Former Fox News employee claims company barred her from investigating Trump's Russia ties

Fox News studio.
(Image credit: Facebook/Fox News)

A former employee of Fox News says the network rebuffed her requests to investigate ties between President Trump and Russia — even when she offered to pay her own travel expenses to Moscow, Bloomberg reported Monday. "You can't do in-depth reporting if you're not [in Russia]," said Jessica Golloher, a former Fox Radio correspondent who is suing the company for gender discrimination. "Fox is just buying what the White House is selling."

Golloher made the claim during her testimony to Britain's Parliament, as the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) considers whether "Fox has a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards." The CMA review of Fox's broadcasting standards stemmed from a bid by Fox's parent company, 21st Century Fox, to buy the U.K telecommunications company Sky. The review was additionally triggered in part over allegations that the White House and a prominent Trump donor pushed Fox News to publish an article that used fabricated quotes to call into question Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Although Fox News did not send a representative to the hearing, the network referred Bloomberg to an earlier statement from May which said Golloher's claims "are without merit. Her allegations of discrimination and retaliation are baseless. We will vigorously defend the matter."

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Fox News' various TV personalities have been loudly skeptical of ties between Trump and Russia and have in some cases claimed that Hillary Clinton is really the one who conspired with Moscow. In late October, CNN reported that several Fox News employees were appalled by their network's coverage of the Russia investigation. One TV personality even texted CNN, "I'm watching now kicking and screaming. I want to quit."

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Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.