The news of Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has created quite a buzz in the partisan media landscape. But amidst the public shaming of Ailes, accompanied by the usual criticisms of Fox News in general, one name has been curiously absent from the headlines: fellow personality Steve Doocy.
He can’t escape mention, of course, being central to the story behind Carlson’s lawsuit. But the bloggosphere has thus far heaped scorn upon Ailes without addressing the underlying work culture issues that led to the suit to begin with.
It’s a glaring fact that will no doubt begin to dawn on everybody with a stake in the Fox News machine: the most conservative news network in the country not only denigrates women on the air, but has a woefully old-fashioned work culture that wouldn’t be out-of-place in the Golden Age of advertising.
“In 2009, Carlson says she complained to a supervisor that Steve Doocy, one of her co-hosts on Fox & Friends, ‘had created a hostile work environment by regularly treating her in a sexist and condescending way, including by putting his hand on her and pulling down her arm to shush her during a live telecast..”
That the company has, apparently, no existing system within the HR department to investigate cases of workplace harassment is almost unheard of in 2016. Carlson’s complaints were consistent, yet Doocy, a self-proclaimed family man, was not only allowed to continue working (reasonable if an internal investigation were being conducted, though there is no evidence Carlson’s charges were ever taken seriously), the CEO of the company stands accused of propositioning Carlson himself — directly.
In terms of how modern corporations handle similar cases, Fox News is positively Jurassic.
If nothing else comes of Carlson’s lawsuit, Fox will be forced to improve what has been revealed to be a sexist and hostile work culture.
But the women who work for Fox News can only take so much abuse before they start speaking out. Fox risks a PR nightmare if they begin to jump ship en masse.