Sources familiar with Abby Grossberg’s time at Fox News are raising further questions about claims made in a lawsuit filed by the former booker against the network, which accuses Tucker Carlson of encouraging a sexist and hostile workplace environment.
Grossberg describes in her suit how her colleagues at Carlson’s show hung up and laughed at pictures of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a low-cut bathing suit, routinely and harshly judged women based on their appearance and made comments meant to belittle her for being Jewish and a woman.
“On October 26, 2022, less than a month and a half after starting at Tucker Carlson Tonight, Ms. Grossberg felt so anxious, depressed and physically weak from the barrage of sexist, chauvinistic and sexualized comments to which she was being subjected in the office that she called in sick at the behest of her therapist,” the lawsuit reads.
Grossberg originally was transferred to TCT from Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures show on Fox Business Network. Grossberg says in her lawsuit that she left SMF because of the “toxic atmosphere victimizing women.” Bartiromo, she argued, was also a victim of this sexism. Grossberg was excited for a “fresh start” on Tucker Carlson Tonight, but instead “went from the proverbial frying pan into the fire.”
Yet a former guest on Tucker Carlson Today, Carlson’s midday program that aired on Fox Nation, told The Spectator they were stunned to read of the allegations in Grossberg’s suit — because she had expressed in several phone calls how much she loved her job at Carlson’s show. There was a “stark contrast,” this source said, between how she spoke about working for Carlson and the seriousness of the claims made in her lawsuit.
Grossberg bonded with the guest over their expertise on toxic corporate culture and, over the course of a few months in late 2022, had several hour-long phone calls to discuss sexism and toxicity in the workplace. According to the guest, at no time did Grossberg ever suggest that she was experiencing issues in her current role with Tucker Carlson, whose show she worked for as a booker from July 2022 to March 2023.
Instead, the guest says she spoke positively of Carlson and her colleagues on his show, and expressed that she felt she was in a much healthier work environment compared to her time at Sunday Morning Futures. Grossberg made frequent complains about Bartiromo herself, who she described as a “narcissist” and a “modern-day Norma Desmond,” a reference to the deluded antagonist of the classic movie Sunset Boulevard.
“In her words to me, and I think I got her to a place of candor… she loved everything about her current role,” the guest, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said of Grossberg. “She admired Tucker even though she hadn’t even met him. She had nothing but great things to say about the entire team.”
Grossberg had been working on Tucker Carlson Tonight for approximately four months at the time of their conversations, and, the guest asserted, “Not once did she say anything remotely disparaging about anyone on Tucker’s show. It was the opposite.”
Grossberg does not name Bartiromo as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, despite her assertions to the guest. And other individuals close to Grossberg attest that many of her issues on Sunday Morning Futures were due to its anchor. Instead, the lawsuit describes Bartiromo as a victim of rampant sexism in the office. For example, Grossberg claims her colleagues on Sunday Morning Futures and Fox executives would refer to Bartiromo as “menopausal,” a “diva,” “hysterical” and “crazy”: similar language to how Grossberg herself described Bartiromo to the Tucker guest in texts reviewed by The Spectator. The lawsuit also recounts that Bartiromo once lamented to Grossberg that she is considered “past her prime” by her male colleagues because of misogyny toward older women in the media industry.
A lawyer representing Grossberg said her communications with the source “do not at all square with evidence we possess regarding our client’s uniquely strong claims of a misogynistic and chauvinistic culture at Fox News that destroyed women and was exemplified by Tucker Carlson.”
“We do not share our litigation strategy regarding whom we sue and when we sue them with the press,” the lawyer said. “Our client’s relationship with Ms. Bartiromo, whom she admired as a trailblazing female journalist is well documented in our two filed complaints, to which I refer you for any further information on the topic. Ms. Bartiromo and Ms. Grossberg parted on good terms when they stopped working together.”
Grossberg and the source were in frequent contact with one another until at least January of this year, shortly before she was called to HR to discuss her allegedly poor work performance at TCT.
In her suit, Grossberg claims that by February 2023, she was in such distress from her treatment on Tucker Carlson Tonight that her therapist recommended she take a leave of absence.
“Ms. Grossberg’s anxiety symptoms continue to be clinically significant, and it is my opinion that they will worsen if she returns prematurely,” her therapist wrote on February 14.
It is of course possible that Grossberg wouldn’t volunteer information about contemporaneous negative experiences with her colleagues and boss while communicating with a guest that would appear on the program. At the same time, the tone of the correspondence through text messages reviewed by The Spectator suggested a high level of rapport and confidence.
Other individuals who were familiar with Grossberg’s time at Tucker Carlson Tonight told The Spectator that it was acknowledged that Grossberg, who previously worked at ABC News, didn’t fit well with the team and culture at TCT. All, though, were surprised both to learn she was suing the network and at the depth and severity of her allegations.
Grossberg’s lawyers confirmed in a statement to The Spectator Wednesday that Grossberg had “never met Tucker Carlson in person.”
“Like many on the [Tucker Carlson Tonight] staff, Abby never met Tucker Carlson in person because he taped the show from his personal studios in Maine and Florida, and he did not visit Fox’s NY HQ during her time there,” Kimberly A. Catala, one of the attorneys representing Grossberg, said.
A former Fox employee challenged Catala’s claim that “many staff” had never met Carlson, telling The Spectator that nearly every member of the Tucker Carlson Tonight team was flown to Florida or Maine at some point to meet Carlson and work on set. Grossberg, the source said, was not invited to do so because it became clear after a month or two that she was not a good fit with the team and wasn’t performing up to expectations.
In fact, multiple sources told Substacker Greg Price that before she started making her complaints, Grossberg had received a negative performance review and was set to be fired from the show imminently.
Grossberg’s lawyers insist that she “never received a negative performance evaluation while employed at Fox and was never informed that she was being fired until she was actually fired, unlawfully for filing two lawsuits.”
