Judge Dismisses Claims Against Fox News in Assault Case

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A federal judge dismissed claims made against Fox News Channel in a lurid assault case that involved a former associate producer and a former correspondent, noting that management of the cable-news outlet had no knowledge of any conflict or relationship between the two parties until it was notified she had levied sexual harassment claims against him.

Fox News had last year filed a request for summary judgement in the case, in which the former producer, Jennifer Eckhart alleged she was raped by Ed Henry, a former Fox News correspondent who was dismissed from the Fox Corp.-backed outlet in 2020 following an investigation into a complaint about “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace.” Eckhart’s lawsuit was filed in U.S.

District Court in the Southern District of New York in July of 2020. A lawyer for Henry has in the past claimed Eckhart “initiated and completely encouraged a consensual relationship.” Fox News terminated Eckhart in 2020 prior to her making the allegations tied to Henry.

In the original suit, Eckhart alleged Henry, who had been an anchor on “America’s Newsroom,” the network’s mid-morning news program, “groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced Ms.