Lawsuit against Fox News by Andrea Tantaros thrown out of court
A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has brutally dismissed the lawsuit filed against Fox News by Andrea Tantaros, saying her claims were "based primarily on speculation and conjecture."
Law & Crime reports:
Tantaros sued Fox in April 2017. She claimed the network spied on her, hacked her personal electronic devices, and used proxy social media accounts to harass her online. Co-president Bill Shine, former CEO Roger Ailes (who Tantaros previously claimed sexually harassed her), and other execs were named as defendants. In the amended complaint, she said Ailes surreptitiously had a close-circuit TV system record female Fox employees as they changed on the premises.
In his new ruling, Judge George B. Daniels picked apart Tantaros's complaint for lacking evidence.
"For the reasons already stated, vague, speculative, and conculsory allegations concerning malware allegedly found on Plaintiff's personal computer and Fox News's purported ability to access or monitor communications on Plaintiff's Blackberry are insufficient to state such a claim," he wrote. "With respect to her Gmail account, Plaintiff believes that 'someone' accessed her account without authorization, but she doesn't allege which of the Defendants, if any, actually did so."
She also failed to provide "factual support" for her claim Ailes and Shine had a person hack her personal computer and other electronic devices, Daniels wrote.
Daniels also shredded the claim that Ailes had Tantaros recorded through hidden cameras, saying the "Plaintiff pleads no facts to support this belief, much less ones to make her unsubstantiated allegations rise 'above the speculative level.'"
Tantaros on GMA after filing her lawsuit.
Still pending is a separate state court lawsuit by Tantaros, as the New York Times hopefully notes:
A separate lawsuit filed by Ms. Tantaros in New York State Supreme Court in 2016 alleged that Mr. Ailes harassed her, and that other Fox News executives ignored her complaints and eventually forced her off the air. Among those named in that suit was Suzanne Scott, who on Thursday was named the new chief executive of Fox News; Ms. Scott has denied all wrongdoing.
As of 7:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time, there has been no public comment by Ms. Tantaros.