Thursday, March 28, 2024

Fox News Fires ‘The Five’ Co-Host Bob Beckel for Racist Comment to Black Employee

Bob Beckel
Bob Beckel of ‘The Five’ (Fox News)

*Fox News has fired Bob Beckel again, announcing Friday that his contract had been terminated “for making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee,” reports Variety.

No further details about the nature of the comment were given in the network’s statement. According to Variety:

Fox News’ human-resources department was made aware of a complaint about what one person familiar with the situation characterized as a “racially insensitive remark” on Tuesday evening. Executives conducted an internal investigation, this person said, and decided to part ways with Beckel Friday morning.

Beckel had been one of the five hosts on Fox’s primetime program, “The Five.” He was previously fired in 2015 during his recuperation from back surgery.

“We tried to work with Bob for months, but we couldn’t hold ‘The Five’ hostage to one man’s personal issues,” said Bill Shine, who was then the network’s executive vice president of programming, in a statement at the time. “He took tremendous advantage of our generosity, empathy and goodwill and we simply came to the end of the road with him.”

Beckel then joined CNN as a contributor before re-joining “The Five” earlier this year.

Beckel’s firing follows a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by several current and former employees against Fox News in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, adding to a wave of litigation set against the network that levels claims of sexual harassment and cultural insensitivity.

The network has set in place a new human-resources chief and hired female executives to fill an open chief financial officer slot as well as its head of ad sales. Staffers have been urged to come forward if they believe they witness discriminatory behavior. In a memo to employees sent in April, Fox News’ human resources chief told employees, “We want to give you every opportunity to be heard” about workplace concerns.

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