Lawyers for Abby Grossberg confirmed to The Spectator that the former Fox News producer never actually met Tucker Carlson in person while working on his show.
“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.
The statement confirms a recent report from a former Fox News employee and complicates the story about Carlson, Grossberg and the workplace environment on the show he hosted — as well as the lawsuit’s alleged connection to Carlson’s firing on Monday.
Grossberg, who was the head of booking for the show from July 2022 until she was placed on administrative leave in March of this year, alleges that Carlson encouraged a hostile and sexist workplace environment among his employees. Grossberg says she was subjected to bullying, antisemitic comments and sexism by staff while working out of Fox’s Manhattan office.
“Tucker and his executive producer Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell,” Grossberg said in an MSNBC interview with Nicolle Wallace yesterday.
Grossberg’s lawyers said she was in contact with Carlson on a daily basis over text and email and that the two also spoke on the phone until she left the network. They suggested that since Carlson was not present in the New York office, the “sexist” environment was perpetrated at his direction by other employees who served as his “eyes” and “ears.”
“Since Tucker did not come to the Fox office, he relied on Justin Wells, his executive producer, and others like Alexander McCaskill, senior producer, who were present in the office every day to be his eyes, ears and mouthpiece, and to convey his ‘tone,’ as they threateningly reminded Ms. Grossberg,” Catala said.
Grossberg’s lawsuit against Fox News and the Fox Corporation names Carlson as a codefendant, alongside McCaskill, Wells, senior producer Thomas Fox and a number of Fox VPs. It claims that the defendants “unlawfully subjected Ms. Grossberg to a toxic work environment that is hostile to women like her” and that the purpose of the suit is to “put an end to the discriminatory and hostile work environment she and other female Fox News employees have had to endure for far, far too long.”
The suit accuses Carlson of “aiding and abetting” the “toxic work environment.” In one part, it recounts a January 2023 conversation between Grossberg and senior producer Thomas Fox, in which Grossberg complained to him about her treatment. “We’re all under stress. This is Tucker’s tone and just the pace of the show,” Mr. Fox is said to have responded. “In other words,” the suit continues, “Mr. Fox was admitting that the misogynistic fish rots from the head down — i.e. Mr. McCaskill behaved towards her in a deplorably discriminatory matter because he was inspired, permitted and enabled to do so by Mr. Carlson himself.” This is the extent of the suit’s allegations against Carlson.
The Spectator also asked Grossberg’s legal team how many of her approximately ninety audio recordings from her time with Tucker Carlson Tonight featured Carlson’s voice. They said they are “reviewing and analyzing” the recordings, which amount to “approximately thirty-four hours” of evidence.
