Fox News’ Laura Ingraham came out in defense of PBS host Tavis Smiley on Thursday. Smiley is facing accusations of sexual misconduct and was suspended by PBS on Wednesday. He has denied the accusations and maintained his innocence.
“I think he is telling the truth,” said Ingraham. “I know Tavis Smiley a little bit. I have known him, casual friend for like 20 years.”
In a defiant statement on social media, Smiley lashed out at his employer, explicitly refuting the allegations and blasting PBS for what he said was a sloppy investigation.
“I have the utmost respect for all women and I certainly celebrate the courage of those women who have come forth of late to share their own truth, but let me also assure you that I have never groped, inappropriately exposed myself or coerced any colleague ever in my 30 year career,” said Smiley in a defiant statement posted to Twitter. “It is clear that this has gone too far and I, for one, intend to fight back.”
PBS, however, stood by their decision in a statement of their own on Thursday.
“Following receipt of a complaint, PBS hired an independent law firm to conduct an investigation and we stand by its integrity,” a network spokesperson said. “The totality of the investigation, which included Mr. Smiley, revealed a pattern of multiple relationships with subordinates over many years, and other conduct inconsistent with the values and standards of PBS.”
Ingraham said she was concerned that careers like Smiley’s and former New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza’s were being ruined too swiftly and entirely on the basis of anonymous allegations.
The Fox News host has increasingly staked herself against the rising tide of the #MeToo movement. In addition to Smiley, she raised eyebrows by defending Democratic Sen. Al Franken.
“Be wary of the lynch mob that you join today because tomorrow it could be coming for your husband, your brother, your son and yes, even your president,” she warned shortly before Franken announced his resignation last week.
Fox News' Jesse Watters: His 10 Most Offensive Moments (Videos)
Shortly after O'Reilly was ousted from Fox News, Watters took his own vacation from the network after coming under fire for making a comment about First Daughter Ivanka Trump, which some interpreted as inappropriate sexual innuendo.
Watters' recurring segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" involved sending the host out to various events and locations across the country for man-on-the-street style interviews that mock various cultural subgroups in their own communities. In a 2016 segment, Watters went after Italian Americans at the Feast of San Gennaro festival.
One of Watters' most controversial segments came in the form of a 2016 venture into New York's Chinatown. In the heavily criticized piece, Watters turned his signature schtick on Chinese Americans, resulting in a blatantly racist segment that played on Asian stereotypes and openly mocked its subjects.
Watters' October 2016 venture to the Amish community in Pennsylvania was turned into one recurring punchline -- over the fact that the Amish don't vote or pay much attention to presidential politics. "Lucky you," he tells several people.
In 2007, O'Reilly sent Watters to ambush Bill Moyers in the street after the PBS host released a documentary criticizing the Bush administration for the Iraq War. Bill O'Reilly would later go on to call that segment a contributing factor in Moyers' decision to retire.
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In 2015, Watters went to Penn Station to criticize the "rise of homelessness" in New York City, pointedly asking those sleeping at the station about their drug habits and what they did to make money on the streets.
On the anniversary of 9/11, Watters went to a convention for Muslim Americans to ask them about terrorism and Islamic radicals. When a woman criticized the media for linking terrorism to the Islamic religion, Watters and O'Reilly both balked at the suggestion that "Christian terrorism" could even exist.
In 2009, Amanda Terkel, then the managing editor of Think Progress, wrote a column in which she said she was "followed, harassed, and ambushed" by Watters while on vacation after she ran a column criticizing Bill O'Reilly for his comments toward rape survivors.
Watters was caught on video getting into a fight at the 2016 White House Correspondents' Dinner afterparty with The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim. It was later reported that Grim approached Watters with a camera asking him to apologize to Terkel for his behavior in 2009.
O'Reilly sent Watters to Philadelphia for a tone-deaf segment about racism in which he mocked the Black Lives Matter movement, criticized political correctness and generally failed to elevate the conversation surrounding race relations in America.
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Shortly after O'Reilly was ousted from Fox News, Watters took his own vacation from the network after coming under fire for making a comment about First Daughter Ivanka Trump, which some interpreted as inappropriate sexual innuendo.
