Well-respected radio and TV host Sean Hannity is the latest Fox News personality to be accused of sexual harassment.
Last week, Bill O’Reilly was unceremoniously fired after a handful of present and former Fox staffers complained that he sexually harassed them.
O’Reilly vigorously denied the claims, but he made matters worse by quietly paying out millions of dollars to his accusers.
Now Hannity, a noted author and political analyst, has come under fire for allegedly sexually harassing former Fox News contributor Debbie Schlussel.
Schlussel accused the 55-year-old, happily married father-of-2 of inviting her back to his hotel room. She claimed Fox News terminated her as on-air contributor after she turned down Hannity’s invitation.
“He had some event at a bookstore where he signed his book for people standing in line. He asked me to come meet him at this book signing,” Schlussel said on a radio show on Friday.
“So I met him there and it was very awkward. He had me up there with him while he signed books and I felt very weird. These people don’t know me and they didn’t come for me to sign their books. Then I left to get ready for the show, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come back with me to my hotel?’ and I said no, I have to get ready for the show.”
Hannity disputed the accusations, saying Schlussel, a former Fox News on-air guest, has a history of harassing him over the last decade.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Hannity wrote:
“LET ME BE CLEAR THE COMMENTS ABOUT ME ON A RADIO SHOW THIS WEEK by this individual ARE 100 percent false and a complete fabrication. This individual is a serial harasser who has been lying about me for well over a decade. The individual has a history of making provably false statements against me in an effort to slander, smear and besmirch my reputation.”
Hannity threatened to take legal action against Schlussel, who once accused him of running a scam charity for military families.
In 2007, Schlussel wrote a blog post accusing Hannity of “deliberately ripping off” an anti-Muslim column she wrote in the New York Post.
It should be noted that Fox News is now being run by Rupert Murdoch sons, Lachlan and James, both Democrats. James Murdoch’s wife works for the Clinton Climate Initiative, and the couple contributed to the failed Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
Hannity appears to be the latest victim of a witch-hunt to remove longtime conservative personalities at Fox News.
Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images
