Anita Hill: Fox Network’s Structure Kept Sexual Harassment in Place

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Brandeis University professor Anita Hill, a woman who once accused then-Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her, discussed former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and network host Bill O’Reilly’s sexual harassment allegations.

Hill argued that Fox’s “network structures” kept sexual harassment in place because she said it bought people and paid women “who had been harassed.”

Hill said, “I think that a lot is gained through the recognition of a system as large as Fox network. Once we know that this is happening in places that maybe we wouldn’t expect it to happen or we can begin to understand how much power is at play here, and not simply just individual behavior, but also how the Fox network structures kept the harassment in place by buying people or paying women who had been harassed, who brought complaints, and also keeping those complaints secret.”

“This is where the system sort of steps in,” she continued. “And I think there’s a lot to be learned from that. And people will move forward because of this. We learn not only from women who have bravely come forward like those women with Fox, like the women who are still coming forward, like the three African-American women now who have come forward. We also learn from individuals whose claims have come forward and haven’t prevailed.”

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