We go to Fox News, where you'll, as Cenk teased before,
be shocked to know that there was some sexual harassment.
Turns out, according to an exclusive Mediaite report, a Fox executive who'd
been there for over 20 years, John Finley, has been ousted from the company after
stalking and sexually harassing a woman who worked on projects with Fox Nation.
Sadly, this is not the exec's first instance of bad behavior.
Sources who spoke to Mediaite stated that Finley has been a sleazeball for
years now.
According to multiple anonymous Fox employees who worked with Finley,
he pursued romantic relationships with subordinates throughout his entire
tenure at Fox.
Two sources who worked with Finley claimed that he always made it obvious when he was
interested in a Fox employee.
That's like a comedy sketch,
because he'd always buy them pearl earrings from Tiffany's.
Unbelievable.
That's the most Fox harassment you could imagine.
One of those sources told Mediaite, it was our big code like,
she must be getting those same pearl earrings from John.
She got promoted with no experience.
She's blonde.
Looks like she came out of a sorority.
He buys all the girls the same gifts.
It was like he was having an f off.
Anonymous source to Mediaite there, but
also states that Finley would offer sleazy quid pro quos, not shockingly.
Two staffers, one former Fox employee said Friday, Finley often made
promises of big show promotions to young female staffers, telling them
he would make them a Fox News star despite little to no power to actually do so.
Unfortunately, Finley was able to get away with this inappropriate conduct for
years, thanks to the company's culture that we know already so much about.
The Washington Post, which first reported on Finley's ouster last weekend but
did not report the claims against him, noted that Finley was investigated for
misconduct in 2011 but cleared of any wrongdoing at the time.
The network which conducted the probe internally cited a lack of evidence.
Our HR department was a complete joke back then,
a high-level Fox insider told Mediaite.
Another long-time staffer concurred, calling the investigation a joke.
Well, they're always on the backs of their heels at Fox HR, Jank.
And here's another one.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, so look, guys, there's a difference between
relationships at work, and sometimes that happens, and sexual harassment.
And so, for example, at ABC they fired these two anchors that were married to
different people and then got divorced, and then they had a relationship,
but neither one reported to one another.
I have no idea why they got fired.
I'm not even sure that it's legal to fire them.
You can't fire people who are having a relationship at work unless they report to
one another and are creating an issue, right?
And so there's, like, important rules around it.
But I give you that as context because this is not anywhere near that.
This is the exact opposite end of the spectrum.
It's a toxic cesspool.
It's quid pro quo on top of quid pro.
You don't need quid pro quo for sexual harassment.
But if you have quid pro quo, it's definitely sexual harassment.
And this guy, the whole building, all those people,
they don't work at MSMEC, they work at Fox News.
They went there, presumably at this late date, because they wanted to work for
a right-wing news outlet.
Certainly know that it's a right-wing news outlet, right?
And they go there, and they're like, my God, every guy in here is trying to have
sex with all the people, all the women that work here.
And so when I say every guy, the reason that the fish rots from the head down is
because Roger Ailes was the original executive of Fox News, and ran it for
about 20 years and then got fired at the very end for sexual harassment coz
he was about to cause the company a tremendous amount of money,
which he had done in the past, and Bill O'Reilly had done in the past.
And apparently this guy was doing it in the past, and so
it's because Roger Ailes set that tone.
And everyone in the building knew Roger Ailes was trying to sleep with the women
trying to get on air.
The women, some of whom were on air, the people who weren't on air,
everyone knew it.
And when people would complain about anyone else doing it,
the HR would immediately side with the harasser.
So that's why Bill O'Reilly did it with impunity.
And by the way, I'll give you a contrast too,
in all of these sex scandals at Fox News, which now has been,
I don't know, if it's in the dozens yet, Sean Hannity has never been mentioned.
So, good on Sean Hannity that at least,
I know this is his lowest bar in American history, Right?
But that apparently he's the one guy in the building who's not a sexual harasser.
>> Speaker 1: But there's no bar there, you don't put that bar anywhere.
Don't even mention it.
>> Speaker 2: No, I just give it as because the right-wingers think,
you guys attack anyone you don't like.
No.
>> That's fair.
Yeah. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't
stand Sean Hannity.
