The $15 million settlement suggests she had the goods on Fox.

Remember how Melissa Francis disappeared from Fox News and Fox Business after she alleged a gender pay disparity at the networks?

The Washington Post has an update:

The amount paid to Francis is on a scale with the blockbuster settlements the network offered a number of female employees who leveled claims of sexual misconduct and harassment against Roger Ailes, the co-founder of Fox News, and former prime-time star Bill O’Reilly. [Francis' attorney, Kevin] Mintzer said that despite Fox News’s pledges of improving its climate since those allegations were settled, “what happened to Melissa shows that sexism and retaliation remain standard practice at the company.”

…

One lawyer unconnected to the case who has helped women receive settlements from other networks said the size of Francis’s award suggests that Fox realized it would have a weak position defending itself in court against a lawsuit. “For a settlement this large, there would probably need to be pretty convincing evidence of an obvious and gross disparity in pay,” said Ari Wilkenfeld, a partner at the Atkinson Law Group in Bethesda, Md.

It doesn’t look like Francis has any problem with the MAGA-fication at Fox. More from The Post:

In her interview with The Post, Francis said she loved working at Fox, even though she and her family took a lot of blowback over the network’s conservative and frequently controversial positions.

Fox, she added, gave her more freedom than other media organizations where she had worked.

On October 23, 2020, when we posted about Francis' disappearance from Fox, we noted that her last tweet read, “Trump will win. 💯. I’m not advocating, I’m telling you to mentally prepare. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

(Francis image via screen grab)