Media Fox News Tucker Carlson Producer Settlement

A person walks past the Fox News Headquarters in New York on April 12. Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press, file

Fox News has settled a lawsuit filed by former producer Abby Grossberg, who had accused the network of tolerating a hostile work environment while she worked as a booker on Tucker Carlson’s show, for $12 million.

“While I stand by my publicly filed claims and allegations, in light of today’s settlement … under which I have now withdrawn those claims, I am heartened that Fox News has taken me and my legal claims seriously,” Grossberg said in a statement Friday afternoon. “I am hopeful, based on our discussions with Fox News today, that this resolution represents a positive step by the network regarding its treatment of women and minorities in the workplace.”

By settling Grossberg’s New York-based lawsuit – after the network fired Carlson in April – Fox avoids another legal battle that could have shed more light on the company’s office culture. Grossberg’s account of a sexist environment at Fox News echoed stories shared by several female employees in 2016 and 2017 when powerful network co-founder Roger Ailes and prime-time star Bill O’Reilly were forced out by allegations of sexual harassment.

Grossberg filed a separate suit against Fox in March in Delaware, accusing the network’s lawyers of coaching her ahead of her deposition in a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems over Fox’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election. But Grossberg dropped that suit in May, and Fox ultimately settled the Dominion case for a staggering $787.5 million, avoiding a jury trial.

“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” a Fox News spokesperson said Friday afternoon.

Grossberg’s discrimination suit made claims of an “overtly misogynistic” environment on Carlson’s production team, which she joined in September 2022, where “the staff’s distaste and disdain for women infiltrated almost every workday decision.”

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She claimed that when she first started working for Carlson, she found the office plastered with large images of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage.” She also alleged that male colleagues openly critiqued the looks and sex appeal of prominent female politicians as well as their female co-workers and that an executive asked her “uncomfortable” questions about the sex life of Fox host Maria Bartiromo, who was her boss at the time.

Fox said that Grossberg’s claims were “riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees” and fired her, accusing her of revealing protected information about Fox’s legal process in her Dominion-focused lawsuit.

Grossberg’s lawyer, Parisis G. Filippatos, said on Friday that he had been looking forward to litigating the case. “It has been the honor of my career to serve as Abby’s attorney over the past year – a more courageous and honest person, skilled and devoted journalist, and fierce advocate for justice I have never met,” he said in a statement.

Grossberg had emerged as a prominent critic of Fox after filing her suits, appearing on NBC News and MSNBC. She called Fox News “a big corporate machine that destroys people.” When Carlson was fired by Fox News on April 24, Grossberg said on Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show that “there is a feeling of justice, but it’s only partial.”

Grossberg was subpoenaed by Dominion last year to discuss her work as a producer on televised segments in which Bartiromo and guests discussed far-fetched and unproven claims of election fraud. But in her deposition prep sessions, the producer claimed, Fox lawyers “were displeased with her being too candid” and took extra time “to make sure she got her story straight and in line with [Fox’s] position.”

Sarah Ellison contributed to this report.

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