#MeToo: Ex-Fox News Employees Ask For NDAs To Be Lifted In Wake Of NBCUniversal Decision

Former Fox News staffers are clamoring for the same release from non-disclosure agreements that NBCUniversal has granted its staffers regarding sexual harassment settlements.

Coming in the wake of Rachel Maddow’s announcement Friday on her MSNBC show that parent corp. NBCUniversal would allow former staffers to get out of their non-disclosure agreements, at least six former Fox News employees, including Gretchen Carlson, are asking for similar treatment. Carlson was the first woman at Fox to sue Roger Ailes, the former news director at Fox who was forced out by her disclosures. Carlson settled with the company in 2016, and her story is covered in the new film Bombshell.

“All women at Fox News and beyond forced to sign NDAs should be released from them immediately, giving them back the voices they deserve,” Carlson told Vanity Fair. “None of us asked to get into a workplace dispute. We simply had the courage to stand up and say something—but in the end, it’s our voices no one can hear. Because of our NDAs, we can never say what is factually correct or incorrect about what happened to us at Fox.”

The NBCUniversal statement revealed by Maddow stated, “Any former NBC News employee who believes that they cannot disclose their experience with sexual harassment as a result of a confidentiality or non-disparagement provision in their separation agreement should contact NBCUniversal and we will release them from that perceived obligation.”

The stunning NBCUniversal decision came as Ronan Farrow’s book, Catch and Kill, raised ugly allegations about newsroom and individual conduct, including an on-the-record allegation that former Today show host Matt Lauer forcibly raped a producer. Lauer denies the allegation.

Besides Carlson, other former Fox News employees who want the NDAs nixed include Julie Roginsky and Tamara Holder, both of whom settled sexual harassment lawsuits.

Fox gave Vanity Fair a statement, but didn’t promise a lifting of the NDAs. “Over the past three years, we have created an entirely new reporting structure, more than tripled the size of our HR footprint, instituted mandatory in-person sexual harassment training, started quarterly company meetings and mentoring events as well as implemented a zero-tolerance policy regarding workplace misconduct for which we engage outside independent firms to handle investigations.”