>> Speaker 1: Right. >> Speaker 2: But he didn't do this,
right?
But this guy apparently did, and everybody in the building knew it.
And I'll tell you the thing that turned my stomach the most, was the pearl earrings.
Because all the guys in the building are looking at the women with pearl earrings.
Right.
That's just terrible, man.
I can't believe it lasted till 2023.
I can believe that it was at Fox News.
>> Speaker 1: Yeah, you gave me pearl earrings in 2014.
>> Speaker 2: It's a little different, Michael.
Okay, go ahead, Jackson.
>> Speaker 3: Exactly.
Culture sets the tone for everything, work environment, political environments,
home environments.
It's the way we conduct ourselves.
So, you pointed that out perfectly.
And because all the money that was being made and it kind of is attached to just
kind of the general patriarchal culture, misogynistic culture.
So, things were swept under the rug as long as they could be.
I'm curious to see what Fox News'future will know, just given
the general age bracket of their heaviest audience are millennials and
Gen Z conservatives gonna continue to watch them.
I don't know if they care about things like that.
But it's always crazy to see stuff like this,
because when men do things in this manner, it's clearly just a power trip.
Coz you could just date women in a normal way.
You could just find women outside of work and you're in New York City, there's so
many women out here, all over the world.
We live in modern times, we live in the digital age.
So you could date women elsewhere, but it makes you feel powerful,
makes you feel like other people are beneath you and gives you a kick.
So, that's all what it is about, clearly.
But it's good that he got busted.
>> Speaker 1: And to answer Jackson's question, when I'm out there
with the Trump people, many of them say they don't watch Fox News at all.
And it's not just young ones, it's people who don't think they're
conservative enough, and they watch Newsmax and other other outlets.
Now, because of that, this goes further.
We now know what Finley's done.
And the question, of course,
is why did they wait till 2023 to do something about it?
And alleged in the report, and according to that report,
it's the fact that he was stalking, he was harassing and
stalking a woman who was not a Fox employee but worked on Fox Nation,
which I guess is one of their shows, worked on some of their projects.
A source familiar with the woman's claims alleged that Finley stalked her
relentlessly and would not stop texting her.
The woman kept rebuffing him, the source said, but
he pursued a relentless pattern of sexual harassment and quid pro quo.
I can get you this job if you, blank,
incredible opportunities if she went into New York and didn't see him?
Temper tantrums.
The report states the anonymous woman eventually brought her claims of
harassment to Fox, at which point the network hired an outside law firm,
they fired Finley.
They settled, apparently, with the woman, but
it does appear that he was not fired for sexual harassment.
Another source with knowledge of the findings of the investigation said he was
not fired for sexual harassment, but for
violating Fox's standards of business conduct.
I mean, that's not just legalese.
Among the standards that were breached included conflict of interest,
improper use of his position to benefit someone over whom he had influence, and
business ethics, the source said.
>> Speaker 2: Like textbook definition of sexual harassment.
>> And euphemism.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
Fox News media and John Finley have parted ways after an independent investigation
concluded that he had violated certain standards of business conduct,
Fox News said themselves in a statement.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah last couple of quick things here.
Fox Nation, of course, is their web entity.
And it doesn't matter if the person is an employer or a contractor,
you still have a responsibility towards them when they're in the building.
And especially when you're saying, hey, I can hire you if you sleep with me, and
I won't hire you if you don't sleep with me.
Again, textbook sexual harassment.
If you're going to work at these places and you're a woman, just be careful.
Be careful.
And every time folks are surprised, like at right-wing outlets,
Steven Crowder's employees are surprised,
the Project Verita's people are surprised, Fox News people are surprised.
What they're saying on air isn't just theater, a lot of them believe it.
So you go into a nest of vipers with people who say that women aren't worth
much, and
then you're surprised to find out they think that women aren't worth much.
And so, yeah, I mean, rethink your views a little bit.
And, of course, if you remember,
the last Fox News guy that left was Tucker Carlson, and
there were some allegations against him and how he might have cost him some money.
We didn't find out all the details of those allegations,
but Tucker did say, when he was talking to Trump,
scared women run Fox News these days.
Almost like is sneering it, I remember the good old days when we could sexually
harass and do anything we wanted to the women at Fox News.