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August 5, 2017 9:17 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

Yes, this is way worse than “Billo” and his loofah talk – by at least three degrees of disgustingness

Three hours after Fox News announced it had suspended host Eric Bolling following allegations that he had sexually harassed female colleagues, a former Fox News guest leveled new accusations against him. Caroline Heldman, who appeared on the network frequently between 2008 and 2011, said Saturday that Bolling was one of three Fox News/Fox Business employees to subject her to sexual harassment.

Fox News announced Bolling’s suspension less than 24 hours after an exclusive HuffPost report revealed that the host had sent lewd text messages to female colleagues.

“Eric Bolling has been suspended pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to HuffPost. The network did not immediately return request for comment on the new allegations against Bolling.

Bolling is not the only alleged FOX News perv named by Heldman.

Heldman said she had also been subjected to sexual harassment by former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and former Fox News consultant Woody Fraser.

Mother Jones broke the news about that latter exec back in June:

A former frequent on-air guest at Fox News says that a Fox consultant and top lieutenant to Roger Ailes, the network’s late founder and longtime CEO, sexually harassed her repeatedly for more than a year, including dangling the possibility of a paid job at Fox if she would have sex with him.

The allegation appears in a written declaration by Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College who made numerous guest appearances on Fox starting in 2008. The Fox consultant, Woody Fraser, is a veteran television producer who helped create and produce shows such as Good Morning America and Wild and Crazy Kids* and worked closely with Ailes at Fox for nearly a decade. …

Heldman wrote in her declaration—signed under penalty of perjury and prepared as part of a potential lawsuit involving separate Fraser accusers—that Fraser “used coded language (an ‘arrangement’) on three different occasions, once in New York and twice in Los Angeles, that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with me.” Heldman says she repeatedly rejected his advances. She goes on to note: “Mr. Fraser insinuated on several occasions that a contributorship at Fox was contingent upon me having a sexual relationship with him. Even though I was a popular guest with numerous appearances and high ratings (according to Mr. Fraser), I was not offered a contributorship because I rebuffed Mr. Fraser’s sexual advances.”

Heldman weighed in on Bolling’s suspension via her Facebook account:

Fox News just suspended Eric Bolling pending allegations that he sent photos of his genitalia to female colleagues. My only surprise is that it took this long for people to come forward about Bolling’s behavior, which has been wildly inappropriate for years.

I did hundreds of appearances on Fox and Fox Business from 2008 – 2011, and had multiple experiences with Bolling that caused grave concern to my friends and family. Bolling referred to me as “Dr. McHottie” on air on four different occasions, and called me “smart, beautiful, and wrong” on air twice. I pushed back with “Mr. McSexist,” but I shouldn’t have had to. This on-air behavior was perfectly acceptable to Fox executives at the time.

Bolling would also contact me via phone and text after shows, sometimes to apologize for his behavior (and then do it again), and sometimes just to talk. He said he wanted to fly me out to New York for in-studio hits and to have “fun.” He asked me to have meals with him on several occasions, but I found excuses not to go. Once, he took me up to his office in New York, showed me his baseball jerseys, and in the brief time I was there, let me know that his office was his favorite place to have sex. I know other women have had similar experiences with Bolling, which means that lots of folks at Fox knew about his behavior well before 2017. …

There are a lot of great people working at Fox, many of whom I admire and respect to this day, but there is also a culture of sexual harassment that has not fully been addressed. I have faith that, given recent decisions to fire and suspend perpetrators, the new management will effectively shift this culture.

D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.