Former Fox News host claims that not only was she sexually harassed, but that her phone was hacked and the information used against her online.

Courtesy of NPR: 

The host, Andrea Tantaros, alleged in a previous lawsuit that she had been sexually harassed by former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes and former top-rated Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. That suit has been stayed while her complaints against the network are being heard in binding private arbitration. All defendants, through their own representatives or through Fox's parent company, 21st Century Fox, vehemently denied Tantaros' initial allegations.

In Monday's federal lawsuit, Tantaros alleges that Fox News executives including co-President Bill Shine orchestrated the use of material gathered by electronic eavesdropping that was fed to Twitter accounts acting on the network's behalf. Ensuing tweets, she says, reflected knowledge of details of intimate conversations and exchanges with family members and friends. Tantaros alleges this was done to try to undermine her resolve in challenging the network on sexual harassment.

As you may know News Corp the parent company of Fox has a long and scandalous history of tapping people's phones.

According to the lawsuit Fox was fairly nasty in how they used the stolen information:

The suit alleges a rise in offensive material on social media accounts directed toward Tantaros in early 2015, when, she says, she first notified Shine and other Fox News executives that Ailes had harassed her. 

Then in May 2016, according to the complaint, several Twitter accounts started to post material suggesting direct knowledge of her conversations.

For example, a picture of a movie about a black scorpion was posted just after she learned that a friend had been bitten by one. Another tweet invoked the idea of a memorial for Tantaros' dead brother, just after she and her mother had spoken of it; the third anniversary of his death was still a few months away. 

And at the same time that Tantaros was talking to the children of her other brother while they were at Disneyland, according to the lawsuit, a tweet on one of the accounts posted a photograph of Mickey Mouse hugging two children. 

"This is not just cyberstalking," Tantaros' lawyer, Judd Burstein, told NPR. "This is cyberstalking on steroids, because, as alleged in the complaint, they harassed her through sock-puppet social media accounts which conveyed the illegal fruits of their electronic surveillance of her. It was in essence two crimes committed at the same time."

Certainly sounds like something Fox News would do, doesn't it. 

(Similar tactics were used against me back when I reported on the Palin marriage troubles. I was not hacked I don't think, but IM was scoured for dirt and then the information was misrepresented on various right wing news outlets in a way to impugn my character. So I have seen these tactics at work.)

If the lawyer for Tantaros can make these allegations stick, I see a big payout in their future.

Former Fox News host files lawsuit claiming retaliation after accusing Roger Ailes of sexually harassing her.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Andrea Tantaros, a former Fox News host, charged in a lawsuit filed Monday that top executives at the network, including the man who replaced Roger Ailes, punished her for complaining about sexual harassment by Mr. Ailes. 

The suit by Ms. Tantaros, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, is the latest round in a contentious volley that began in late winter, when Fox claimed she had breached her employment contract by writing a book without receiving network approval. 

“Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,” Ms. Tantaros’s suit says.

Here was Tantaros's description of her experiences with Roger Ailes:  

The lawsuit goes on to say that on Aug. 12, 2014, Mr. Ailes called her into his office and asked if she was planning to marry and have children. “Ailes then started complaining about marriage in general, and also made off-color jokes about being married,” the lawsuit states. It describes Mr. Ailes as speculating on the sexual habits and preferences of 10 Fox News personalities. 

He asked Ms. Tantaros to turn around “so I can get a good look at you,” the lawsuit charges, adding that Ms. Tantaros refused. Soon after, she was moved from “The Five” to a lower-rated show, “Outnumbered,” that aired at midday.

Mr. Ailes called her back for similar sessions in December 2014 and February 2015, the lawsuit charges, and when she continued to rebuff him, she encountered hostility from the Fox News publicity department. In the February meeting, she said, Mr. Ailes talked about how she would look in a bikini, and accused her of ending a long-term relationship because she had been merely using the man. The episode brought her to tears, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also claims that Bill O'Reilly sexually harassed Tantaros as well, which I imagine is probably true of most of the women now speaking out about sexual harassment at Fox News.

I love this quote:

“Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny.”

Do you know that segment of Real Time "I don't know it for a fact, I just know it's true?"

For me this falls into that category.

I ALWAYS got the feeling that the women of Fox News were seen as nothing more than window dressing and that they were either being sexually harassed constantly or that they were in fact trading sexual favors to further their careers.

I didn't know it for a fact, I just knew it was true.

Now if you will excuse me I have to take another one of those "covering sexual harassment at Fox News hot showers" to cleanse myself.