BY RAUL HERNANDEZ
MURDOCH’S GOLDEN GOOSE
Former Fox chief Roger Ailes left his job with a $40 million golden parachute while the list of women claiming that he allegedly sexually harassed them keeps growing. In addition to the multi-million package, Ailes will serve as a paid consultant to Fox, according to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch.
Ailes also ran a clandestine operation in a backroom of Fox studios where he used the station’s budget to hire investigators to spy on his perceived enemies, including journalists, and spread vicious rumors about others.
It was the kind of operation that the KGB would envy, and for years, it has been going on under the Fox banner of “Fair and Balance” journalism.
Instead of cleaning up the cesspool Ailes created and sending a strong message that sexual harassment wouldn’t be tolerated at Fox, Murdoch appointed two of Ailes’ staunch loyalists Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine to fill Ailes’ shoes.
Two of Ailes’ victims said they went to Shine to complain that Ailes was harassing them. Nothing was done. Shine told one victim that Ailes was a “powerful” man, according to published reports by Gabriel Sherman in New Yorker Magazine.
So it will be more of the same at Fox.
Murdoch’s launched an investigation into Ailes’ after the sexual misconduct allegations. It all sounds noble and deserving of applause. But Murdoch was never interested in finding the truth, firing those responsible and making sure it never happened again.
First of all, Ailes is the goose that laid the golden egg and has made Murdoch billions of dollars, and Murdoch is a businessman
who measures everything through the cold filter of cash-register eyes and bottomline of profit and loss statements.
The investigated into Ailes alleged sexual harassment and secret backroom operations was done for three reasons: It is a PR stunt to make Murdoch seem like he going to overhaul a badly broken network; gauge the damage to Fox caused by Ailes in dollars and cents, in other words, the extent of Fox’s financial liability and third, to legally cover their corporate asses.
Case law states that once a company has been put on notice by employee that he or she was sexually harassed, a business has the duty to investigate and determine whether the incident occurred. Failing to do isn’t a crime but that bit of information could land on the ears of unsympathetic jurors if a case goes to trial.
People should understand that corporation lawyers, first and foremost, know that their primary role is to protect the assets and fortunes of their masters from anyone perceived as a threat.
So people who are being sexually harassed need to know their rights, seek legal advice if the problem worsens and not bank on their employer’s Human Resources Office to do something about the problem.
A friend and fellow writer who is an attorney in Ventura, California, Greg Ramirez, agreed to pen a column in 2014 about how to deal with sexual harassment. I thought it was one of the best advice articles about this issue.
So I urge employees to read the article titled “Sexual Harassment 101: Do’s and Don’t’s for Employees in the Workplace.“
SURPRISING SEXUAL HARASSMENT STATS:
I always thought most of the sexual harassment in the workplace comes from supervisors and management. But I was wrong, according to the Association of Women for Research and Action
Snapshot of Statistics from AWARE:
Their study on 500 respondents and 92 companies reported these findings:
- Sexual Harassment is common in the Workplace
- 54% (272) had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment.
- 27% of the 272 respondents experienced harassment by their colleague, while 17% were harassed by their superior.
- 79% of the victims are women; 21% were men.
- 12% had received threats of termination if they did no comply with the requests of the sexual harassers.
- Sexual Harassment occurs across the board.
- Both women and men are more likely to have been harassed by the opposite sex, although some have also experienced harassment from the same sex. In AWARE’s survey, 79% of the respondents who reported having experienced workplace sexual harassment were female; 21% were male.
- Sexual harassment occurs across the board. Most of the harassment is experienced at executive levels, followed by administrative staff. While reports of victimization are fewer, there are incidents of sexual harassment at management and senior management positions.
- Awareness of mechanisms for redress within the Workplace
- 66.6% (333) were not aware of any policies.
- 50.4% indicated that they were aware of a department or resource person they could approach on sexual harassment.
A copy of the full report of the survey is available at AWARE.
TRUMP’S EXIT STRATEGY
Donald Trump is blaming the media for his shortcoming and his inability to keep stepping on this tongue.
“If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%,” Trump said Sunday in one of seven anti-media tweets, according to CNN.
