for him. That was very fun.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@geg6:
This played out as I expected. Carlson fucking Carlson was in this for the payout to keep her in the lifestyle to which she’s grown accustomed as a Faux “News” babe. This wasn’t about shedding light on rampant sexual harassment at Faux “News”, that was merely the tool to leverage the payout. Once the payout was negotiated, all those details will be locked behind ironclad non-disclosure agreements. Faux has experience with this back when O’Reilly was sued. Note how Andrea Makris has never had to work another day in her life and has never uttered a word about the details in the lawsuit.
Getting Aisles axed was probably a secondary goal but nothing more than icing on the proverbial cupcake.
p.a.
Twice in 12 years of telco repair I found (once I got hit in the face when popping a drop ceiling tile by) voice or ring voltage activated tape recorders. Per company policy (this goes back to New England Tel & Tel days) we were NOT supposed to inform the subscriber, were supposed to leave everything as found (difficult if the device was knocking the customer out of service!), and were immediately to notify company security.
The one that hit me in the face, the female customer was standing next to me, so I made some lame excuse about it being some type of our equipment tho it was so obviously a tape recorder it was a joke, tucked it up, disconnected, back in the ceiling, completed the job, and sent in my report. Of course, maybe she was the person who installed it, not hubby.
PaulWartenberg2016
To any women getting job offers from Fox Not-News: Just don’t.
Ailes may be gone but many of his fellow buddies are still there.
Turn the network into one huge stag party on the screen, see how well they’ll appeal to women viewers when there are no surrogate figures to play their interests.
Hildebrand
Will the media hound Trump for bringing Ailes into the campaign? Will they hold Trump accountable for ensconcing this disgusting human being in his stable of advisors (especially since Ailes joined the Trump team well after he had been unceremoniously tossed out at Fox)?
Ah, right, your liberal media. Never mind.
PaulWartenberg2016
@p.a.:
It could be that a device may be planted as a government wiretap for a criminal investigation, HOPEFULLY one that has a warrant to use such recording devices in the first place. So the repairmen can’t really report it to the customer, but the company security MIGHT follow-up with a warrant check to verify. (thing is, if it’s NOT a warranted wiretap, does the company report that recording device to the proper authorities or to the customer to warn them?)
CONGRATULATIONS!
Sadly, California is one of those states.
Woodrowfan
well, I’ll never be able to watch Jabba the Hut and Leia again without thinking Ailes and the Fox
leg showfemale reporter ever again.Tim F.
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Honestly, I don’t buy that. Remember that her lawyers had to have wanted that apology badly enough to give up some cash in exchange for it. FOX hates giving away money but they really hate losing face. Wringing that particular concession out of them almost certainly cost Carlson money, since FOX would almost certainly have offered to pay extra to avoid admitting guilt. Consider how much harder it will be to defend those other suits (which they are trying to settle) now that they have to publicly admit that Carlson was harrassed. Making her suit go away quietly has almost limitless value for the network. This is exactly the deal that Andrea Mackris took which saved Bill O’Reilly’s career. Carlson didn’t take it.
She got a hell of a payout thanks to those tapes, but I guarantee it could have been bigger. I have no idea how many women Roger Ailes has leched but it is a lot more than three. Every single case will cash in on that public apology. If the bean counters at FOX did not just set aside a small mountain of beans to settle the many suits as they come in then FOX needs new bean counters.
Patricia Kayden
@Tim F.: Yep. It should cost them more than a pretty penny. And how seriously should anyone take a media network which was run by a sexual harasser for decades?
MattF
Here‘s Carlson’s Wiki biography. Stanford grad in sociology, Miss America. Not a dumb blonde.
shomi
@Patricia Kayden: If people haven’t already figure out what an asswipe Drumpf is you think one more piece of evidence is going to make a difference?
JGabriel
Gin & Tonic:
Clearly, Van Susteren has been fired. Maybe as part of the Carlson settlement? Whatever is up, it either violated Van Susteren’s contract with Fox badly enough that they figure she’d lose a suit against them, or they have something on her that’s bad enough to prevent her from suing.
Van Susteren might sue them anyway. I’m just saying that media corporations don’t usually do hard terminations on the contracts of anchor talent like that, unless they feel that they are in a pretty strong position.
p.a.
