We’ve already seen some evidence that suggests Gretchen Carlson may have been trying to sound the alarm about being sexually harassed long before filing a lawsuit against her former boss at Fox News, Roger Ailes. At least once, she walked off the set after hearing a sexist joke on-air. She also did a segment without makeup to protest the sexualization of women–while working for a network that requires most of its female anchors to wear body-hugging skirts or dresses and lots of makeup.
Well, Mother Jones stumbled on what may be some of the most damning evidence of all for why Carlson filed her lawsuit. Specifically, a “low-light reel” put together by the folks at Bloomberg Politics showing dozens of instances where her co-hosts on “Fox & Friends” made sexist remarks to her on-air. Watch here.
The reel starts with several instances of Carlson being called “beautiful” by her co-hosts. Innocent enough, right? But then, only 30 seconds in, things start going downhill fast. As the gang on the curvy couch goes to break, they tease a segment about things being “too hot to touch”–and make a seemingly casual comment about Carlson being “too hot.”
The next clip sets the tone for the rest of the reel. They discussed outfits that could raise red flags at the airport–including short skirts. One co-host tells Carlson that her skirt “might cause some problems” at the security checkpoint.
Some other lowlights:
- A tease of Carlson riding a mechanical bull–in her short skirt.
- Brian Kilmeade mused that one of the first rules of journalism is that when a “bra story” comes up, “defer to the babe.” Steve Doocy joined in, saying that they were talking about “bra-casting.”
- Kilmeade asked Laura Ingraham if she liked being massaged by a man or a woman, prompting Carlson to yell, “Well, now you know what I go through!”
No wonder Carlson decided to file her lawsuit in almost no time at all–two weeks after she last appeared on the fair and balanced network.
Bear in mind–this clip only showed part of the sexism Carlson had to deal with in front of the cameras. Can you imagine what happened off the air? After seeing this, we shouldn’t wonder whether there are more women who had to endure this, but how many there are and whether this was standard operating procedure for Fox News.
(Featured image courtesy Captain Johnny Shea, part of public domain)
