In the wake of Gretchen Carlson’s settlement with Fox News over her sexual harassment claims against Roger Ailes, many Fox News employees, both past and present, have voiced their regret for supporting Ailes. Greta Van Susteren, who recently left the network after 14 years, is one of the loudest voices that regrets standing in the former Fox News head’s corner.
Van Susteren was one of the first Fox employees to go to bat for Ailes. The veteran anchor was initially critical of Carlson’s suit, feeling there were a few holes in her case and believing that Ailes was overall a good guy and she didn’t like it when people were “falsely accused or wronged”. But after reading Geraldo Rivera’s remorseful Facebook post, she penned her own on Facebook stating she also regretted not believing Carlson’s claims:
“We all regret it…That said it all. It is indeed true, when I read the complaint written by lawyers – I never spoke to Gretchen as she was long gone from Fox – I found it inconsistent with what was my experience and information at the Fox News Channel, admittedly working 200 miles from the ‘scene of the crimes.’ It was hidden from all of us.”
Van Susteren made a shocking exit from Fox News earlier this month, after being with the network for 14 years. She had a provision in her contract that would allow her to leave if Ailes did, so her recent comments are a bit of surprise. In her statement, she poses concerns and wishes that Ailes was supervised a bit more and denouncing his behavior:
“I regret that Roger Ailes was not supervised by those in a public corporation who had the duty to supervise him. This included his seniors, the CFO’s of both Fox News Channel and 21CF (and its predecessor NewsCorp), the Board of Directors and what I assume this public corporation had, outside auditors. Checks written that were suspicious should have been spotted.”
You can read Van Susteren’s full apology below. You can sense a lot of regret in the post, especially coming from a position where she was not in the thick of Ailes’ actions and couldn’t witness it firsthand. She was the first Fox News personality to bolt the network after Ailes departure and it will be interesting to see if anyone else follows suit:
(Via Deadline / Greta Van Susteren)