@PaulWartenberg2016: We didn’t do wiretaps on customer property. They were done in the field or central office. RI State Police had a surplus NET van or 2 with the colors but not the logo. We’d tag the pair somewhere along the cable feed and they’d either put equipment on there or actually connect to a location, say an apartment, and set up there. I saw several newspaper reports on busts from wiretaps I tagged: always bookies.
Tim F.
@JGabriel: I imagine that Gretchen Carlson has some pretty hard feelings about any women who might have said yes to Ailes. I do not mean to imply that Susteren specifically did that, but a guy doesn’t keep doing that for fifteen years if he strikes out every time. You are right that management would have to have a potent reason to fire headline talent like that. The timing is…huh.
Patricia Kayden
@Hildebrand: That’s the million dollar question. Can the “liberal” media divert itself away from trying to gin up a Clinton scandal to actually examine the cretins surrounding the Trump campaign, including a sexual harasser (Ailes) and an alt-right racist (Bannon)? It remains to be seen.
Elizabelle
Maybe this makes Ailes radioactive for Trump debate “prep”? Although if Trump repudiates him, maybe Patrick Healy of The New York Times can write some gentle story about Donald J Trump, champion of women. Look — Hillary emails.
Not happy with Gretchen Carlson getting mega bucks, but props for recording the old goat. She is still tarnished by her long association with Fox News.
WereBear
@shomi: If people haven’t already figure out what an asswipe Drumpf is you think one more piece of evidence is going to make a difference?
Patricia Kayden
@shomi: There are still some undecided voters out there. Plus, this may change some Republican minds to either not vote at all or to vote against Trump. There is never anything wrong with publishing the truth about people like Trump.
scav
@PaulWartenberg2016: As though the media have any real clue what appeals to the bulk of actual women, rather than the stereotypes galloping through their heads. Look what the networks have done to Olympics coverage in pursuit of the idealized female viewer knocking about in their cerebellum? Let alone all those cheap teeny flimsy hammers covered in pink florals that seem de rigueur in stereotypeland. And that’s allowing the cover that the parade of cute legs was really there to attract the devotion of the ladies eyeballs and ears.
Pogonip
I think Carlson was a lawyer before becoming a Foxbot. I always suspected she wasn’t as stupid as she pretended to be. Every so often she’d slip.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Not a dumb blonde, agreed. But a horrible one (career choice, being a Fox Friend).
Now an even richer blonde. Le sigh.
Patricia Kayden
@Gin & Tonic: Wowzers! That a very interesting and unexpected development. Inquiring minds want to know why Susteren is leaving so suddenly. I doubt it’s for any mundane reasons.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Less radioactive than Bannon, Hannity, Jones, Manafort, Lewandowski, Giuliani, etc. and so on? If only the Czar knew what his courtiers were doing. Seriously, Trump is getting advice from the people he wants advice from.
Elizabelle
@Pogonip: not sure about Carlson; I know Megyn Kelly was a lawyer. Corporate, I think.
Hildebrand
@Patricia Kayden: I think this is what is so head-slappingly frustrating about all of this – Trump is just about the worst person to ever run for any political office, and is surrounded by a whole phalanx of execrable people, that I simply don’t understand how the media doesn’t treat him like the charlatan and knave that he is. How can any media-type not look at him during an interview and just blurt out, ‘My god, you are a bigot and a moron. You should be shunned by every human being with a conscience, or, well, a pulse.’
JGabriel
@Tim F.: Most of the major “talent” at Fox News had contracts that permitted them to leave if Ailes ever left or got fired. So I suppose it’s possible that Van Susteren decided to exercise that clause, and take the payout on her contract.
I’m still leaning towards “she was fired,” though, because you would think Van Susteren would at least give them some notice before quitting. But maybe not, assuming she’s just as awful as most of us think she is.
Major Major Major Major
@Hildebrand: I saw an interview where Terry Moran broke down sputtering and called Milo Yiannopowhatever a “revolting” “13-year-old idiot” to his face, that was amusing. So at least they’re looking under the Breitbart rock.
NorthLeft12
@Patricia Kayden: Trump and Ailes and their media enablers will argue that the fact that Fox settling these cases does not mean that Ailes sexually harassed anybody. They will spout some mealy mouthed nonsense about political correctness and Fox not wanting the cost and bad publicity of a court case.
