How Gretchen Carlson Took On the Chief of Fox News

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Photo Gretchen Carlson was let go from Fox News after 11 years. The company cited disappointingly low ratings. Credit Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/Stockland Martel

On June 21, Gretchen Carlson devoted the closing minutes of her afternoon Fox News show, The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson, to discussion of a milestone: She turned 50 that day.

I know, normally folks on TV wouldnt readily admit their age, but since theres nothing you can do about it, you might as well own it and be happy, she said with a laugh. And, boy, do I have so much to be grateful for.

Two days later, she was summoned to a postshow meeting with a Fox News executive and told that, after 11 years at the network, her contract was not being renewed. The meeting took less than a minute, according to her lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith.

On Wednesday, Ms. Carlson sent shock waves through the media world when she filed a lawsuit against the powerful Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, accusing him, among other things, of sexual harassment and sexism. The news channels parent company, 21st Century Fox, said that it was conducting an internal review of the matter.

Mr. Ailes denied the charges, and said that the disappointingly low ratings for Ms. Carlsons show was the reason she was let go.

When Fox News did not commence any negotiations to renew her contract, Ms. Carlson became aware that her career with the network was likely over and conveniently began to pursue a lawsuit, he said in a statement.

Though a prominent personality at Fox for many years, Ms. Carlson does not have the star power at the network of Megyn Kelly or Bill OReilly. But within minutes of the lawsuit going public, Ms. Carlson became a person of enormous interest in the world of television news.

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Ms. Carlson, the Fox anchor, says that Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, fired her from the network after she refused his sexual advances.

Ms. Carlson grew up in Anoka, Minn., where the future Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was one of her childhood nannies. She attended Stanford University, studying organizational behavior, though she did spend a year abroad at Oxford University focusing on the work of Virginia Woolf, Ms. Smith said. Before her senior year, she became a contestant in the Miss America beauty pageant, which she won in 1988.

A trained violinist, Ms. Carlson was proud of her achievement, saying her victory proved the pageant was as interested in a contestants intelligence as her looks.

It shows that Im not a bimbo, that I do have intelligence and that I do represent what every woman wants to be in this society, which is a career woman, and be respected for her intelligence, she said in January 1989.

After graduating from Stanford, she worked for several local TV stations before becoming the host of the Saturday edition of CBSs third-place morning show, The Early Show, in 2002.

She was very, very serious and competent and ambitious about doing journalism the way CBS News was known for, Victor Neufeld, an executive producer of The Early Show, said on Wednesday.

She joined Fox News morning show Fox and Friends, in 2006, co-hosting it for eight years.

In 2009, Jon Stewart devoted a segment of The Daily Show to Ms. Carlson, showing clips of her saying she had to Google words like czar and ignoramus to learn their definitions. Mr. Stewart then detailed her stellar educational background, accused her of playing dumb for Foxs audience and said, You dont have to stash your I.Q. in an offshore account.

Ms. Carlson is married to Casey Close, a sports agent known for his tough negotiating style, and a roster of clients that includes Derek Jeter. The couple have two children.

She has been upfront in discussing matters of sexism in the workplace.

In September 2013, shortly after she was removed from Fox and Friends, she appeared on the Fox News Radio show of her former co-host Brian Kilmeade and noted that she was dressed casually. The morning show, she said, had a strict rule: She could not wear pants on air.

The year before, Ms. Carlson walked off the set of Fox and Friends in apparent protest when Mr. Kilmeade made a disparaging comment about women. (She later said she was joking.)

And last year Ms. Carlson wrote about sexual harassment for The Huffington Post.

Most professional women I know have experienced sexual harassment, she wrote. So have I a few times and I never talked about it until now. If that seems surprising, it shouldnt be. Ive always considered myself a strong woman, not afraid to stand up for myself, but in the face of sexual harassment I was silent.

As the issue takes a prominent place in the headlines today, I sometimes feel guilty about my trepidation, Ms. Carlson continued. Perhaps I could have moved the conversation forward if I had come forth.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/business/media/gretchen-carlson-files-s*x-harassment-suit-against-roger-ailes-of-fox-news.html