Former Fox News and Fox Business host Melissa Francis says she was fired seconds before she was supposed to go on the air. Francis appeared Friday with her attorney on The Megyn Kelly Show to talk about her 2020 departure from Fox. Francis, who joined Fox Business in 2012 and later became a host on Fox News, said she brought up the issue of pay disparity with the then-general counsel at Fox, Dianne Brandi.
“You have to understand that at the time there were two screeners from the Screen Actors Guild – Bombshell and The Loudest Voice – and they had actors playing Dianne Brandi behaving illegally towards women in the Roger Ailes situation,” said Francis.
“At the time I assumed she no longer worked at the company,” Francis continued. “When I said I wanted to do my own negotiation, [Fox] sent me an e-mail back saying ‘you’ll be meeting one-on-one with Dianne Brandi. I was shocked because I thought ‘wow, you’re gonna put her in a room alone with a woman to negotiate. I wasn’t even aware she was still here.’ We ended up having a voice conversation. I had actually scripted out exactly I wanted to say because my math and my points – I felt like I wanted to be crystal clear. I didn’t want to misspeak any portion of it at all.”
“We started to small talk. She’s very nice. ‘How are your kids? What’s going on?’ Then she segued right into ‘Are you going to hand this off to somebody else? It’s not common for talent to do this for themselves,’” Francis recalled in the conversation with Brandi. “I said look, there’s this disparity and basically I laid it out. [Dianne] said ‘whoa, I’m gonna stop you there. This is not the way you want to do this. You do not want to compare yourself to other people.’
“I said ‘no, I’m not comparing myself to other people.’ I’m saying that I’ve collected all this data — basically how I just explained to you – I went through how I did all the comparisons I came up with and finally she broke in and said, and I wrote down verbatim, ‘that’s how the world works. Women make less than men. That’s just a fact.”
Months after her firing, Francis sued Fox for pay discrimination. It was settled in June. Fox paid Francis $15 million.
Earlier this summer, a Fox News spokesperson said “We parted ways with Melissa Francis over a year and a half ago and her allegations were entirely without merit. We have also fully cooperated with the New York State Department of Labor’s investigation and look forward to the completion of this matter.”
Before asking Francis about the details behind her negotiations, Kelly brought up her final dealings with the company before turning down a lucrative offer to join NBC.
“I will say of my own personal experience was that they were always very generous,” Kelly said. “And this is during the Roger era. And my final contract was offered to me by the Murdoch’s, not Roger, but it was always very generous. And I actually know for a fact that I was making more than most of my male colleagues, and that my last contract that was offered to me was definitely bigger even than O’Reilly’s, because as soon as I left, he went and begged them for it, and they gave it to him and he wouldn’t last much longer. But in my experience with them was my being a woman was in no way an impediment to them paying me very, very well.”
“It does seem impossible that a lawyer would say such a reckless thing,” Kelly responded before quoting a statement from a Fox News spokesperson. “Melissa Francis’ version of that conversation is untrue and patently absurd.”
“It is absurd,” Francis said. “I agree with that. It is totally absurd that she would say something like that. I 100% with the fact that it was absurd, and that’s how I felt at the time.”
Later, Francis said she learned of her dismissal from Fox during the pandemic when she was prepared to go on the air from her studio at home.
Joe Salzone is a news media writer for Barrett News Media. He’s a native of Long Island and has been involved in the radio industry since he was 16 years old. Currently, he serves as the News Director for the Cayuga Radio Group and hosts Ithaca’s Morning News on WHCU. His radio career has included stops at SiriusXM, Galaxy Communications, WGBB, WNYG, and the Finger Lakes Radio Group. He can be found on Twitter @JoeSalzone.
Kaitlan Collins is speaking candidly for the first time since she moderated at CNN town hall event with former President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on The Axe Files podcast with CNN colleague David Axelrod, Collins said she was mostly unbothered by the reception she received for her performance during the event.
“I think that I did the best job that I could do. I spent weeks preparing for that, watched past town halls, past debates, I did my homework,” Collins said after being asked about the “unflattering” coverage surrounding her performance. “And I think when you come out of something like that…people are entitled to their own reaction to it. And we certainly saw that.”
Axelrod then asked if she had felt any of the critiques were personal in nature and whether or not they were difficult to absorb.
“My question for me at the end of the day is: Do I think that I did the best job that I can do? And how do I feel about my performance in that? And I felt like I did the best job that I could do. I went into it fully prepared. I was prepared for how he was going to respond to that and what that was going to look like. And I think that was the best that I could do. My job was to press him on those really important issues that he hasn’t been pressed on.”
The Axe Files host also asked Collins about her reaction to Trump calling her a “nasty” person, which she said she was prepared for.
“Always to women. I mean, not that he doesn’t criticize men or give them unflattering nicknames,” Collins said. “I’m very well aware of what his reactions to tough questioning often are. And I think my job is to not be deterred by that. It is really important for any reporter, but especially if you’re covering Trump, to be unflappable in that way.”
Collins was the subject of much criticism for her performance in the event. Reaction was mostly mixed along party affiliation, with conservatives lambasting the combative nature she showed with the former President, while liberals pointed to the difficult position the 31-year-old was placed in by now former CNN CEO Chris Licht.
Fox News primetime host Sean Hannity will present a sitdown interview with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) next week.
The interview will take place at the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and will discuss topics like immigration, the economy, the 2024 presidential election, and the current state of democratic politics.
The announcement of Hannity’s interview with Newsom comes on the heels of the California governor announcing a proposed 28th Amendment. Newsom’s proposition is aimed at gun control, and would look to raise the minimum age of purchase to 21, mandate background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases, and would ban civilian purchases of assault weapons.
Newsom has not appeared on Fox News for a long-form interview since 2010, when he was serving as the Mayor of San Francisco.
Hannity’s sitdown interview will air on Monday, June 12th at 9:00 PM ET. On the same evening, CNN is scheduled to air a Republican town hall event with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. That program — moderated by Anderson Cooper — is slated to begin at 8:00 PM ET.
As the prospective 2024 Republican presidential field continues to grow, media outlets have started preparations for how they will cover the nomination process. NBC News anchor Lester Holt says it’s easy to overcomplicate the process.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the NBC Nightly News anchor was asked about a report that the RNC was “impressed” by his pitch to moderate a debate featuring the prospective candidates. When asked how he would approach it, he argued the simpler the better.
“I probably wouldn’t reinvent the wheel. It’s a big crowd on that stage, and you really are wanting them to reveal themselves,” Holt said. “You have to let them kind of suss each other out and stake their game. But you know, those are always potential turning points in the direction of these elections.”
He was also asked about the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. Holt said there used to be some downtime in the race. However, he believes that simply doesn’t exist any longer.
“We used to think of this as the bye year, but there is no time off. We are into it. I always think the challenge in covering any election is to try to get the candidates to reveal themselves. And that’s really the most important thing,” the NBC Nightly News anchor shared.
“No matter what anyone else is saying around them, there will be those moments along the campaign trail that they’re going to define themselves. We want to be there to capture those moments.”
Dale Moog
September 26, 2022 at 3:37 am
they canceled her show 30 before air. That is so petty