Hopefully, Carlson is also suing Ailes as an individual, and not just as a member of the Fox management. Does anyone know for sure?
MattF
@NorthLeft12: Carlson sued Ailes and not Fox. Fox is essentially Ailes’ insurer.
Betty Cracker
The media love stories about the media. Here’s hoping many wriggly, nasty worms fall out of this can.
scav
Minor amusing detail from Fox’s apology.
Respect and dignity are seemingly only deserved by Fox colleagues. The rest of us are still fair game.
WereBear
@JGabriel: I think someone would have to be awful on some level to work there.
MattF
@WereBear: In fact, my nephew worked there, for Shep Smith. It wasn’t horrible, but he didn’t stay.
Just One More Canuck
@Joey Maloney: there goes my appetite
hovercraft
@Judge Crater:
Their on air ‘talent’ includes Oliver North and up until the last election Dick Morris. To their audience these allegations are just a bunch of ‘bitches’ who should have been flattered that he was giving them the time of day. Trump having him as an advisor should lead every newscast for the next week until he disassociates himself from him, but it won’t. Ailes is a hero to these people because he created Fox and it’s Machiavellian tagline Fair and Balanced, and stuck it to the MSM and liberals.
Elmo
@Major Major Major Major: In California, each surreptitious recording is a felony subject to a $5,000 fine.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@geg6: I agree. None of the others have struck me as particularly pissed off, which probably says a lot about the industry.
Tantaros is PISSED OFF.
Feathers
Anyone looking for backstory on Gretchen Carlson should read William Goldman’s Hype and Glory. Goldman was a judge the year she won Miss America, as well as being on the jury for the Cannes Film Festival. The book is a memoir of that year and a comparison of the two events. Well worth reading even if not curious about Carlson, because – William Goldman. Carlson does not come across too well. She didn’t actually do well in the interviews, but won because the final night judges assumed that because she went to Stanford, it meant she had something on the ball. The pageant actually changed the rules so that the interview scores from the first round of judging weren’t wiped clean for the final night, to prevent another Carlson-style “failure.”
Read the book when it came out in 1991 and have followed Carlson’s career with curiosity ever since. Not enough to actually watch Fox News, but did catch the Stewart version. Good on her for her lawsuit and Jon Stewart picked the wrong time to quit his show.
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
Sherman says he knows of at least a dozen who have been interviewed by Fox.
hovercraft
@Joey Maloney:
Brain Bleach. STAT !!
Eric U.
OT: I hope the black churches that have been used in Trump’s whitesplaining tour got paid up front.
Schlemazel
I hope that the apology is written by the plaintiff(s) so as to avid any mealy-mouthed bullshit.
I admit I am not a nice person I do not feel sorry for Ms. Carlson. She graduated with honors from Stanford so she is not stupid. Despite that she happily played the blond dimbo for a lot of money. SHe did a lot of damage to this nation, more damage to more people than Jabba the Ailes did to her. In my mind I know that is wrong and I am a bad person but my heart says ‘fuck her, she has fucked us for years and been well paid for it!”
NorthLeft12
@MattF: So Fox is issuing the apology and paying out the cash too. And Ailes? It does not sound like he is being held accountable at all.
I don’t mean to be dense, but this sounds like the employer [Fox] has been sued for their role in her harassment. ie. ignoring complaints by Carlson and for employing and not properly supervising Ailes.
hovercraft
@MattF:
She merely played one on TV, which is why I’ve always disliked her, she knows better. But she earned hr 20 million.
Pamoya
I’ve settled a few sexual harassment claims. A public apology is extremely rare. Rare enough that I usually tell my clients that we’ll ask for it, but we won’t get it. It also seems as if there is no confidentiality requirement here, since we know the amount of the settlement. Everyone already knows the underlying facts, since they’ve been put into a public complaint and reported on in hundreds of media outlets. Combine those two things (apology, no confidentiality) with the size of the settlement and this is a huge victory for Carlson, and in my opinion, for sexual harassment victims everywhere.
If I had to take a wild unsubstantiated guess at the reason why van Susteren is leaving now, it is possible that she is settling her own case against Fox and leaving the network is one of the conditions of the settlement. I have absolutely no idea whether she was sexually harassed as well, but we know there were others.
