Former Fox reporter Jason Donner is suing the network for retaliation and discrimination, saying the conservative cable giant fired him because he opposed Fox’s “false coverage of the January 6th insurrection.” Via the Daily Beast:
Donner, who started at the network in 2010 and worked his way up to Capitol Hill reporter and producer, was terminated by the network in the fall of 2022. Since then, he has gone to work for Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) as a senior adviser.
[...] Donner’s lawsuit, filed Sept. 27 in D.C. Superior Court, accuses Fox News of violating the D.C. Human Rights Act, including three counts of discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Fox News filed a notice of removal from the superior court to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday.
Donner claims in the suit that while “he did not share many of the views expressed by Fox News' Opinion page, or the evening hour television commentators, it did not impact his ability to report on Capitol Hill news until the wake of the 2020 election.”
Even though he probably wanted to throw up a lot of the time, right?
Noting that he was inside the Capitol during the riots, Donner says that he was critical of the network’s on-air reporting at the time, especially news anchors describing the insurrectionists as “peaceful” while saying their disappointment was understandable.
“I’m your Capitol Hill Producer inside the Capitol where tear gas is going off on the second floor in the Ohio clock corridor, rioters are storming the building, reports of shots fired outside the House Chamber,” he claims he told the Fox News control room at the time. “I don’t want to hear any of this fucking shit on our air ever again because you're gonna get us all killed.”
I can't even imagine what it was like for him at this crazy time:
The ex-reporter adds that after October 2021, when former Fox News star Tucker Carlson produced his Jan. 6 revisionist series Patriot Purge, he told his supervisors “that it was demoralizing that Fox News would allow Carlson to gaslight the country with false information,” especially since some Fox News reporters were present during the Jan. 6 attack.
The following spring, Donner claims “Fox News began to discriminate and retaliate against Donner,” asserting that his new supervisor NuNu Japardize accused him of creating a “toxic environment” in the workplace. According to Donner, because it “became evident” he was being targeted for speaking out about Fox News’ “false reporting” and his political affiliation, he soon took medical leave.
"Fair and balanced." Do they even bother with that slogan anymore? What a joke.