Ex-Fox News Contributor Tamara Holder Speaks Out Against Rupert Murdoch: 'He Ruined My Life'
Tamara Holder is not happy after 21st Century Fox chairman, Rupert Murdoch, has dismissed issues of sexual misconducts within the news company.
On Sunday night, the author and television commentator broke her silence to respond to the 86-year-old's statements regarding the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct made against prominent figures, including founder Roger Ailes and host Bill O'Reilly.
Life Ruined
In an interview with CNN's Reliable Sources, Holder recounted her own horror story while working as a contributor at Fox News. She also blasted Matt Damon who recently spoke about the on-going witch hunt for men with questionable pasts in Hollywood.
"Let me be clear. I had a man pull out his penis in his office and shove my head on it," Holder says in the video below. "That was not flirting, that was criminal. That was not sexual harassment, there we no gray areas or whatever Matt Damon recently said. This is criminal and I'm not the only case. There are women that can't speak out."
Holder's allegations of sexual harassment led to the firing of Francisco Cortes, the vice president of Fox News Latino.
The TV personality also revealed how her life was changed after she was sexually assaulted. She said she had to get treatment for PTSD. Moreover, she and fellow victims are still finding it difficult to find work, particularly because they signed settlement agreements that bar them from seeking work with Fox.
Holder's statement against Murdoch on CNN could be a violation of said settlement agreement, but a lawyer explains to Deadline that Holder is allowed to speak out if she feels disparaged or maligned.
"I would not be here if it wasn't for what Mr. Murdoch said," she stated.
After Rupert Murdoch dismisses Fox scandals as "all nonsense," former Fox News contributor @tamaraholder says the network "ruined people's lives," and "allowed abusive predators to prey on women who just wanted to work" https://t.co/TcDkGVxct8
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) December 17, 2017
Fox News' Statement
After the outrage resulting from the dismissive comments made by Murdoch, Fox has released a statement. A representative of the company explained that their chairman was responding to the question of how the allegations affected the company, not debating the validity of the complaints made by former and current employees.
"Rupert never characterized the sexual harassment matters at Fox News as 'non-sense,'" the representative said. Moreover, the representative added that the company was able to compensate victims of sexual harassment and restructured the company under Murdoch.
The news network received backlash after Murdoch's interview. Former and current employees also commented about the controversial statements made by the company executive.