Great post, Tim, and thanks for pointing out that it is important to know whether you live in a two party consent state. The details can vary from state to state, but if you are in Massachusetts, for example, you can get into major trouble trying to prove a sexual harassment case with secret recordings you made.
Roger Moore
@Patricia Kayden:
If they weren’t convinced by Fox’s obvious general dishonesty, they aren’t going to be too worried about sexual harassment. To a lot of Fox viewers, this is just going to be more political correctness run amok.
Gin & Tonic
@Pamoya:
Greta publicly defended Ailes after Carlson filed her lawsuit.
MattF
@NorthLeft12: IANAL, so here‘s some semi-comprehensible explanation.
Elizabelle
Greta van Susteren really had Ailes’ back, in this Daily Beast article.
Now she’s gone, and the male on-air Ailes-supporting talent is still there. For now.
Chip Daniels
@hovercraft:
From what I can tell, Ailes is exactly the Fox demographic- old, male, white, flabby, and slavering over young hawt chicks.
Other people have written about the Fox/ Murdoch recipe of lip smacking prudery- lots of jiggly titillating flesh stories for the eye, ladled with a topping of righteous prudery for the ears to make it all seem respectable.
BruceFromOhio
@Gindy51: Turns out civil awards are usually taxable income. Considering that the typical legal fee is 33% to 40% of the award, and that is paid out after taxes on the whole, and depending on what Ms. Carlson’s personal tax rate is, the millions are down to single digits pretty quick.
How much is it worth to be exposed to the serious-grade bullshit she’s had to put up with? It’s a simple matter to say “more,” and a difficult path to determine how much more. Methinks they all just preferred to keep it out of court.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
Eh, I see the apology is already out & it is weak tea indeed.
hovercraft
@Elizabelle:
If she wasn’t such an execrable person, one might be inclined to think she is going away to atone for her sins. But she’s Greta, so not.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Elizabelle: He’s gonna get hard up without his daily dose of “making people feel like shit” and start hitting on them. That’ll be fun.
shomi
@Patricia Kayden: Oh please. Votes are pretty much locked in. Since you people obess about polling. There was some poll recently that came to that same conclusion.
Joel
@hovercraft: Maybe she’s ascending to Operating Thetan.
JR in WV
@Elizabelle:
Quit or fired? Quite the question, and we may never know the answer. Perhaps Van Susteren got pissed off by what happened between Carlson and Ailes? After she went to bat for him publicly, now she feels burnt by the truth she was unaware of…
That’s a reason to quit. Fired, but why? They need women in public roles more now than ever before. Perhaps future legal events, filings etc will shed light on this question.
RareSanity
@NorthLeft12: MattF kinda beat me to it, but the short answer is that her contract required conflicts with Fox to be resolved via mediation, suing Ailes personally did not.
Pogonip
@Elizabelle: I guess both of them exemplify the old joke about how if a pretty blonde is smart enough to play dumb she’ll end up owning the company!
Mudge
Skimmed here but didn’t see it..all of the Linda Tripp tapes of Monica Lewinksi were illegal. Didn’t keep them from Ken Starr, who gave Tripp immunity. She was never prosecuted.
Feathers
@Schlemazel: @hovercraft: According to Hype and Glory, the William Goldman book I talked about above, Carlson didn’t come across as being all that bright, just kind of wooden and uptight. It is possible to make it to a highly competitive college, and graduate, by being a really hard-working, completely intellectually incurious grind. There aren’t many of them and they do stick out, but there are grads of Harvard, Stanford, et al, that you wouldn’t necessarily call “bright.”
Edited to add: I really do recommend the book – author of The Princess Bride slagging young Gretchen Carlson – what’s not to love.
hovercraft
@Joel:
I didn’t realize that she was a Scientologist, figures.
MattF
@Mudge: There’s apparently some legal debate about whether Tripp’s actions were illegal under Maryland law. I have no idea, myself.
hovercraft
@Feathers:
Agreed, but her act of being a dumb blond who made even Steve Doocey look smart was over the top. Even if she only made it through with the help of tutors and the like, I suspect that she found the dumb blond persona was useful and played it to the hilt. She may not be mensa worthy, but she is no way dumb. Lacking in common sense is a trait that I’ve observed in many smart people, but she played dumb, ignorant and lacking in common sense. I just don’t buy it, I could be wrong of course.
