Ed Henry, one among its prime information anchors, had been fired after the community obtained a grievance final week of sexual harassment from years in the past.
“On Thursday, June 25, we obtained a grievance about Ed Henry from a former worker‘s lawyer involving willful sexual misconduct within the office years in the past,” Fox Information chief government Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace wrote in an e-mail to workers.
Scott and Wallace stated that Henry was “suspended the identical day and faraway from his on-air tasks” whereas a third-party legislation agency investigated the matter.
“Primarily based on investigative findings, Ed has been terminated,” they stated.
Scott and Wallace stated that “rotating anchors” will fill in for Henry, who served as co-anchor of the channel’s morning present “America’s Newsroom,” till a everlasting alternative is known as.
“Fox Information Media strictly prohibits all types of sexual harassment, misconduct, and discrimination,” Scott and Wallace stated. “We’ll proceed striving to keep up a secure and inclusive office for all workers.”
Henry didn’t reply to requests for remark, however on Wednesday afternoon his lawyer Catherine Foti stated he intends to clear his title.
“Ed Henry denies the allegations referenced within the Fox announcement and is assured that he can be vindicated after a full listening to in an acceptable discussion board,” Foti stated.
The high-profile lawyer Douglas Wigdor, who has represented a number of ladies who’ve filed lawsuits in opposition to Fox Information, stated in an announcement Wednesday morning that he’s representing Henry’s accuser. Wigdor stated that he wasn’t “presently at liberty to share additional info.”
Information of Henry’s swift firing surprised Fox Information workers who realized of the sudden termination over e-mail, folks on the community instructed CNN Enterprise.
Henry joined Fox in 2011 after seven years at CNN. He coated the Obama administration as Fox’s chief White Home correspondent. He later helmed a lot of the community‘s protection of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 marketing campaign.
He was sidelined in spring 2016, nevertheless, following a tabloid journal‘s report about an extramarital affair. Salacious tales led the community‘s CEO on the time, Roger Ailes, to publicly rebuke him, saying “this raises severe questions on Ed’s lack of judgment, particularly given his place as a journalist.”
Henry finally labored his method again into Fox’s good graces. He stuffed in on pro-Trump opinion exhibits like “Fox & Associates Weekend” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” successful the affections of Fox viewers.
His 2019 choice to donate a part of his liver to avoid wasting his sister Colleen’s life was chronicled throughout Fox’s exhibits. Each siblings recovered, and Henry wrote a memoir in regards to the expertise, which was due out in September. A spokesperson for writer William Morrow, nevertheless, stated Wednesday that the writer would “not be publishing” Henry’s guide.
Henry was a favourite of community administration. Final winter he was promoted to co-anchor the 9, 10 and 11 a.m. Japanese hours with Sandra Smith on “America’s Newsroom.”
Smith briefly addressed the firing on the present Wednesday morning, telling viewers that Henry had been terminated and that Scott and Wallace addressed workers in an inside memo to “deliver full transparency” to the matter.
Fox Information has labored to reform its tradition in recent times after having confronted high-profile allegations of sexual harassment and assault. Months after Henry was sidelined, Ailes was compelled out of Fox Information after quite a few ladies got here ahead and accused him of sexual harassment and assault. The scandal uncovered deep-rooted cultural issues at Fox, sparked quite a few lawsuits and led the Murdochs to make sweeping adjustments.
Invoice O’Reilly, as soon as the community‘s prime star, was compelled out of the community lower than a yr later after dealing with allegations of sexual harassment, which he additionally denied.
Because the scandals, Scott and Wallace have emphasised that the company tradition had been cleaned up.
