Former network chief Roger Ailes, host Bill O'Reilly, and co-president Bill Shine are gone, but Fox News still has a lot of problems on its hands.
Fox News online reporter Diana Falzone has filed a lawsuit against the network alleging that the reason she's an "online reporter" is because she was banned to the virtual sphere after writing about a personal illness that diminished her sex appeal. And this is a recent claim stemming from an incident that occurred just a few months ago.
From New York Magazine:
Fox News online reporter Diana Falzone filed suit in New York Supreme Court alleging she was demoted after publishing an essay in January on Fox News’ website about suffering from endometriosis. “The male-dominated senior management of Fox News obviously objected to the fact that a female on-air host had disclosed that she suffers from a women’s reproductive-health condition, which, in their eyes, detracted from her sex appeal and made her less desirable,” the lawsuit claims. [...]
Falzone says that after the piece ran, [supervisor Refet Kaplan] told her that the “Second Floor,” referring to the network’s top executives Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, no longer wanted her appearing on-air. According to the suit, Kaplan said Falzone was “permanently banned from ever appearing on air on any Foxnews.com, Fox News Network, Fox Business News Network or any other Fox News medium and would never again be permitted to host her own shows or conduct her own interviews.” Falzone claims that a producer later told her she was also banned from doing voice-overs. When Falzone asked Kaplan why she was being demoted, he declined to say, according to the suit.
The idea that she was banned from the air because suffering from endometriosis diminished her sex appeal is an amazing claim, but it's also in line with everything we know about Fox. This is a network that, for over 20 years, protected and sheltered serial sexual harassers and even afforded former chief Roger Ailes a black-ops budget that he used to fund websites that promoted the sex appeal of women at Fox.
Falzone's lawsuit states that she filed a complaint with 21st Century Fox, but the company did not follow up.