Feathers
@Pogonip: @Elizabelle: According to Wikipedia, she went right into broadcasting after her Miss America year.
Note on her Stanford degree, apparently her sociology degree was in organizational behavior. From my recollections of academia, the OB folks were more than a little oddly strung.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Major Major Major Major:
You listening, Julian Assange?
The whole sordid episode will be quickly forgotten. Loathsome Toad Roger, at age one hundred and ninety two, waddles off with $50 million in the bank. The human dung beetle Brit Hume gets his own show (with Gretel VS suddenly off to the next hustle). Lil’ Baby Tucker, Smirks O’Hannity, and the other turds in the punch bowl will continue to do what they do.
Pogonip
@Feathers: OK, I must have been thinking of Kelly.
What’s “organizational behavior”?
Feathers
@hovercraft: I know her Fox persona only from clips, but there is a level of incuriousness and inflexibility that negates any smarts someone started with.
Feathers
@Pogonip: It’s the study of groups of people. It’s kind of half-way between the sociology and the psychology departments. My sense of it was that the major (and grad program) drew people who had very strong ideas of how everybody else should be behaving. Basically wandering bundles of expectations. Note, the good ones were fantastic, really sharp and insightful. But they got pushed out, didn’t make tenure and left the field.
Elizabelle
@Feathers: Carlson was valedictorian of her high school class. That would make her a hard worker, at minimum.
Father owns a car dealership. And Michelle Bachmann was once her nanny.
ETA: funny we are discussing two blonde hard right babes in quick succession. Phyllis Schlafly, now dirt napping with Nino Scalia and all her John Birch forebears.
Carlson, who scored a multimillion dollar payout on a suit filed only after her show got cancelled. If she was still on the air, would she have filed, brave soul that she is?
Saskexpat
@PPCLI: The NDAs in the upcoming Ailes v. NY Mag dispute are really interesting, if you are into that sort of thing (I was a civil procedure geek in law school, so I am, and your interests may differ). The short response is that NDAs typically do not overcome an otherwise valid subpoena. The interesting issue to me is that Ailes’s bringing suit against NY Mag could open up a big can of worms over the NDAs and result in a legal dispute between Fox and Ailes over how the confidentiality provisions will play out in any suit Ailes may bring.
In general, confidentiality agreements cannot stop someone from being compelled to testify under an otherwise valid subpoena, and confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements often reflect that reality. I do not know the specific laws where Ailes’s potential suit may be venued (I practiced in California, and see no way it will wind up there), but generally, a contractual obligation to keep things secret will not overcome an otherwise valid subpoena for information. There may be specific privacy laws that affect certain disclosures, such as an employee’s personnel file or someone’s medical records, but testimony about day-to-day interactions are unlikely to be impacted by such laws. That said, there will likely be huge discovery disputes over this information, and it will depend on a lot of factors, including the specific privacy laws of the state where the case is brought.
Interestingly, the bigger impact may come from Ailes’s severance package, and not from settlement agreements between Fox and other Fox employees. Fox almost certainly required a confidentiality agreement with Ailes as part of his severance package, and if Fox wants to prevent him from asserting facts to support his claims (for example, evidence about his interactions with Carlson) that involve the disclosure of information covered by the agreement, they likely will be able do so. If Fox does not assert its right to keep the subjects of the confidentiality agreement secret, and Ailes puts certain facts at issue in his case against NY Mag, he will have difficulty hiding behind his contractual obligations. Put another way, if this works the way NDA’s typically do, Ailes can only keep secret what Fox wants him to keep secret under the NDA, and the right to assert Ailes’s obligation of confidentiality will belong to Fox, and not Ailes. It also is entirely possible that the disclosure of information in the Ailes/NY Mag dispute will depend on how aggressive Fox is in asserting its contractual rights. Ailes may argue that he has some rights to to being covered personally by the other employee’s NDAs, but generally, the right to confidentiality vests in the person paying for it. If Fox waives its rights under the employee NDAs as to Ailes, he may be SOL. If Fox does not assert its NDA rights against Ailes, and Ailes alleges facts covered by the NDA, there may also be an issue of waiver as to Fox’s further assertion of its rights under the NDA. Also, as stated above, Fox’s right to confidentiality will generally apply to voluntary disclosures or things that are otherwise outside of normally discoverable information, and may have little impact if there is legal process (like a subpoena) compelling Ailes or a Fox employee to testify or provide information.
