Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network has been slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit charged a senior official of the network of harassing and discriminating against its female employees, creating a "hostile work environment because of their sex."
The EEOC claimed that a Fox vice president, Joe Chillemi, "routinely used gross obscenities and vulgarities when describing women or their body parts," language that it said Chillemi "did not use with male employees." The lawsuit contended that he "routinely cursed at and otherwise denigrated women employees," telling them to "be a man."
The suit, filed in a federal district court in New York on Monday, is based on an investigation by the commission of a claim brought by a former Fox employee, Kim Weiler. A lawyer hired by the news channel argued that the lewd language of Chillemi � however tasteless � did not constitute sexual harassment or discrimination.
"We investigated the allegations and charges that were made and found them to be baseless," said Steven Mintz of the New York law firm Mintz & Gold, which represented Fox News in the commission's investigation. "Fox News questions the motivations behind the charges."
The complaint contained a list of statements alleged to have been made by Chillemi to employees in the 20-person department, roughly half of whom are women. Offensive remarks attributed to Chillemi include saying that a pregnant woman had "tits" like "cannons". To this, Mintz said: "We don't view any of the assertions in the action as either harassment or discrimination. This is a case involving bad language."
The commission said Chillemi used the phrase "as useless as tits on a bull" in front of women. Mintz argued that was not the precise language. The phrase is "as useless as teats on a bull. "It's something that's useless. It's not a sexual comment." Asked whether Chillemi actually used that word, Mintz replied: "I believe that he said "teats" exactly that way. It's something he used to say in front of men and women." He, however, admitted that some of the language had been correctly reported.
The suit alleged that Chillemi, in a discussion about a television segment focusing on sexism in the workplace, said, "Of course I'd pick the man" if he had to choose between a woman and a man for the same position, because he was concerned that a woman could become pregnant and leave her job.
The commission accused Fox of routinely relegating female employees to freelance work and less secure jobs. It said that Weiler was "constructively discharged" as a result of the network's practices. It was not clear whether Weiler was fired. Mintz, however, said that there was no retaliation. The project Weiler was working on ended and she was offered another slot in the company's viewer services department, he said.
According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York:
- Chillemi routinely used gross obscenities and vulgarities when describing women or their body parts (referring, for example, to women's breasts as "tits" and declaring that something was "as useless as tits on a bull").
- He routinely used obscenities and vulgarities with women employees that he did not use with male employees (such as telling women that they had put his "d--k" "on the chopping block").
- Chillemi routinely cursed at and otherwise denigrated women employees and treated them in a demeaning way (including telling women not to be a "p--sy" but to "be a man", and referring to women as being a "bitch").
- He made a number of derogatory comments about pregnant women (such as regularly stating that a pregnant woman had "tits" that were "f---ing huge" and like "cannons" or "melons" and the on-air talent's breasts needed to be "covered" or not shown when the pregnant woman was being filmed).
- In addition, at a department discussion about a segment on sexism in the workplace, Chillemi said that in choosing who to hire "if it came down between a man or a woman, of course I'd pick the man. The woman would most likely get pregnant and leave."
- Women in the Fox Advertising and Promotions departments supervised by Chillemi were also referred to in a derogatory way by a supervisor as his "Promo Girls."
This is the second such incident involving Fox News in recent times. About a year ago, popular Fox News host Bill O'Reilly was charged with a sexual harassment suit from one Andrea Mackris. She claimed that he repeatedly telephoned her and voiced lewd fantasies. O'Reilly hit back with an extortion suit, and the case was settled (according to the Washington Post, most likely in Mackris' favour), with neither party allowed to discuss the case. Before the settlement O'Reilly talked about the case on his programme, calling it "the single most evil thing I have ever experienced, and I've seen a lot. But these people picked the wrong guy."
