Going Directly by the Fox News Playbook
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Just minutes after former Fox News Anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against Fox News CEO Roger Wiles, FTVLive said you could expect FNC on air staff to circle the wagon around Ailes.
As expected, Greta Van Susteren was the first up to have Ailes back. Over the weekend, Maria Bartiromo came out in support of the Fox News boss. “Nobody wants to see anybody have any bad experiences,” said Bartiromo of the allegations, during an interview with Variety. “It’s just not in keeping with what I know, and my experience at Fox.”
On Sunday, Kimberly Guilfoyle host on The Five backed Ailes. “This is a man who champions women,” said Guilfoyle.
Late on Friday, Ailes legal team thought they say some light at the end of the tunnel. Ailes team is claiming that Carlson had an arbitration clause in her contract in which anything she wanted to raise in a confidential arbitration needed to be done with the American Arbitration Association.
So Ailes lawyers say this should not be headed to a courtroom, but to arbitration instead.
They also claim that Carlson was wrong in filing the lawsuit in New Jersey State Court. Ailes is not a citizen of New Jersey – he is a citizen of New York state. Carlson is a citizen of Connecticut.
If this case is going to be tried in court, Ailes team the case moved to Federal Court. Federal courts are notoriously known for siding more with companies than individuals. Many times you see big business trying to move a case to the much friendlier federal court.
Last week, FTVLive showed you handwritten notes from Carlson to Ailes, thanking him for his support and including smiley faces.
The interesting point, in Carlson's lawsuit she claimed that Ailes sexually harassed her in September 2015. The notes thanking him, were less than a month later.
It appears that the legal teams on both sides are trying to find weak spots and loopholes in the other sides case.
Also, New York Magazine writer Gabriel Sherman, who seems to have some sort of personal vendetta against Fox News is claiming that six more women have come out and said that they were also harassed by Ailes.
Of the 6, Sherman gets two on the record. One is Marsha Callahan, a former model who says Ailes harassed her in the late ‘60s, shortly before he became Richard Nixon’s media adviser. The other Kellie Boyle, a former Republican National Committee field adviser says Ailes harassed her in 1989.
Both claims are going back 30 to 50 years, long before Fox News was around. Fox News did not launch until 1996.
The chances of the Carlson v. Ailes case going to court is slim and none. We predict that some sort of agreement will be worked out, it will never be disclosed what it was and both sides will move on.
It wouldn't be the first time and it surely won't be the last.
