Abby Grossberg, the Fox News producer who claimed her former employer pressured her to give misleading testimony in the Dominion Voting System lawsuit, has given more details about the emotional toll of working for Tucker Carlson.
In An interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition” Grossberg revealed that the “antisemitism and bullying and gaslighting and misogyny” of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” eventually led him to call a crisis hotline.
“I was sitting next to me in tears, talking on the phone to my best friend I’ve known for 20 years, someone who would never describe me as an anxious person, a sad person, a sad person . They recommended that I call the crisis hotline. And I did,” Grossberg said. Calling the hotline was something Grossberg had never considered before. “It really showed me that bullying can tear anyone apart when it’s done systematically and regularly.”
Earlier this year, Grossberg filed two lawsuits, one in New York and one in Delaware. In them, she alleged that Fox’s attorneys instructed her to “shade and/or give incomplete answers during sworn testimony,” which harmed her reputation but “greatly benefited Fox News.” Fox countered with a gag-order suit, which the network dropped in March. A few days later Grossberg, who was on forced administrative leave, was fired. In addition to alleging that “Tucker Carlson Tonight” encouraged a problematic working environment, the former senior producer also claims that the now-fired Fox News host made a statement about the January 6 uprising involving FBI agents. Tried to spread conspiracy theories.
The former senior producer also revealed to NPR’s Leila Fadell how his departure from Fox came about. When Grossberg finally complained to a supervisor, she was told that “Tucker set the pace of the show.”
Grossberg said, “About two and a half hours later, they retaliated against me and called me into HR for a meeting where they made bogus allegations about me that they wanted me to sign.”
The former Tucker Carlson employee also offered an example of the gaslighting she claims she experiences regularly. During this meeting with HR, Grossberg said that her work environment was “so hard to bear” amid misogyny, anti-Semitism, and bullying that she had to go to the bathroom to calm herself at times. So that he doesn’t cry at work.
“Literally five minutes late my boss said to me, ‘You just told us you go to the bathroom to cry because you can’t do your job,'” Grossberg said. “You start to question your own reality. They do that a lot at Fox.
When pressed by Fadell about why he took the job in the first place, Grossberg admitted that he thought the way Carlson behaved was simply an on-air personality. “Unfortunately I was wrong,” Grossberg said. To him, both his lawsuit and the Dominion lawsuit are proof that Fox News doesn’t care.
“They don’t care about their audience, and they don’t care about their employees, and they don’t care about telling the truth, and they don’t care about women. They only care about ratings and revenue. It also shows that they believe their audience is stupid,” Grossberg said. “I think they underestimated me, and they underestimate their audience.”
When reached for comment on this story, Fox News told NPR, “Fox News immediately hired an independent outside counsel to investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg, which were made following a critical performance review.” Her allegations regarding the Dominion matter are baseless and we will continue to vigorously defend Fox against her frivolous legal claims that are filled with false allegations against the network and our employees.
