Amid the aftermath of Tucker Carlson and Fox News “parting ways,” former Fox News host Melissa Francis has opened up about her exit from the network.
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
During an interview with Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM, Francis began by recounting an incident where Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott “shrugged off: a situation wherein a ‘ network supervisor sent Francis an email labeling her with a “misogynistic sexist name.”
“When I worked at Fox News, there was a manager of mine who sent an email calling me a misogynistic, sexist name, and talking about — demeaning my behavior,” Francis explained.
“He sent it around to all of the managers and accidentally included me — we’ve all done that, to be honest. When you’re gossiping about someone, and you add them to it too,” Francis added.
“So he did that. So when I received that email I went directly to [Fox News CEO] Suzanne Scott’s office because she also was copied on the email. And I said, what the f***?’ Like — I mean — and she shrugged it off,” Francis noted further.
“And that man who sent that email demeaning me in a sexist and misogynistic way still works there. In fact, he was the author of many of the things you read in the Dominion case,” she added. “And I checked yesterday — he’s still there.
“So this idea, that something in a text would be so awful that they wouldn’t — they’re on the side of women. They don’t want to subject Fox women to an environment where you have someone like Tucker saying those words — that is a bald-faced lie,” the former Fox News star told the other former Fox News star.
Francis then explained she was literally fired via teleprompter.
She was paid $15 million in 2022 after she filed a gender-based pay disparity claim against Fox Corp. She said her legal team believes she was let go from Fox News over her lawsuit against the network.
Francis then explained that she had a home studio and cameras were operated remotely as was a teleprompter.
“So the lights go on. I have a robotic camera so I don’t have the power to turn any of it on and off. That’s done from the studio. So the lights come on, the teleprompter comes on… I went over, I sat down, I clicked on my mic. I checked in, we talked to the producers, we did the whole thing,” she told Kelly.
“I’m about to go. And it comes up in the prompter, ‘You’ve been canceled,’ and I said, ‘What what’s going on?’” Francis said.
“And all of a sudden, everything went dead in my living room, just lights out, everything dead. And I was like, ‘Wow, okay. This is, this is how we’re doing this. Huh? Wow,’” she went on.
“I talked to the show staff afterward and they were like, ‘We had — we weren’t told anything. We have no idea what happened.’ And they were left scrambling. I mean, all of a sudden, this poor show team had no idea, and they just yanked the electricity on their anchor,” she said.