Laura Ingraham’s former personal assistant thought things were going very well on her job until she got pregnant and was subsequently fired after a brief maternity leave.
The Washington Post has the story:
[Karolina] Wilson alleges that the conservative talk-show host became hostile toward her once she became pregnant and then fired her on her first day back from maternity leave. Ingraham allowed Wilson to remain with the company for about three weeks so Wilson could eventually collect unemployment insurance. During that time, Wilson alleges, the company refused to set up a private space for her to pump breast milk at the office in Northwest Washington, and she had to go to her car in a nearby garage.
[…]
According to recent court filings from Ingraham, she and her company reject Wilson’s statements that her work before her pregnancy was “extremely efficient.” They also said it is not true that Ingraham became hostile toward Wilson after learning of her then-assistant’s pregnancy.
In court papers, Ingraham said she did not know Wilson needed a place to pump breast milk.
Ingraham has long had a reputation as an abusive boss. In October, 2017, before Ingraham’s Fox show, The Ingraham Angle, debuted, The Daily Beast reported that staff dreaded working for her.
A number of Fox staffers are dreading the possibility of working for Ingraham, who, even among the healthy egos that populate America’s cable newsrooms, has built a reputation as overbearing. According to numerous sources, Ingraham has been, occasionally, a verbally abusive boss, who will not hesitate to scream at employees if something goes awry. Two former employees of her radio show recounted to The Daily Beast separate instances of Ingraham hurling objects at staff members in displeasure. Though Fox declined to address most specific examples of her conduct, the channel issued a blanket denial of such allegations.
[…]
Ingraham previously hosted a short-lived Fox show called Just In, which ran for three weeks in 2008. That run was long enough for Ingraham to star in a viral video [embedded below] of her berating the show’s production staff off-air. Similar audio has surfaced of Ingraham going off at staff on her radio show. Five former employees of that show, who spoke with The Daily Beast about their experiences, indicated that such conduct was not rare.
“Have you ever seen The Devil Wears Prada?” one former Ingraham radio producer told The Daily Beast, referring to the Meryl Streep film about a New York fashion magazine publisher who was famously brutal on her staff. “That’s what it’s like, except it’s The Devil Does Radio and there are no redeeming qualities with her.”
Ingraham is just the latest Fox News personality to be accused of discrimination or harassment. Former CEO Roger Ailes was booted over sexual harassment allegations. Ditto for Bill O'Reilly and Eric Bolling. In 2017, a number of employees filed a class action suit alleging racial discrimination. Fox recently settled a gender discrimination suit with a female reporter.
Watch Ingraham's abusive behavior from her 2008 short-lived Just In show on Fox below.
The Fox “News” suits need to can this tart and hire a professional host who does not blow-up like a volcano.
NOTE TO MS. LAURA
F&^%$ it. We’ll do it live!