Fox News' Most Explosive Scandals That Completely Rocked The Network

This article references sexual harassment.

Fox has weathered several scandals over the years, with each year bringing with it a fresh bout of impropriety. Longtime viewers (and critics) will remember the 2015 debacle when so-called terrorism expert Steven Emerson claimed on air that Muslims are being discriminated against in Birmingham, England. "In Britain, it's not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in," Emerson asserted (via The Guardian). "And, parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn't dress according to religious Muslim attire."

Emerson's unfounded — and ultimately false — comments, had people hot under the collar. Even the British prime minister at the time, David Cameron, commented on the segment. "When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fools' day. This guy's clearly a complete idiot," Cameron said in a statement. Ouch. Not exactly a good look for a news network whose slogan at the time was still "fair and balanced." This wasn't the first time Fox was called out for inaccurate reporting, nor would it be the last.

In 2022, a study, which paid avid Fox News viewers to watch CNN for a month, found that participants saw news on the latter they'd never even heard of on Fox. Suddenly, they were presented with facts and information about their country that they'd never been aware of before. But the network's inability to consistently report hard facts was hardly its only vice — the toxic workplace culture was far worse.

The year was 2009. Former President Barack Obama was only a few months into his first term, and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck definitely didn't vote blue the year before. Let's be honest, the Obamas didn't offer up much in terms of tabloid fodder. In fact, looking back, the Obama family's so-called scandals are incidents we can't believe people cared about, but Beck found something he could throw the then-president's way — an accusation of racism. While making an appearance on "Fox & Friends," Beck asserted, "[Obama has] a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" (via CBS News).

Beck's statement didn't go unchallenged. Fox host Brian Kilmeade, who went on to enrage Twitter with a comment about pregnant women getting jobs in 2022, actually clapped back, questioning Beck's remarks and arguing that Obama's cabinet was mostly white. "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people," Beck contradicted himself. "He has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist." Indeed, sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the reasoning on Fox News.

Beck based his argument off the former president's reaction to a Black man who got arrested by a white police officer after breaking into his own house because he forgot his key. The man in question, Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., was arrested for disorderly conduct after he tried to convince the officer that the house was his by presenting him with his ID . Obama later said "the police acted stupidly" (via CBS News). This irked Beck and led to his conclusion that Obama must be racist. Calling the nation's first Black president racist wasn't exactly a good look for Beck — or Fox News.

In what was arguably the mother of all scandals that hit Fox News, its founder and longtime CEO, Roger Ailes, was let go from the network after allegations of sexual harassment against him were made public in 2016. He became the first of many Fox News personalities who were fired for their inappropriate behavior.

Ailes' demise came after Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against the CEO for sexual harassment. Ailes never admitted to any wrongdoing, despite 20 more women coming forward with similar allegations shortly after Carlson went public. This number continued to climb. Biographer Gabriel Sherman called it "a shocking scandal," on NPR's "Fresh Air" podcast, adding, "You really have to start to question, did Roger Ailes preside over a culture that was not only — it tolerated sexual harassment, but it was almost built to encourage it?" Looking back, it appears to have been a little bit of both.

Ailes, meanwhile, was given the opportunity to resign rather than summarily getting fired and managed to negotiate a nice going-away present in the form of a $40 million severance package. The disgraced CEO had the audacity to pat himself on the back for all he'd done for his female employees. "I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and on-air positions," he wrote in a letter provided to Reuters at the time. Ailes was never convicted of any wrongdoing before his death in 2017.

One would think that the Roger Ailes scandal would have buried it, but it rose from the ashes. That doesn't mean the scandalous echoes of its past don't continue to haunt it, however. Alisyn Camerota, who left Fox News for CNN, reminded everyone of the scandal in 2017 when she added her voice to the growing group of women who came forward to accuse Ailes of sexual harassment. She told CNN how she asked Ailes for a promotion and was told that she'd need to grant him sexual favors as compensation. She never took him up on the offer and was too ashamed to speak out. Meanwhile, the same thing was happening to her other female colleagues. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was one of them.

While making an appearance on the "Shawn Ryan Show" in 2024, Kelly recalled how Ailes once tried to kiss her after she repeatedly pushed him away. "I went over by the door to get out," Kelly recalled. "He looked at me and said, 'When is your contract up?'" Kelly also recalled how the Fox CEO would make comments about her and other women's bodies. Kelly said she was constantly aware of the fact that if she outright rejected Ailes, her career would go up in flames.

Aside from Camerota and Kelly bringing Fox's toxic workplace culture back into the spotlight, the former also dealt some blows to the network in 2019 when she revealed on CNN that Fox wasn't big on broadcasting facts, instead focusing on relaying misinformation to stoke fear or convince its viewers that discrimination against certain groups of people were perfectly warranted.

Anyone who's been keeping up with ex-Fox News hosts knows about Bill O'Reilly lashing out against his former network. Before he was just another disgraced Fox News host, O'Reilly hosted one of the network's most popular shows, "The O'Reilly Factor." But then his clandestine activities were revealed to the public in 2017 by The New York Times. The outlet asserted that O'Reilly had paid off several women to keep them from filing sexual harassment suits against him. In fact, the Fox alum dished out $13 million to keep his image intact. It was all in vain, however.

