Report: Fox News Settles Discrimination Lawsuits

Kelly Wright

Attempting to put to rest a drama that has plagued Fox News since the summer of 2016, the network’s parent company has reached a roughly $10 million settlement to resolve a group of racial and gender discrimination lawsuits involving 18 current and former employees, according to a document viewed by The New York Times and three people briefed on the deal.

None of the lawsuits included in the settlement had to do with sexual harassment allegations.

The settlements reached by 21st Century Fox include the class action racial discrimination lawsuit filed last year by the anchor Kelly Wright and several employees in the Fox News accounting department. Their lawsuit said that they had repeatedly complained about “abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination” to network executives but that no action was taken and that the inappropriate behavior continued.

Also included in the settlement were the race, gender and pregnancy discrimination lawsuit brought in 2016 by a former reporter for Fox 5, the network’s New York affiliate, and a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a Fox News Radio reporter.

According to the document viewed by The Times, terms of the deal included that the employees would agree to drop their claims, leave the network and not seek future employment at Fox News or other 21st Century Fox companies. The settlement specifically included a buyout of Mr. Wright’s contract with Fox News, where he was the only black male anchor.

Fox News has denied the allegations made in the various suits.