Fox News is perhaps one of the most controversial news networks in American due to its steadfast defense of conservative values, which includes criticisms that people have made against conservative lawmakers for racism, misogyny, and sexual harassment.
But now, it seems as though critics of Fox News might have to swallow their tongues following revelations that the cable news network has officially fired a veteran employee from the organization following complaints about racist remarks made to African-American employees, according to Deadline .
Veteran comptroller and long time Fox News employee Judy Slater has been reportedly terminated from Fox News and the company has cited “abhorrent behavior” as the reason for her dismissal.
Fox News fires longtime comptroller Judy Slater, cites “abhorrent [i.e. racist] behavior” https://t.co/tilHg7E7tC pic.twitter.com/I8CadfK55L
— Colorado Liberal (@Colo01Liberal) March 26, 2017
It is unclear just how long that Judy Slater had been making derogatory comments toward African-American employees of Fox News, but it seems as though the reports of her behavior had only just surfaced within the last two months with the Human Resources chief, Kevin Lord. It also appears that it took two more weeks before Lord decided to fire Judy Slater, who had been with the company for 19 years at the time.
This is not the only time in the past year that a major player at Fox News has been let go following revelations of misconduct while operating in their official capacity at the cable news company. Just last July, following several reports of sexual harassment, Fox News chief Roger Ailes was forced to resign in what appeared to be an action to avoid any further investigation of the accusations by the company and to avoid the embarrassment. He was later reported to have been working with Donald Trump during his down time to help him win the presidency.
How Roger Ailes paved the way for Donald Trump’s victory https://t.co/j7y356wfCj pic.twitter.com/vNQBmloNOy
— Derrick J Edwards (@derrickjedwards) November 9, 2016
The trend at Fox News seems to be catching on and people who work for them are being taken seriously when reports of abhorrent behavior are made on people in official capacities. In the situation of Judy Slater, the reports of her behavior toward African-American employees has been dealt with in what appears to be the quickest possible manner.
Representatives for Fox News released a statement about the firing of Judy Slater and released it to the media.
“We take any complaint of this nature very seriously and took the appropriate action in investigating and firing Ms. Slater within two weeks of this being brought to our attention,” the statement from Fox News said. “There is no place for abhorrent behavior like this at Fox News.”
It might also be worth mentioning that Fox News had just recently settled a lawsuit brought on by former on-air contributor, Tamara Holder. In the lawsuit, Holder alleged that she was being sexually harassed by former Fox News Latino Vice President, Francisco Cortes. Following the reports of the sexual harassment, Cortes was later terminated from his position with the company. The cable news company settled the lawsuit with Holder for a reported amount of $2.5 million.
That is not the only sexual harassment lawsuit that Fox News is facing these days either. Andrea Tantaros, who was formerly a co-host on the program The Five , is suing the cable news network for $50 million for sexual harassment that she endured during her tenure with the company. At this time, there has been no word on the progress of that sexual harassment lawsuit.
Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros: I was booted off air after complaining of Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment -… pic.twitter.com/u8JEtS9tbL
— Viralmagnates (@viralmagnatez) February 3, 2017
As many may remember, it was former Fox and Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson who initiated the downfall of Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, with many others coming out of the woodwork filing their own grievances against the former chief.
There has been no word yet if a lawsuit will be forthcoming from the African-American employees that Judy Slater made derogatory comments to.
[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]