Beleaguered Fox News Faces Another Employee Lawsuit

Fox News, which recently had to dismiss both its chairman and its top onscreen talent over allegations of sexual harassment, now faces an employee lawsuit claiming racial discrimination. Eleven current and former Fox News employees filed a class-action lawsuit in New York, accusing the news channel of “abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination.” The lawsuit was filed in the State Supreme Court in the Bronx in March, and targeted Fox News’ longtime comptroller Judith Slater for allegedly engaging in racist behavior and making racist remarks. Fox fired Slater in February. Another lawsuit, filed this week in the Southern District of New York against Fox News, Slater, and Fox News’ top lawyer Dianne Brandi, says employees repeatedly complained about racial discrimination to current network executives, but that no action was taken and the behavior continued. A lawyer for Slater denied the allegations, and a Fox News spokeswoman “vehemently” denied the allegations, calling them “copycat claims.” The class-action suit claims that human resource executives at Fox were aware of complaints about Slater, but told black employees that “nothing could be done because Slater knew too much about senior executives,” including ousted chairman Roger Ailes and recently-fired host Bill O’Reilly.