Producer sues Fox News for 'coaching' her to 'shift blame' in Dominion defamation lawsuit: report

21 March 2023

Attorneys for Fox News continue to fight a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which alleges that it was defamed when the right-wing cable news outlet promoted the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that Dominion's voting equipment was used to help President Joe Biden steal votes from former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Now, Fox News is being sued by one of its own employees: producer Abby Grossberg.

According to Washington Post reporters Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, Grossberg is "alleging that" attorneys for Fox News "coached her to shift blame for programming decisions around the airing of Trump allies' false claims of election fraud."

In an article published on March 21, Ellison and Barr explain, "The lawsuit from producer Abby Grossberg came late Monday, (March 20) hours after Fox sought a restraining order to keep her from disclosing in-house legal discussions. In the federal civil suit, which her lawyer says was filed in the Southern District of New York, Grossberg alleges that she was 'isolated, overworked, undervalued, denied opportunities for promotion, and generally treated significantly worse than her male counterparts, even when those men were less qualified than her,' and that she was retaliated against after she complained."

In her lawsuit, Grossberg also alleges that Fox News subjected her to "vile sexist stereotypes." The lawsuit, according to Ellison and Barr, "describes a male senior producer scolding her for sharing too much information with Maria Bartiromo, the popular opinion host for whom they both worked at the time."

The reporters note, "The senior producer and another male executive described the host in terms such as 'menopausal,' 'hysterical' and 'a diva,' Grossberg alleged…. Grossberg's account of a sexist environment at Fox News echoes stories shared by several female employees in 2016 and 2017, when powerful network co-founder Roger Ailes and prime-time star Bill O’Reilly were forced out by allegations of sexual harassment. But it is the producer's allegations that Fox lawyers 'coerced, intimidated, and misinformed' her as they prepped her to testify in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network that are poised to further complicate that roiling legal battle."

Read the Washington Post’s full report at this link.

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