The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty. Sometimes cultural standards just need a different perspective so we can see them for what they really are — a collective acceptance… a subconscious agreement. We are in charge of our agreement. Little girls everywhere are absorbing our agreement, passive or otherwise. And it begins early. The message that girls are not pretty unless they’re incredibly thin, that they’re not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine is something we’re all willingly buying into.
.. And that’s particularly so because Jen emphasizes the fact that the paparazzi’s treatment of her is simply an extreme extension of how the culture at large has been treating the women who are both part of, and subject to, its whims. Despite all the progress feminism has made in the past decades, we still live in an age that treats women’s bodies as objects of communal ownership. An age that effectively regards women not just as people, but also as vessels—waiting to be filled and made complete by way of partners and children and families.
.. Celebrities now have more say over their own brands via the messages they put forward in their Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat feeds; paparazzi, as a result, now distinguish themselves by seeking, in particular, the images and the stories that celebrities don’t see fit to share themselves. Which often means post-gym pictures and makeup-free pictures and, yes, speculative-baby-bump pictures.
The Carlson Camp
Inside the team of lawyers and P.R. agents strategizing former Fox anchor’s battle against Roger Ailes
Carlson had not given Fox a heads-up, or even announced publicly that she had been terminated from the network.
“Ailes and Fox have a very heavy hand in media relations. What’s important [is] no one had known up until the suit was filed that Gretchen had been fired,” Ripp Media founder Allan Ripp told POLITICO.
.. As someone who knows Smith’s firm well, Reis said she believes they wouldn’t have taken the case without assiduously vetting the claims.
.. Carlson and her lawyers knew that it wouldn’t be enough to fight the case in the courts; they also had to have a good P.R. strategy. That’s where Ripp Media comes in.
.. Most major national news outlets covered the suit. The most conspicuous outlier was the New York Post, which is owned by 21st Century Fox sister company News Corp. As of Saturday morning, the tabloid hadn’t published anything about the case in print or online. The Wall Street Journal, which is also owned by News Corp., reported the allegations on Thursday in a story on page B5, which was blurbed on the front page.
.. “There’s some allegations that have not even been included yet that may come out in discovery. … Not everything that could have been in the complaint was included in the complaint,” he said.
Carlson’s representatives have said that her aim is to air her complaints in a public jury trial, that settlement is not an option. Of course, that’s what complainants always say at this stage of the game.
Carlson would seem to be well situated to make good on her pledge to bring this matter to trial. Her husband, Casey Close, is one of the richest sports agents in professional baseball, with a client list that includes Derek Jeter and Clayton Kershaw.
.. “Gretchen believes she’s representing a long list of women who have faced similar issues and harassment,” Ripp said. “And she wants to take this to the very end. So she’s happy and fully prepared to go to trial. That could be a long time away.”
Six More Women Allege That Roger Ailes Sexually Harassed Them
Ailes is clearly trying to keep these stories out of the press and the courts. Late on Friday, his lawyers filed a motion in federal court in New Jersey seeking to move Carlson’s lawsuit to arbitration, which would prevent witnesses from being called in court.
.. So we get in the car and that’s when he said, ‘You know if you want to play with the big boys, you have to lay with the big boys.’
.. He said that’s how all these men in media and politics work — everyone’s got their friend. I said, ‘Would I have to be friends with anybody else?’ And he said, ‘Well you might have to give a blowjob every once in a while.’
Gretchen Carlson Suit Against Fox News Head Forces Network to Face Changing Mores
Respect and equality in the workplace don’t represent political correctness anymore, if they ever did. They are the cornerstones of modern human resource policies used by sophisticated companies. Mr. Ailes is not just bumping up against an annoyance he can wave away, he’s confronting a new world order, something Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, understood when they issued a statement about the lawsuit saying, “We take these matters seriously’’ and would conduct an internal review.
..Mr. Ailes’s very approach to television — as the quintessential visual medium — has stood as a rebuke to those who might be sensitive to signs of female objectification. His sets are famous for their translucent desks, which show the legs of his female stars who are so often in skirts.
It was Ms. Carlson who once said that when she was a host on the set of “Fox & Friends,” the network’s morning program, “pants were not allowed.” Fox News has denied any such rule.
.. A few years ago, Mr. Ailes might have been free to defend himself with the unquestioned support of his like-minded longtime patron, Mr. Murdoch, who has stood by him as Mr. Ailes has brought in huge revenue ..
.. But Mr. Murdoch’s sons have different political and corporate sensibilities than their father.