Fox News was launched in 1996 as part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
Since then, the network has experienced its fair share of controversy, including billion-dollar
defamation lawsuits and outrage over hosts' incendiary comments.
Here are the biggest scandals to ever hit Fox News.
Gretchen Carlson exited Fox News in 2016, after spending a decade with the cable news
network.
Shortly after her exit, Carlson sent shockwaves throughout the media industry when she launched
a blockbuster lawsuit against her former employer.
Her suit claimed Fox News chairman Roger Ailes sexually harassed Carlson for years, even
"explicitly" requesting they have a, quote, "sexual relationship during a meeting in his
office," according to a report by The New York Times.
In a statement, the network promised to get to the bottom of her accusations by launching
an investigation, insisting,
"We take these matters seriously."
Ailes released a far more defiant statement, blasting Carlson's allegations as "false"
and characterizing her legal action as a, quote, "retaliatory suit for the network's
decision not to renew her contract."
Ailes also said in his statement that the decision to not renew Carlson's contract was
on account of the host's, quote, "disappointingly low" ratings.
Just a few months after the launch of the lawsuit, Fox News settled out of court.
NPR's David Folkenflik confirmed via Twitter that Carlson received a $20-million settlement
and a, quote, "highly unusual public apology" from the network.
In the apology, Fox News admitted,
"[Gretchen Carlson] was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our
colleagues deserve."
Gretchen Carlson's sexual harassment lawsuit caused the floodgates to open.
Within weeks, numerous other female employees of Fox News came forward to share their stories
of being sexually harassed by Roger Ailes.
Among these was Megyn Kelly, then one of the most popular personalities on the network.
According to Intelligencer, it was during the course of Fox News' investigation into
Carlson's claims that Kelly revealed Ailes had made, quote, "unwanted sexual advances
toward her" a decade earlier.
"He tried to get physical with me.
I rejected his advances."
"Like, he tried to make a move on you?"
"He tried to kiss me.
And then I pushed him away.
He tried to kiss me again.
I pushed him away again."
Meanwhile, it quickly became evident that the allegations of Carlson and Kelly were
far from isolated incidents.
As Vox reported, other women subsequently lodged accusations against Ailes.
One of these was Laurie Luhn, a former Fox News booker who told Intelligencer that Ailes
subjected her to 20 years of, quote, "psychological torture" after she accepted his offer to provide
him with sexual favors in exchange for advancing her career.
In addition, producer Shelley Ross wrote a devastating piece for the Daily Beast explaining
Ailes wasn't the only culprit, pointing to a pervasive culture at Fox News that was,
quote, "populated by more than a few morally repugnant executives."
As the allegations against Roger Ailes increasingly piled up, Intelligencer reported in 2016 that
Megyn Kelly's claims proved to be the tipping point.
Ailes was given an ultimatum: resign by August 1, or be "fired for cause."
Ultimately, Ailes resigned on July 21, ending a career that saw his leadership rake in $2.3
billion for the network.
Ailes wrote in his resignation letter,
"I am proud of our accomplishments and look forward to continuing to work with you as
an adviser in building 21st Century Fox."
Ailes may have resigned in disgrace, but he didn't walk away empty-handed; according to
CNN, he reportedly received a $40-million payout, the remainder of his multi-year contract.
Less than a year later, 77-year-old Roger Ailes was dead.
As The New York Times wrote in its obituary, Ailes succumbed to complications from a subdural
hematoma he suffered after an accidental fall.
Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck has been no stranger to controversy over the years, and that was
particularly true during his brief tenure on Fox News.
Of Beck's many incendiary statements, it's tough to top the time he appeared on Fox and
Friends and accused then-President Barack Obama of racism.
"This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who
has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or white culture."
Beck went on to add:
"This guy, I believe, is a racist."
Outrage quickly ensued.
Fox News exec Bill Shine was quick to point out Beck had, quote, "expressed a personal
opinion" that did not represent the opinion of Fox News.
Beck later walked back his comments but stopped short of actually apologizing.
During a chat with Fox News' Chris Wallace, Beck said,
"I don't want to retract — I want to amend."
"First of all, It shouldn't have been said; it was poorly said; I have a big fat mouth
sometimes, and I say things.
That's just not the way people should behave."
Beck then went on to tell Wallace that President Obama's beliefs weren't racist, but rather
stemmed from "Liberation Theology," a religious movement born of the 1960s that stresses helping
the world's poor and oppressed.
In 2021, Beck is still talking about the incident.
During a June 9th interview with Tucker Carlson, Beck took back his non-apology, stating that
he does indeed think that Obama is what he called him all those years ago.
In a follow up on Beck’s own show, he flatly stated: "You are a racist if you believe in
critical race theory."
Time heals most wounds, not all.
The horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, left 17
students dead and transformed several of the survivors into vocal gun-control activists.
One of these teenagers was David Hogg, who pushed for more effective gun-control legislation
in various television appearances.
Hogg apparently irked Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who took to Twitter to gloat:
"David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it."
Hogg responded by issuing a tweet calling for a boycott of her show, The Ingraham Angle,
with a follow-up tweet listing 12 companies that advertise on the show.
As The New York Times reported, enough advertisers bailed on Ingraham's show that she was forced
to issue a mea culpa, tweeting,
"I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of
Parkland."
Hogg wasn't buying it.
Asked during a CNN interview if he accepted her apology, Hogg retorted,
"No.
She's only apologizing after a third of her advertisers pulled out, and I think it's really
disgusting, the fact that she basically tried promoting her show after 'apologizing' to
me."
Fox News' reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic has been, well, erratic.
