Uh oh.
Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine has six more women besides Gretchen Carlson accusing Fox News chief Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. Sherman wrote the biography of Ailes last year (The Loudest Voice in the Room) that got Ailes’s PR chief Brian Lewis fired (and settled with an $8 million deal to keep quiet).
The women include, Kellie Boyle, 54, a former Republican National Committee field adviser and Marsha Callahan, now 73, a former model. They went on the record. Four others used pseudonyms.
Boyle says that back in 1989 Ailes told her: ‘You know if you want to play with the big boys, you have to lay with the big boys.’ She declined.
Callahan says in 1967 or 1968, when she was a model, Ailes said: ‘Sit on the sofa and lift your skirt up.’ I had to do these different poses. And then, I recall very clearly, he said he’d put me on the show but I needed to go to bed with him. I was a really shy girl, but I was a little cheeky so I said, ‘Oh yeah, you and who else?’ And he said, ‘Only me and a few of my select friends.’
So far, the stories don’t come from Ailes’ run at CNBC or Fox News– they’re all way in the past. That doesn’t excuse the behavior if true. But more contemporary stories will have more of an impact, if there are any. You never know, once alleged victims start talking– as in the case of Bill Cosby– the flood gates can open.
Stay tuned…
update: Ailes’s outside counsel sent this to NY Mag: “It has become obvious that Ms. Carlson and her lawyer are desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue. The latest allegations, all 30 to 50 years old, are false.”
