https://twitter.com/aubrey_huff/status/1285382727613571073?s=20

WashingtonTimes.com reports that

Fox News Channel stars Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Howard Kurtz were accused of sexual harassment by a frequent on-air guest in a lawsuit filed Monday that the network called frivolous and untrue.

In the same case, a former Fox employee said she was harassed and raped by news anchor Ed Henry, who was fired July 1 shortly after the network became aware of the accusations.

Henry’s lawyer, Catherine Foti, said Monday that her client’s accuser, Jennifer Eckhart, initiated and encouraged a sexual relationship.

Hannity and Carlson represent two-thirds of Fox’s lucrative prime-time lineup, while Kurtz hosts the weekend “Media Buzz” show. None of the men have been mentioned before in any misconduct allegations at Fox until the charges were made by Cathy Areu.

The lawsuit filed in New York describes Areu’s discomfort with a March 2018 incident on the set of Hannity’s show where the host allegedly put $100 on a desk and challenged the men on his staff to take her out on a date.

She said she was a guest on Carlson’s show in December 2018 and that after it was over, he told her he was staying in a hotel room in New York that night without his wife and children. In 2019, she said Kurtz invited her to his hotel room to discuss her hope of getting a full-time job at Fox. When she instead invited him to dinner with her and a friend, he declined, she said.

In the cases of Carlson and Kurtz, Areu believed the men were making sexual advances, the lawsuit said. Areu said she was also propositioned by Gianno Caldwell, a Fox contributor.

This sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Well, there’s always two sides to every story…

Fox News spokesperson Jessica Ketner issued a statement to Heavy.com. It said:

Based on the findings of a comprehensive independent investigation conducted by an outside law firm, including interviews with numerous eyewitnesses, we have determined that all of Cathy Areu’s claims against FOX News, including its management as well as its hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity & Howard Kurtz and its contributor Gianno Caldwell, are false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.

We take all claims of harassment, misconduct and retaliation seriously, promptly investigating them and taking immediate action as needed — in this case, the appropriate action based on our investigation is to defend vigorously against these baseless allegations. Ms. Areu and Jennifer Eckhart can pursue their claims against Ed Henry directly with him, as FOX News already took swift action as soon as it learned of Ms. Eckhart’s claims on June 25 and Mr. Henry is no longer employed by the network.

Henry tweeted, “I will fight with every fiber of my being.” He also released a statement from his attorney, Cathy Foti, denying the accusations and saying he was in a consensual relationship with Eckhart:

The MeToo movement has helped to bring to light a number of injustices in our society, and everyone that has suffered deserves to be heard. This is not one of those cases. The evidence in this case will demonstrate that Ms. Eckhart initiated and completely encouraged a consensual relationship. Ed Henry looks forward to presenting actual facts and evidence, which will contradict the fictional accounts contained in the complaint. That evidence includes graphic photos and other aggressively suggestive communications that Ms. Eckhart sent to Mr. Henry.

Okay, we are all very familiar with the accused.

What do we know about the accusers?

Per her LinkedIn.com Profile Page,

Jennifer Eckhart is a female powerhouse in the media industry who bridges the gap between producing and being an on-air personality. Jennifer joined the Fox News team in January 2013, and is frequently featured on Fox programming, including Fox News Radio & Fox Nation. She also produces one of the top rated business shows in America, “Countdown to the Closing Bell.”

..Jennifer’s proudest achievement, however, is giving some of the youngest and brightest entrepreneurs aiming to disrupt entire industries a chance at the national spotlight.

Before joining Fox News, Jennifer was as a correspondent for ESPN Radio where she hosted the 2011 ESPN College Football Awards live from the red carpet in Orlando, FL. Jennifer also served as an Entertainment Anchor for WUFT-TV, a PBS affiliate in Gainesville, Florida.

In her personal life, she is dating a corporate lawyer and has an Instragram Page under a very interesting non de plume: “aho 187″.

Don’t ask me to spell that out for you. I am too much of a gentleman for that.

According to Cathy Areu’s Instragram Profile, she listed as a Journalist, a Former Washington Post Contributing Editor, CATALINA Founder, host of “Liberal Sherpa” & “Catalina” podcasts, and she did Op-Ed’s on Fox News.

CATALINA is a magazine for Latina Women.

Areu is known as a Liberal Political Activist.

Now, I am no lawyer but my almost 40 years of experience working in corporations tells me a couple of things:

Concerning Ms. Eckhart’s claims, Fox did not want take the chance that it might be true, so they got rid of Ed Henry for safety’s sake.

Second, their sticking behind Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity tells me that they believe what their spoekesperson wrote: that her stories are a bunch of garbage.

Not to be insensitive, but…

If you are going to file rape and sexual coercion charges against someone, you probably should have changed your Instragram handle proclaiming yourself to be “aho”.

Otherwise, the public will think you and you associate are going after these men for the sake of fame, money, and politics.

I’m just sayin”.

Until He Comes,

KJ