Ex-Fox News anchorwoman Andrea Tantaros is bringing new accusations of workplace harassment against the network, accusing former chairman Roger Ailes of secretly taping female employees while they undressed.
In an amended complaint filed on Monday, Tantaros said that on-air women had to attend a biannual trunk show held by the network’s wardrobe department. Tantaros, who is now representing herself in a lawsuit initially filed last April, claims Ailes used the event as an opportunity to covertly film female talent.
“The dresses were pre-selected for the women by the wardrobe department before their arrival; pants were not an option,” said the updated complaint. “Upon information and belief, Ailes was recording female employees disrobe without their consent in their offices and during the bi-annual trunk show.”
The complaint refers to Fox News a “cutthroat cult rife with rampant harassment, misogyny, and bullying.”
The network, according to the complaint, spent millions of dollars on surveillance measures, aiming to crackdown on anyone who “challenged the Fox News regime.” The complaint describes a “Black Room” operated as the company’s control tower and alleges that it was used at one point used to monitor a Vanity Fair columnist who was writing a critical story on Rush Limbaugh.
“Fox News is a company that isn’t afraid to spy, hack, bully or weaponize any tool or method at its disposal,” added the complaint.
Fox News told TheWrap in a statement: “Fox News moved for sanctions against the lawyer who filed Andrea Tantaros’ original lawsuit and he has since withdrawn. None of the four lawyers currently representing Tantaros in the action signed her new complaint, which she purports to have written herself. Her outlandish claims lack any factual basis.”
Monday’s filing was the latest in an ongoing legal saga between Tantaros and Fox News. Her initial lawsuit, filed in August 2016, was thrown out under the terms of her employment contract. Then last year, Tantaros filed a second federal lawsuit, accusing the company of hacking her computer and stalking her on social media.
Fox News fired back, saying her claims were “works of fiction.”
In her latest claim, the former “The Five” host said “highly sexual or grossly offensive posts” were sent to her after calling out the news giant. Fox News has since been complicit in spreading damaging photos of her, said the complaint.
“A simple Google search will pull up manipulated images of Tantaros or photos of overweight or out of shape women who are not Ms. Tantaros, nor do they look anything like Tantaros, but the photos are deliberately tagged with her name,” said the complaint. “Upon information and belief, these photoshopped images and pictures were posted and circulated by Fox News, but can only be exposed during a rigorous discovery process of the Murdoch media medusa, much like the genesis of the sock puppetry and fake websites.”