Monday, August 1, 2016

Ex-Fox Booker Alleges Ailes Harassed Her For 20-Years

Laurie Luhn
New allegations surrounding the behavior of former Fox News  Channel CEO Roger Ailes suggest he had a relationship with a subordinate for years while running the 21st Century Fox-owned cable-news outlet, and that some senior executives at the network may have helped him manage it.

The report, posted Friday by New York magazine, alleges that Ailes continued a sexual relationship with Laurie Luhn, a woman he had begun an association with prior to his employment at Fox News, and gave her various jobs at the network involving booking and event planning. Ailes left the network earlier this month in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment leveled at him by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson in a lawsuit filed in New Jersey and after the network’s parent company opened an internal review to look into the matter.

Variety reports Ailes has denied Carlson’s allegations.  In the New York report, Luhn said she had been involved with Ailes for more than two decades and also tried to lure other women to be propositioned by the executive.

Luhn told New York that she agreed to Ailes’ requests for many years, in exchange for help with her career and for money and jobs. During her time at Fox News, she earned as much as $250,000 a year, the magazine reported, while Ailes protected her from other employees who took a dim view of her presence. In 2011, she received a $3.15 million severance agreement from Fox with strong non-disclosure clauses, the magazine said.

The allegations in the article are shocking and lurid. According to Luhn’s account, she met Ailes in 1988 when she was 28 and he was nearly 50. Fox News Channel would launch in 1996. Her sexual encounters began in 1991, she told New York. In one detailed recollection of an encounter she had with the executive early on in their relationship, she recalled dancing for him in a private room after putting on a black garter and stockings.

Luhn likened her experience with Ailes to “psychological torture,” New York reported.”He’s a predator,” she added.

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