Sexual Harassment at Fox News. Literature & Language Essay

Sexual Harassment at Fox News
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Sexual Harassment at Fox News
In 2016 and 2017, Fox News television channel was rocked by damaging revelations of misconduct by top executives and superiors directed towards female employees. This led to the dismissal of host Bill O’Reilly, the removal of chairman Roger Ailes, and payments to former workers amounting to over $40 million for settling claims. Other top executives of the giant American entertainment company were also punished, including sports section president Jamie Horowitz and business host Charles Payne. This essays looks at the problem of sexual harassment at Fox News and possible solutions.
For almost two decades, O’ Reilly was the brain behind Fox News. According to van der Linden & Panagopoulos (2019), he singlehandedly built a leading cable news channel that made profits amounting to billions of dollars for 21st Century Fox, the parent company. However, behind the curtain, Fox repeated covered for O’ Reilly as he contended with several allegations to do with inappropriate behavior, including sexual harassment. Dozens of women have received payouts from the company in exchange for keeping quiet about their accusations or agreeing not to file lawsuits.
The female employees who made accusations against O’ Reilly and the others either appeared on the perpetrator’s program or worked for them. They complained of being subjected to a wide range of misconduct and behavior, including lewd comments, verbal abuse, unwelcomed advances, and inappropriate touching. The complaint suggests a certain pattern. As a powerful figure in the company, a top male executive would create a bond with a female subordinate by offering advices and promises of help in climbing the corporate ladder. He would then demand a sexual relationship, often inducing fear that her career would stall if she rebuffed him.
The action taken against perpetrators of sexual harassment at Fox News is quite promising. We are living in an era of heightened awareness of inequalities within the workplace and an active resistance movement. Consumers and viewers are more inclined to demand for individual and corporate accountability for sexist misconduct. The purge at Fox News shows a promising trend in the war against sexual harassment in a workplace setting. The reaction to this scandal sheds light on how to effect real change in the way society deals with harassment, even by powerful individuals. The ethical and financial consequences of tolerating misconduct and an abusive work environment must become untenable for corporate organizations (Hebert, 2020).
The best way to curtail sexual harassment at Fox News is to encourage victims to come forward in case ...