21st Century Fox is reportedly making an example of President Trump at its routine company workshops on workplace harassment. At a workshop Tuesday at Fox's studio in Los Angeles, employees were shown Trump's infamous Access Hollywood tape, which features Trump bragging about grabbing women by their genitals, a spokesperson has confirmed to Talking Points Memo. In the tape from 2005, Trump can be overheard saying he can "do anything" to women because of his fame.
The Hollywood Reporter said Fox followed up the tape with a brief discussion about why Trump's behavior was inappropriate. "They went through the scenario of the tape, why it was harassment, and why it's something you should report," an employee at the workshop told The Hollywood Reporter. "There was an audible gasp in the room, like, 'Can you believe this is happening?'"
Trump has apologized for the comments he made in the tape, which he dismissed as "locker room talk." That excuse was repeated by several reporters on Fox News, which is owned by 21st Century Fox. "Someone joked about getting fired for harassment and wondering if the defense could be, 'We were only told a behavior was bad once in a seminar,' but Fox News said it was 'just locker room talk' over and over again," the employee said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The workshop also apparently included a joke about Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment, and former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who resigned last summer amid accusations of harassment. The Hollywood Reporter revealed "a human resources executive quipped during the presentation that the department handled all of Fox except Fox News, so the presentation could not include any information about Ailes or O'Reilly." "It was a joke," the employee said, "but it did not play well in the room."
-
Pregnancy in AmericaFeature Why is it getting riskier to give birth in the U.S.?
-
The potential warning sign of an auto lender’s bankruptcyIn the Spotlight Tricolor collapse an ‘extreme example’ of economy’s challenges
-
RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine crusade comes under fireFeature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a heated hearing as senators accused him of lying and spreading chaos
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
