I must apologizing for inserting the mental image in your head, but former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson says her former boss Roger Ailes retaliated and ultimately fired her for refusing to have sex with him.
Carlson has filed a lawsuit against Fox News chairman Jabba the Hutt for responding to her complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace by further harassing her.
Ms. Carlson, who joined Fox in 2005, charges that during a meeting last fall to discuss her concerns about what she considered ill treatment, Mr. Ailes told her: “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better.”
When she refused, the lawsuit claims, Mr. Ailes retaliated by reducing Ms. Carlson’s salary, curtailing her on-air appearances and, ultimately, declining to renew her contract last month.
While Carlson's lawsuit is primarily directed at chief Roger Ailes, it also details the working conditions for women at Fox News which, not surprisingly, is an environment where sexual harassment is barely even considered to be a real thing, if at all. Sexual harassment seems more like a matter of routine at Fox.
There's no doubt in my mind that Carlson is hardly alone but other women who are still current employees at Fox may be afraid to speak out lest they also be fired by Roger Ailes.
This is a problem that virtually all women encounter in the workplace at one point or another. It could be happening at your place of business right now and you may not even know it.