Fox News’ indigenous macho man, Jesse Watters – who has built his professional reputation, as it were, by stalking liberals on camera, gave many of their wives, on behalf of his predatory boss Bill O’Reilly – a rhetorical slap in the face on Thursday. got face. for his recommendation that women should solve the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace by simply slapping their male harassers.
‘I would suggest that women – and I’ve had trouble saying that – hit the man in the face. And you do it right away, ” Watters said of Wednesday’s episode of The Five during a discussion of the sexual harassment and unwanted touching allegations against Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York. ‘If you wait too long, the politician feels he can keep doing it, and it does not matter if it comes out a year or three years later. Do it right away. If he is fresh. ‘
Several former Fox News women, who received monetary settlements and left the company after being targeted by harassers on the Donald Trump-friendly channel, responded to Watters’ prescription with deviant disgust.
‘The responsibility to stop harassment, primarily a man’s issue, should not fall on a woman to rectify it.”
– Gretchen Carlson, Former Fox News Host
“Women across America are very happy that Jesse Watters is giving them manslaughter,” former Fox News political analyst Julie Roginsky told The Daily Beast, “but Jesse Watters may have noticed this while working for two harassers. [late Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes and O’Reilly] that women are already at risk of professional retaliation by not going along with the desire of the harasser. ”
Roginsky – who left Fox News in 2017 after settling a lawsuit against sexual harassment and retaliation against the company, Ailes, and his deputy Bill Shine, added: ‘If the women became violent with the harasser, their career would be over. Many are bound by forced arbitrations and NDAs at the beginning of their work. They could not tell their stories. Jesse’s better suggestion is to give his fellow man the burden of not harassing women. ”
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, whose lawsuit against Ailes was challenged in July 2016 against the disgrace, agreed.
“The suggestion that women should slap their perpetrator is to victimize the victim again in the sense that they have to solve the problem they have nothing to do with,” Carlson told The Daily Beast. ‘The responsibility to stop harassment, primarily a man’s issue, should not fall on a woman to rectify it. This is similar to other excuses that women have to leave their jobs or go to another department rather than look at the real problem. This is another covert reaction rather than solving the problem. ”
In a tweet, she added“Not to mention how idiotic it is to assume that the beating of a predator would change them in some way. And that it should be up to the woman to slap instead of predatory just not to harass. ”
Watters said in an email to The Daily Beast that he was misunderstood: ‘This kind of predatory behavior must stop immediately and it is the responsibility of the harasser to stop it. My intention was to defend victims and hold inappropriate politicians accountable – any other suggestion is a misinterpretation of what I said. ‘
Other women who spoke to The Daily Beast about Watters’ remark – several of whom signed non-disclosure agreements as part of cash-strapped lawsuits – asked to remain anonymous about possible retaliation by Fox News Media or its parent company Fox Corp.
“It’s simple to say ‘just slap him in the face’, and although it may throw the woman on the short-term cheers, it will almost inevitably condemn her professional career, especially in broadcasting,” said a former personality. of Fox on the air. “If every man at Fox who made inappropriate remarks at that moment were slapped, many men with red faces would walk around the network. And unfortunately, the women would never be admitted to security again. . ‘
This woman added: ‘It is strange to see Fox take such an aggressive stance towards the Cuomo government and that he is rallying to resign. This, as Fox continues to air several hosts and contributors who have been proven to do the same if it is not worse than the accusations against Cuomo. ”
A second wife cites the 42-year-old Watters’ history of divorcing his then-wife Noelle in March 2019 after she had an extramarital affair with his 26-year-old co-producer, now wife Emma DiGiovine. The officer at their wedding in December 2019 was the then anchor of Fox News, Ed Henry, who was fired last year as a producer of Fox Business, filed a graphic case accusing Henry of sexual abuse.
” A Man [Jesse Watters] ‘who had a relationship with a much younger woman at work really has no place to tell women how to react professionally when they are abused at work,’ this person said. “Violence is not an answer. This is usually the one thing women fear most when their abusers are much bigger, heavier and stronger than them. ”
Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who has represented several Fox News prosecutors, told The Daily Beast: ‘It’s a classic rape myth that women have to use their physical strength in some way to ward off men who attack them. , while the reality is that most women panic and freeze when sexually assaulted. ”
Wednesday night was not the first time Watters has widely criticized pig-like comments about women. In April 2017, the Fox host gave a non-subtle sexual insinuation about Ivanka Trump and said in a video how she speaks at a women’s rights conference: ‘I really liked how she speaks into the microphone’, while he pointed to his mouth. and joking. The next day, Watters denied the sexual undertones before announcing a sudden ‘family vacation’.
Meanwhile, a former Fox News contributor said: ‘I’ll buy tickets to see Jesse Watters beat his former boss Bill O’Reilly. What do you say, anchorman? Are you hiding under your desk? Bill always said ‘what do you say?’ and ‘you hide under your desk’ if guests did not come to his challenge on the air to think it over with him. Jesse Watters did not have the moral courage to stand with any of the brave women of Fox News, all of whom lost their jobs after being sexually harassed where he currently works. ”
This woman added: ‘Now, in an incredible twist, he thinks of himself as the arbiter of sexual harassment. Only at Fox News could it become perverse. But what else can we expect if Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch covered up decades of sexual harassment as nothing more than a little flirting? “
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Diana Falzone was a camera and digital reporter for FoxNews.com from 2012 to 2018. In May 2017, she filed a lawsuit against the Network Against Gender Discrimination and Disabilities and left the company in March 2018. Together with Roginsky and Carlson, his is co-founder of Lift Our Voices, a non-profit organization that seeks to eradicate NDAs in the workplace that are used to conceal toxic workplace behaviors.