There’s burning bridges, and then there’s throwing napalm on the field and salting the earth.
It looks like former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson wants to sever all previous ties with her network and her colleagues. And, boy, does she mean business.
After the fallout from the firing of Matt Lauer from NBC due to sexual harassment and other unseemly behavior, many media figures have spoken out about Lauer, some positive, others negative.
Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera was one of the few TV anchors who offered a quasi-defense of Lauer over Twitter. Here’s what he said:
Sad about @MLauer great guy, highly skilled & empathetic w guests & a real gentleman to my family & me. News is a flirty business & it seems like current epidemic of #SexHarassmentAllegations may be criminalizing courtship & conflating it w predation. What about #GarrisonKeillor?
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 29, 2017
Rivera was roundly criticized for his remarks, which borderline justified harassment in the newsroom, and later apologized:
Reaction to my tweets today on #sexharassment makes clear
I didn't sufficiently explain that this is a horrendous problem
long hidden-Harassers are deviants who deserve what is coming
to them-Often victims are too frightened to come
forward in a timely fashion-I humbly apologize— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 30, 2017
Gretchen wasn’t satisfied with that response, and issued a blistering message of her own:
nobody needed you to explain that sexual harassment is “a horrendous problem” thanks https://t.co/JGozWndfBe
— Gretchen Carlson (@GretchenCarlson) November 30, 2017
Whoa! Talk about a smackdown!
It’s definitely true that nobody in their right mind heard about Matt Lauer and suddenly thought, “Hey, what does Geraldo Rivera think about this? Maybe he saw sexual harassment taking place in Al Capone’s vault?”
All kidding aside, that was one shot Gretchen threw at a former colleague over the whole sordid business of sexual harassment.
She wasn’t done there, though. Former Fox megastar Bill O’Reilly weighed in on the affair over Twitter:
How should fair-minded Americans think about the constant allegations of bad behavior by powerful men? A special report on The No Spin News tonight. Please check it out on https://t.co/rryWmyXe7C
— Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) November 30, 2017
Gretchen wasn’t letting that fly either. She had even harsher words for the former host of the No Spin Zone:
Will this finally be when u explain why u paid #32million ?? https://t.co/MPNo8MfW5b
— Gretchen Carlson (@GretchenCarlson) November 30, 2017
Yikes!
Gretchen is, of course, referencing the millions of dollars Fox shelled out to quiet sexual harassment cases against O’Reilly over the years. Those same cases saw O’Reilly lose his prominent position as the head of Fox’s evening news lineup earlier this year.
Carlson clearly doesn’t have any future plans of patching things up with Fox or her former colleagues. It’s obvious at this point that she’s done with Fox News.
What do you think? Was it smart for Gretchen to call out Geraldo and Bill like this? Tell us what you think below in the comment section!