Left wing non-profit Media Matters has been keeping tabs on the network's attempts in
the early days of the pandemic to convince viewers that the deadly virus was no big deal.
Case in point: the time that Justice with Judge Jeanine host Jeanine Pirro insisted
that:
"The talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly [than the flu] doesn't reflect
reality."
Then there was Fox News' Pete Hegseth, who dismissively declared,
"I feel like the more I learn about this, the less there is to worry about."
Fox News medical contributor, Dr. Marc Siegel, visited the network and claimed,
"At worst — worst case scenario — it could be the flu."
Laura Ingraham likewise bashed the, quote, "panic pushers" in the media for going "into
overdrive" in their reporting of the virus and then claimed China was using the virus
to, quote, "hurt Trump in his reelection."
Meanwhile, over on Fox Business, Trish Regan delivered a fiery monologue about the, quote,
"coronavirus impeachment scam," accusing the "liberal media" of using COVID-19 in an attempt
to, quote, "demonize and destroy the president."
Soon after that broadcast, reported The Daily Beast, Regan was fired.
Of all the dubious information spread about COVID-19 on Fox News, perhaps the most egregious
claim came from Sean Hannity.
On a March 2020 edition of his primetime show, Hannity chided the media for, quote, "scaring
people unnecessarily" about the virus.
"I'm sure in the end, the mob and the media, well, they'll be advancing their newest conspiracy
theory and their newest hoax."
Many in the media picked up on those final words, leading to criticism claiming that
Hannity was lying to viewers by calling COVID-19 a hoax.
However, Hannity fired back by denying reality, claiming he never said what he said, despite
having actually said it.
Hannity stated,
"This program has always taken the coronavirus seriously and we've never called the virus
a hoax."
In the weeks following Joe Biden's 2020 election victory, outgoing President Donald Trump began
disseminating what has come to be known as "the big lie," declaring the election was
rigged and he actually won.
"We will win this and as far as I'm concerned we already have won it."
Several lawyers working on Trump's behalf — including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell
— came up with a theory that voting machines and software produced by Smartmatic and Dominion
Voting Systems had been rigged to switch Trump votes for Biden votes.
While those thoroughly untrue claims were parroted by Fox Business hosts such as Lou
Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, more than 50 court challenges were shot down.
The companies who manufactured those voting machines sued Powell and Giuliani before launching
a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
According to Reuters , Dominion's suit claimed the, quote, "radioactive falsehoods" spewed
by the network's hosts and guests would cost the company hundreds of millions in lost revenue.
Smartmatic then followed suit, launching its own $2.7 billion suit against Fox News.
Smartmatic's lawyer wrote in the brief,
"The First Amendment does not provide the Fox defendants a get-out-of-jail-free card."
Tucker Carlson made a lot of headlines in April 2021 when he told viewers of his Fox
News show that whenever they encounter someone wearing a mask as a precaution to prevent
the spread of COVID-19, they should, quote, "politely but firmly" order them to remove
it.
Furthermore, if any viewers saw a child wearing a mask, Carlson instructed they should call
the police or child protective service to report child abuse.
That was just one of many controversial comments the host has made over the years.
Carlson's greatest hits include: claiming that Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is,
quote, "clearly, demonstrably mentally ill;" stating that immigrants to America make the
country, quote, "poorer and dirtier;" describing white supremacy as, quote, "a hoax," and claiming
increased immigration was a Democrat ploy to, quote "replace the current electorate"
with:
"New people, more obedient voters from the Third World."
Those latter remarks about replacement, in fact, led the Anti-Defamation League to urge
advertisers to boycott Carlson's show.
The Anti-Defamation League's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told advertisers,
"Choose to pause or even pull your ads, not just from problematic programs, but altogether
from networks that don't respect all people or that repeat baseless conspiracies that
endanger all of us."
While Gretchen Carlson's 2016 allegations of sexual harassment ultimately led to the
ouster of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, the following year saw the network's biggest star
become embroiled in a disturbingly similar scandal.
In 2017, The New York Times reported that Fox News had settled no less than five different
sexual harassment complaints filed against Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor.
Defending himself against the allegations, O'Reilly characterized himself as the real
victim, and an innocent man who'd been falsely accused.
O'Reilly said,
"This is horrible, it's horrible what I went through, horrible what my family went through.
[...] This is crap, and you know it."
A subsequent report in The New York Times revealed a sixth settlement which was by far
the largest: a jaw-dropping $32 million, which the Times described as "an extraordinarily
large amount for such cases."
The complaint alleged that O'Reilly engaged in:
"[R]epeated harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography
and other sexually explicit material to [the complainant]."
Strangely, this settlement was made before Fox News signed O'Reilly on for a new four-year
contract, set to pay him $25 million per year.
As The New York Times pointed out, in January of 2017, Fox News' owner Rupert Murdoch conferred
with sons James and Lachlan and, quote, "made a business calculation to stand by" Bill O'Reilly,
given that he was the network's highest-rated personality.
However, the continued drip of negative stories about O'Reilly and the increasing creepiness
of the allegations about him led to a change of heart.
By April, it became apparent that the negative press "posed a significant threat" to the
Murdochs' business empire, so Rupuert Murdoch and the rest of his family decided the time
had come to cut bait.
21st Century Fox said in a statement to Variety,
"After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the Company and Bill O'Reilly
have agreed that Bill O'Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel."
That September, an unrepentant O'Reilly visited Today for his first interview since his firing,
declaring,
"This was a hit job — a political and financial hit job."
Promising to eventually present, quote, "more things to come" that would exonerate him,
O'Reilly added,
"My conscience is clear.
What I have done is organize a legal team to get the truth to the American people."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).