Former Anchor Sues FOX News

Former Fox News anchor Ed Henry sued the cable channel Wednesday, accusing his former employer of defaming him in a statement the company issued after it fired him last year following a sexual misconduct investigation, reports The Wall Street Journal.

In his 23-page lawsuit, Mr. Henry claimed that Fox News and Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott lent credence to false allegations of sexual misconduct against him by issuing a statement about the circumstances of his dismissal. Henry said in his lawsuit that the statement was designed to “burnish [Ms. Scott’s] image as a tough, no nonsense female executive who cleaned up Fox News.”

Scott was named to the top role at the cable network in 2018, after a period of turmoil during which Fox News faced a number of high-profile sexual misconduct allegations against on-air talent and senior executives.

Fox News fired Henry in July last year after investigating a complaint made by a former employee of the network. The company said at the time that it had hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations and terminated him based on the probe’s findings.

Less than a month after Henry’s firing, Jennifer Eckhart, a former associate producer at the Fox Business Network, sued Henry, claiming that the former anchor had raped her in 2017 at a New York hotel and had sexually assaulted her in a separate incident two years earlier. Eckhart’s lawsuit against Henry is continuing, according to a person familiar with the case.

Henry has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.

Fox News denied Henry’s accusations and said it stands by its decision to fire him. The company said in a statement Wednesday that it would “vigorously defend against these baseless allegations as Mr. Henry further embarrasses himself in a lawsuit rife with inaccuracies.”