Media Frenzy Erupts After Ousted Gretchen Carlson Files Lawsuit Against Roger Ailes

Like red meat thrown at piranhas, today’s news that Gretchen Carlson had filed a suit against Fox News boss Roger Ailes claiming she was sacked after turning down his sexual advances has Reporters Who Cover TV in a frenzied state. Carlson’s attorneys claim at least 10 women have contacted them since the story broke, with stories about Ailes’ treatment of them.

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For a good chunk of the day, “Gretchen Carlson” was trending on Twitter, with a giant assist from media-covering media. This afternoon, she dropped off Twitter’s radar, only to be replaced by Ailes, who started trending when he issued a statement calling her suit defamatory hooey filed in retaliation for the decision not to renew her contract because of low ratings, as Fox News parent 21st Century Fox issued its own statement saying it would launch an internal investigation.

All day long, tweeting reporters have been reminiscing about that time Carlson walked off the set of Fox & Friends when one of her Cro-Magnon-ish co-hosts said something especially sexist:

And they remembered fondly that time then-Daily Show host Jon Stewart talked about Carlson on Fox & Friends:

They’re making highfalutin comparisons between Carlson’s lawsuit and a historical pamphlet, that seems intended to indicate the reporter had managed to snare impossible-to-get Hamilton tickets:

They’re noting Carlson wrote about her experience with sexual harassment last year in her book and in a HuffingtonPost essay…

…and boasting they’d known all along this was eventually coming, because:

Earlier in the day, TRWCT proudly drew attention to their own report on the morning’s big news…

… as well as noting their every update on their original post when the news broke:

As part of the media-on-media frenzy, reporters are noting FNC has scrubbed Carlson from its website…

…and otherwise noting every sneeze coming from the general direction of Fox News Channel, in the absence of a statement from the network (after more than six hours, Fox News parent 21st Century Fox did release a statement, saying it was launching an internal investigation. At about the same time, Ailes issued one too calling the lawsuit retaliatory horseradish, filed after he decided to cut her loose due to low ratings):

They’re mocking “non-pros” who have dared to weigh in about their tweets on the subject…

…and also mocking Fox News talent who have yet to weigh in on the subject: