Fox News host Sean Hannity made 'uncomfortable' advances, former guest says
Hannity says there is a 'co-ordinated effort' to silence conservatives
A former Fox News guest says host Sean Hannity made her feel "uncomfortable" by repeatedly asking her to his hotel while on assignment more than a decade ago, and said she stopped appearing on the host's show soon after refusing to meet him.
But Debbie Schlussel said Monday she doesn't believe that Hannity's behaviour constituted sexual harassment, clarifying remarks she made last week on an Oklahoma radio show.
Hannity responded to Friday's radio interview with KFAQ by saying Schlussel's account is "100 per cent false and a complete fabrication."
He is the latest Fox News personality to be accused of similar behaviour — on the heels of show host Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes, former chairman and CEO of the network.
The accusations have cost Fox News dearly in both reputation and money. O'Reilly is expected to get a payout of up to $25 million US following his ouster, while Ailes received a package of approximately $40 million when he was forced out in July. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.
KFAQ host Pat Campbell asked Schlussel if anyone at Fox News ever made her "uncomfortable" or made "sexual advances." She responded by saying she declined Hannity's repeated requests to come to his hotel with him while he was in Detroit for a broadcast of his show more than a decade ago.
She said it was made clear to her after the program that she "wouldn't be back on his show." She says she made two more appearances on Fox after that, one on Hannity's show.
Schlussel appeared on a Hannity & Colmes broadcast from Detroit in Sept. 2002. She appeared on the show again eight months later in May 2003.
She told The Associated Press on Monday that her description of the Detroit incident was true, but that the behaviour didn't rise to sexual harassment. She says she believes she was "blackballed" from the channel by Hannity.
Accuser a 'serial harasser,' says Hannity
Fox News deferred to Hannity's statement when asked for comment.
In a statement to the New York Daily News, Hannity called Schlussel a "serial harasser who has been lying about me for well over a decade." He also accused her of trying to "slander, smear and besmirch" his reputation.
"The individual has not just slandered me over the years but many people who this individual disagrees with," Hannity told the New York Daily News. "This individual desperately seeks attention by any means necessary, including making unfounded personal attacks and using indefensible and outrageous political rhetoric."
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He also said that he will take legal action against Schlussel.
"My patience with this individual is over. I have retained a team of some of the finest and toughest lawyers in the country who are now in the process of laying out the legal course of action we will be taking against this individual," he said.
"In this fiercely divided and vindictive political climate, I will no longer allow slander and lies about me to go unchallenged, as I see a co-ordinated effort afoot to now silence those with conservative views."
Schlussel didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Hannity's statement.
New allegations against Ailes
Schlussel's remarks about Hannity comes as television journalist Alisyn Camerota said she was a target of sexual harassment by Roger Ailes when she worked at Fox News.
She joins other former colleagues at the cable channel who have accused their ex-boss of inappropriate behaviour.
Camerota, now co-host of CNN's New Day, told that network's Brian Stelter in an interview Sunday that Ailes suggested they might have to get to "know each other better" at a hotel if she wanted to succeed at Fox News.
"I knew in my head at that moment, I'm never going to that hotel under any circumstances, but I didn't know what that meant for me or my career," she said. "I remember thinking, 'Is this it?'"
In the interview with Stelter, Camerota expanded on comments she made last week on her own show, when she said she had experienced "emotional harassment" at Fox and the culture at the network made it impossible to stop.
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"Mr. Ailes never engaged in the inappropriate conversations she now claims occurred, and he vigorously denies this fictional account of her interactions with him and of Fox News editorial policy," said Ailes's lawyer, Susan Estrich, of Camerota's allegations.
Estrich also pointed out that Camerota thanked Ailes in a 2014 statement when she left Fox News, saying she was "honoured to have his mentorship and guidance now and in the future."
Camerota, who worked at Fox News for 16 years, told Stelter that Ailes frequently directed inappropriate comments to female employees about body parts and made remarks such as, "Give me a spin."
"Roger Ailes could be charming, he could be quite charismatic, he could be uproariously funny," she said. "He could also be a bit of a bully and mean, and he also was often kind of grossly inappropriate with things that he would say."
Camerota said the conversation in which Ailes suggested they spend time together at a hotel came early in her career, when she was seeking advice on how to advance at Fox.
She said she chose to pretend it never happened, partly out of embarrassment.
"I think there was a lot of suffering in silence," she said.
O'Reilly returns
The fresh remarks by Camerota and Schlussel came just days after Fox's parent company Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. severed ties with its biggest star, Bill O'Reilly, over sexual harassment claims.
His show, The O'Reilly Factor, began losing advertisers in the wake of a New York Times report that Fox News had paid $13 million to five women to settle harassment allegations against him.
On Monday, O'Reilly will air a new episode of his No Spin News podcast, after many wondered what the future would hold for him after spending two decades as the linchpin of Fox News' success as the channel's most visible and most-watched host.
With files from Reuters and CBC News.