Fox Airs Video of Strippers During a Segment about Sex Discrimination
Reported by Melanie - January 20, 2006
Today (January 20, 2006) on Your World, Neil Cavuto hosted two women who have filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the Wall Street bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities LLC. Their lawyer was also present as was a lawyer representing Dresdner. The two women, members of a group of six known as the "Dresdner Six," accuse Dresdner "of discriminating against women by denying them promotions and higher pay and subjecting them to lewd comments." Their suit also alleges, among other things, that one of the six "was forced to leave a dinner celebrating the closing of a deal so male colleagues could go to a strip club."
During the interview, plaintiff Joanne Hart said, "The crux of the case is a failure to promote and a failure to pay us in line with our male colleagues." (Emphasis added.) Plaintiff Traci Holt described being marginalized after taking maternity leave in 2003 and 2005.
Fox aired two promos ahead of this segment - a full-screen video with Cavuto speaking off-screen. It aired the same video during a portion of the segment itself. No. Fox didn't air video of, say, the New York Stock Exchange or that bull on Wall Street. It aired video of strippers. True to its pro-corporate, anti-worker, anti-viewer stance, Fox trivialized the issues and the women involved. It reduced the topic to the lowest, trashiest, common denominator and aired video of scantily-clad women who were bumping and grinding and sliding up and down poles on a dimly-lit stage, like this.
