Fox News, a popular American cable news network, is facing two new lawsuits filed by Abby Grossberg, a senior producer for Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo.
The lawsuits are related to the Dominion defamation case, in which Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for promoting baseless claims that the company’s voting machines had a hand in stealing the 2020 presidential election from then-president Donald Trump.
Grossberg alleges that Fox News set her up to be blamed for the lies that were promoted in relation to the false narrative that the election had been stolen.
Background of the Dominion Defamation Case
Dominion Voting Systems filed a lawsuit against Fox News for $1.6 billion for promoting baseless claims that the company’s voting machines had a hand in stealing the 2020 presidential election from then-president Donald Trump.
Dominion alleged that Fox News knowingly promoted false information and did so to gain higher ratings.
The lawsuit was filed in Delaware and New York.
Abby Grossberg’s Allegations
Abby Grossberg was a senior booking producer for Maria Bartiromo during the November 2020 elections, when Bartiromo actively promoted the false narrative that the 2020 election had been rigged against Trump and repeatedly welcomed on-air guests who peddled conspiracy theories related to the matter.
One such guest was Sidney Powell, a prominent Trump ally who filed lawsuits alleging massive misconduct in the 2020 presidential election.
Grossberg alleges in her lawsuits that “Fox News Attorneys acted as agents and at the behest of Fox News to misleadingly coach, manipulate, and coerce” her to give misleading testimony to protect on-air talent, executives, and Fox Corporation.
She claims that Fox’s legal team reacted positively to her giving “misleading and evasive answers” instead of what she really felt and that by doing so, she unwittingly was shifting responsibility away from higher-ups and the network and onto herself. As well, as opening herself up to civil and criminal liability for perjury.
Grossberg also alleges that she was not allowed to review and correct the transcripts of her deposition shortly after, but instead only once she had been cited in Dominion’s legal briefs.
She has been placed on forced administrative leave from her job according to her lawyer.
Grossberg’s legal filings also dished out allegations of rampant sexism and misogyny at the network.
When she went to work for Carlson, Fox’s top prime-time host and one of the defendants in the New York lawsuit, she accuses him and other male superiors of making derogatory comments about women including Bartiromo and another female host, Jeanine Pirro.
One of the alleged examples of the misogyny included images of the then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage” posted around the workplace.
Another was a poll on two separate occasions of staffers on which of candidates for Michigan governor, both female, they thought were hotter and would rather have sex with.
Aiva Arthur
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