So the Trump 24/7 Network, CNN, seizing the opportunity to pump up their rating immediately took the bait, blew the allegations up and dragged out Trump’s media whores, stooges and apologists and put them on the air to explain that Trump really doesn’t mean what he says, he just says what he means etc.etc.etc.
Earth to CNN and other media outlets: Trump is looking for an exit strategy. He is blaming the media, he complained about the elections being “rigged” and has said he will not debate Clinton if the debates are unfair.
Trump knows the scoreboard. It is fourth quarter, two minutes left in the game and the opposing team is ahead by 20 points.
Trump is terrified of a humiliating defeat. His YUGE ego will be badly bruised and battered beyond repair, and he will be embarrassed by the thrashing Clinton will give him at the polls. Worse, he will be the laughingstock to the nation and the rest of the world.
But even worse, much worse. The banks will refuse to give him loans, and his businesses will suffer because the Trump name will be as useless as an outhouse ornament.
So to save face, Trump has to find others to blame for his shortcomings and failures. He will tell his ignorant followers that he would have won the election had the media treated him fairly, the debates not favored Clinton and the elections had been fair.
His coalition — Nazis; old ladies who yearn for the days of poodle skirts and hula hoops; angry and aging white men; evangelicals who are convinced that Donald loves Jesus; white supremacists; the ignorant and insane — will be told that others were the cause of his inability to be taken serious.
The Donald Trump faithful will forgive their political messiah for all his transgressions.
Trump will make a Nixonian exit, wave to the crowd as he boards his jet and promise them that he will make a political resurrection in three years.
Cheers. Applause.
PROSECUTOR MISCONDUCT
I swear I have been in the fictional courtroom that author John Grisham describes in his novel, “Rogue Lawyer,” more than I care to remember: “Grady (defendant) was essentially convicted the day he was arrested, and his trial is only a formality. The 
dumb and desperate cops trumped up the charges and fabricated the evidence. The prosecutor knows but has no spine and is up for reelection next year. The judge is asleep. The jurors are basically nice, simple people, wide-eyed at the process and ever so anxious to believe the lies their proud authorities are producing on the witness stand.”
In the 18 years that I covered the courts I couldn’t believe the lack of professional integrity of some prosecutors. These are the attorneys who work at District Attorney’s Office who are more concerned with racking up courtroom victories and scoring points to make their DA bosses look good on paper than making sure justice was served.
Most prosecutors are hardworking, honest and are concerned about finding the truth no matter where it may lead.
But therein lies the problem: How does someone separate the wheat from the chaff?
Well, the state of California is proposing to do just that — the state wants to nail shysters posing as prosecutors who falsify or withhold evidence from the defense.
There is a new bill making its way through the Legislature that would hold prosecutors criminally liable if they withhold evidence from defendants or their lawyers, according to an article published last week in the Orange County Register by Reporter Tony Saavedra
The article states that the proposal by Assemblywoman Patty Lopez, D-San Fernando, comes as prosecutors in Orange County face accusations that they’ve routinely misused jailhouse informants and withheld information from defense attorneys.
But the problem of prosecutorial misconduct predates Orange County’s snitch controversy, the article states.
A 2010 study by Santa Clara University School of Law looked at misconduct statewide, concluding: “Courts fail to report prosecutorial misconduct (despite having a statutory obligation to do so), prosecutors deny that it occurred, and the California State Bar almost never disciplines it…The problem is critical.”
The study noted that just six out of 600 prosecutors accused of misconduct in California between 1997 and 2009 were punished by the state Bar.
“As a member of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, I believe that accountability for California’s prosecutors is critical to ensuring that justice in our courts is truly served,” Lopez said Wednesday by email, according to the article.
Opposing the measure is the 500-member union representing Orange County lawyers, including deputy district attorneys, public defenders and county counsel. The group’s board on Tuesday voted 8-3 to oppose the bill, according to the article.
Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis, the union’s president, told Saavedra that the new bill is redundant and would clog the justice system.
“There are already safeguards in place to deal with the things the bill is trying to address,” Guirguis said. “There’s no evidence there’s an explosion of intentional violations.”
To read the entire article click here: Orange County Register
Also attorneys, including prosecutors, who are unethical or unprofessional can be reported a state’s Bar Association. In California, the complaint forms can be filled in online: California Bar Association