Why Rupert Murdoch Is (and Should Be) Terrified of Abby Grossberg
Tucker Carlson’s sudden departure shows how worried Fox is about an ex-producer’s lawsuit against the network.
Tucker Carlson isn’t off the hook yet.
While far-right Fox has shedded far-right Carlson, the network is still liable for damage he leaves in his wake.
The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that Carlson’s sudden departure was related to a discrimination lawsuit filed by former Fox producer Abby Grossberg. And the order came directly from Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch.
Grossberg has accused Carlson and other executives of managing a newsroom rife with hostility, where antisemitism and gross misogyny ran rampant. Such an environment, plagued by “poisonous and entrenched patriarchy,” was part of an atmosphere that Grossberg said forced her to give misleading testimony in the historic defamation lawsuit against Fox brought by Dominion Voting Systems.
Grossberg had worked at Fox for four years, mainly on Maria Bartiromo’s programs. But last year, she began working on Carlson’s show. In court documents filed last month, the ex-producer accused Fox lawyers of trying to scapegoat her and Bartiromo for the network’s lie-peddling about the 2020 election and voting system companies like Dominion.
The culture was not just hard on specific employees, but outwardly gross. Large photos of Representative Nancy Pelosi in a plunging swimsuit emblazoned the walls. Carlson’s producer, Justin Wells, who was let go alongside Carlson on Monday, once asked Grossberg whether Bartiromo was having a sexual relationship with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
Carlson’s staff would joke about Jews, throw out vulgar terms for women, and debate whether they’d rather have sex with Republican Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon or Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
After Grossberg once complained about harassment from two male producers, Human Resources confronted her and accused her of not performing her duties.
The dynamic is a familiar one in big-box network news, especially at Fox, where the company has cultivated a notoriously toxic racist and sexist environment for years.
Fox has denied such allegations with the same vigor it denied accusations brought by Dominion in its case—one Fox settled for $787.5 million, an amount the network might not throw around if it truly believed it wasn’t guilty.
Tanvir Rahman, an attorney for Grossberg, said that Carlson’s exit indicates “in part, an admission of the systemic lying, bullying, and conspiracy mongering claimed by our client.”