Pogonip
@Feathers: Thanks!
mapaghimagisk
@Feathers:
Gretchen Carlson is really Hari Seldon?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@mapaghimagisk: Only if Heinlein had written the book, in which case she also would have been all over that simmering hunk of manhood, Roger Ailes.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Tim F.:
You’re right that she probably could have gotten much more, but $20M strikes me as a tiny amount of money for someone in her professional position.
Barbara Walters was making $1M a year in 1976, and $12M a year in 2007. Yeah, Carlson is no Walters, but Walters wasn’t either when she was Carlson’s age.
Carlson supposedly was making $800k/yr. That’s 25 years of income, assuming she never got a raise or promotion.
Mrs. Greenspan is still working and she’s probably making a lot more than she was 25 years ago. Carlson may have given up 25-30 years in TV in going forward with her complaint. $20M is almost nothing for that.
Plus the fact that he was a monster and she had to work closely with him. :-(
The idea (that some seem to be trying to float) that Carlson was just in it for a big “payday” seems ludicrous, and offensive, to me.
Cheers,
Scott.
NorthLeft12
@MattF: @RareSanity: Thanks for the responses guys, but I am still a little confused. So Ailes was sued, but he pays nothing, says nothing. Meanwhile Fox pays out and apologizes profusely.
Sounds like he was sued specifically as a representative of Fox News, and not as Roger Ailes, all around douche nozzle and vile human being.
I did read the article [Thanks again] and that did not clear it up much either.
Snark Based Reality
“Memo to women everywhere”
Memo to all genders everywhere more likely. Recording is useful for self protection for both genders. Plenty of reasons to have a voice or video recorder handy at all times no matter what gender you are.
Dashcams in private cars are increasingly becoming a thing. Security cameras are everywhere. Video and audio recording are a tool of self protection against bullshit accusations and misconduct on others.
Welcome to 2016.
NorthLeft12
Okay, just saw this on Charles Pierce’s Esquire column;
Be interesting to find out how much. Still not hearing any kind of apology from Ailes. Though to be honest, I expect an “apology” from him will be weaselly, insincere, and mealy mouthed.
Fellatio Alger
@Joey Maloney: Is this the same Gretchen Carlson of the “terrorist fist jab” fame? Thatsa a lot of fist jabs.
burnspbesq
Because I’m a cynic and a lawyer, my working hypothesis is that (1) the insurance company threatened to deny coverage if Fox didn’t settle at an acceptable number, (2) $20 million was an acceptable number for Carlson and the insurance company, and (3) Fox’ role in the negotiations was nothing more than an interested spectator.
Everyone goes away happy. Carlson gets a ton of money, Fox doesn’t have to spend its own money, and the insurance companies (I assume that the primary insurer sliced up the risk and ceded most or all of it to a bunch of reinsurers) made money overall.
America at its finest.
BC in Illinois
“Fox News, have you prepared your statement of regret?”
“We have.”
“Would you please read it.”
“We state our regret.”
NorthLeft12
@burnspbesq: Normally large corporations self insure, right? I would be surprised if Fox went through an insurance company for this. This is chump change for them.
NorthLeft12
BTW, somehow yesterday, I was on Greta VS’s Facebook page and her defence of Ailes and questioning of Carlson’s story was quite strident. She repeated again and again that she was completely unaware of any harassment and was pretty open in her skepticism of Carlson’s accusations.
She included the usual snide comments about how difficult it is to keep this stuff quiet and when she spent some time alone with Carlson [not much she admitted, but away from the office -England I think] she never confided anything about harassment, just her frustration over a lack of air time [ie. the Ailes defence].
No hint of her being unhappy in her post, but of course, these slime merchants would not share that kind of information with the adoring plebes.
burnspbesq
@NorthLeft12:
Some do, some don’t.
Arclite
So Fox got off the hook for sexual hijinks for $20M. Gawker got destroyed by $120M. Seems fair.
/s
EBT
@Major Major Major Major: criminally prosecute you.