Ever since the news broke that Fox News Channel founder Roger Ailes was accused of rampant sexual harassment, one question has been obvious–did anyone else know? Well, Thursday’s edition of The New York Times hints that those investigating Ailes’ debauchery are asking the same question.
As I mentioned two weeks ago, Gabriel Sherman of New York magazine–who more or less “owns” the story about the bubbling scandal in Studio B–has evidence that a number of senior executives at Fox News were well aware of Ailes’ behavior and did absolutely nothing. Well, it looks like the law firm conducting the investigation, Paul, Weiss; has stumbled on the same leads. According to sources close to the investigation, Paul, Weiss is looking into whether anyone enabled Ailes’ harassment before he was forced to resign on July 21.
Apparently this new turn didn’t come without some prodding. On Tuesday afternoon, former weekend anchor Laurie Dhue claimed through her attorney that no one from Paul, Weiss ever contacted her even though she was involved in an incident named in Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit against Ailes. Dhue’s attorney, Bruce Schaeffer, says that his client was jumping on a trampoline with Ailes’ son, Zach, in the early 2000s when Ailes asked her if she was wearing underwear.
Schaeffer also expressed concern that no one from Paul, Weiss ever reached out to former booking director Laurie Luhn, who claims she endured 20 years of harassment and mental torture at the hands of Ailes. Instead, Luhn called the investigators soon after Ailes formally resigned.
Regardless of whether Paul, Weiss was late to the game, if Sherman is to be believed, a number of senior Fox News executives need to be very afraid. Remember, Sherman contends that when many of Ailes’ accusers were persuaded to go into mediation and take hefty settlements in return for nondisclosure agreements, it was part of a larger strategy to keep Ailes’ debauchery hushed up. He has evidence that a number of Ailes’ lieutenants, all the way up to programming chief Bill Shine, played “an integral role” in the cover-up. Luhn, for instance, contends that Shine figured very prominently in her ordeal by calling her in for “booking meetings” with Ailes that were actually trysts.
If even a fraction of this is this is true, an awful lot of people at Fox News better get their resumes ready.