After news about the sexual harassment allegations against the man who used to be dubbed "the king of cable news" surfaced, Fox cut ties with O'Reilly as advertisers pulled out one after the other. Much like Fox CEO Roger Ailes, O'Reilly declared himself innocent and the victim of a smear campaign. "It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today," O'Reilly said in a statement (via The Guardian). Much like with Ailes, more women came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against the talk show host after The Times published its bombshell article.

"The smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O'Reilly for political and financial reasons. That evidence will be put forth shortly, and it is irrefutable," O'Reilly's lawyers said amid the raging media tempest. This concrete evidence is yet to be presented to the public. Fox didn't stick up for Ailes, and it sure didn't for O'Reilly, wasting no time in sending the anchor on his merry way.

In what was another stunning scandal that rocked the network, Fox News host Laura Ingraham took it upon herself to mock one of the survivors of the Parkland shooting, David Hogg, on social media in 2018. She took to X, then Twitter, to berate the gun-control activist for complaining about not getting into four of the schools he applied to. "David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)," she tweeted.

Many people were outraged by the tweet, including OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who responded, "Wow this is mean spirited as hell and disgusting. Reminds me of kids at my school... when I was 12." Oof. Hogg didn't stay silent either, taking to the platform to clap back, providing his followers with a list of the advertisers who sponsored Ingraham's show, urging them to contact the companies and demand they pull their advertisements. It worked. Many of the companies subsequently released statements announcing that they'd no longer be spending their advertising dollars on Ingraham's show. Finally feeling the heat, Ingraham took to X again, this time to apologize. "Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @DavidHogg11. On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland," she wrote.

Hogg didn't let Ingraham off the hook, however, and in a subsequent tweet berated her for what he deemed was only "an apology in an effort just to save your advertisers," adding, "It's time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children."

In 2023, Fox News faced a scandal unlike any before: Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against the cable network for peddling election lies. Fox notoriously parroted President Donald Trump's claims of election fraud after he lost to former President Joe Biden in 2020. In text messages between the network's hosts that were released to the public after Dominion filed its lawsuit, it was clear that most of them knew they were lying to their audience about the supposed election fraud that took place but were terrified to tell the truth for fear of the network losing viewers and, subsequently, advertisers, which would lead to them losing their lucrative jobs. The fact that Trump told all his supporters to ditch Fox for Newsmax, another right-wing channel, didn't help matters; the network saw a significant drop in viewers shortly after.

Court documents showed that, while some of the journalists at the network were still trying to get the truth across, prominent hosts like Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson were hellbent on keeping their colleagues in line; in other words, making sure they were repeating Trump's rhetoric — the facts be damned. An anonymous staffer told CNN that many Fox employees were left "shocked and disgusted" by what had been revealed by the lawsuit. "Even longtime staffers. You would think after all we've been through nothing could surprise us. But this is unprecedented," they said.

Fox eventually settled with Dominion outside of court, paying the voting machine company a whopping $787 million in damages. The fact that Fox would dish out that kind of cash rather than put some of its hosts on the stand (which was a possibility), says a lot.

A list of Fox News' most memorable scandals would not be complete without mention of the network's former controversial firebrand Tucker Carlson. He stands out among the rest, not for his journalistic prowess, but as one of the few hosts at the network who actually got fired for their inappropriate behavior instead of being offered the opportunity to silently resign.

Carlson's demise came after a text message he sent a day after the January 6 insurrection was published by The New York Times in 2023. In the lengthy message sent to one of his producers, Carlson recounted a violent encounter between "a group of Trump guys," as he put it, and an "Antifa kid." Carlson wrote, "I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it." In the same text, the controversial news anchor admitted he was ashamed of his thoughts and was turning into a person he didn't recognize. "The Antifa creep is a human being ... I shouldn't gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it," Carlson added. This part of the message didn't do him any favors with the powers that be at Fox News, who were nervous about the Dominion trial and didn't want another scandal on their hands. Carlson was summarily fired.

This was, apparently, not the only controversial or hateful text the former Fox host sent. In his book, "Network of Lies," journalist Brian Stelter claimed that Carlson had also behaved unseemly toward some of his female colleagues (this appears to be a prerequisite when you work at Fox News), calling public relations boss Irena Briganti, a "c***."

Pete Hegseth has had several embarrassing moments during his tenure in the Trump administration, but he also made some uncomfortable waves before he became the secretary of defense. Hegseth, who is a Fox News host turned Trump cabinet member was previously accused of sexual assault in 2017, and paid the woman in question $50,000 to keep the case out of court. The allegations made a comeback ahead of Hegseth's confirmation hearing, a stark reminder that many of the folks who work at Fox News tend to have questionable morals.

Hegseth dedicated a decade of his life to Fox News before he landed himself an office in the Pentagon. When the rape allegations against him made headlines again after Trump tapped him for the coveted job, Fox News decided to ignore the entire situation altogether, not once covering the allegations against its former host on its network. Not exactly shocking, given that Hegseth had some good old clandestine fun while he was employed at the network — something his mother pointed out in a scathing letter that was published by The New York Times in 2024. Hegseth had an affair with a Fox News colleague while he was still married to his second wife. This was one of the things that prompted his mother to write, "I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth." Hegseth's confirmation hearing was a landmine, and it might be safe to say even Fox News might pass on employing him again in the future.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).