It has been a rough 18 months for Fox News. No doubt about it.
“Were there days when I wanted to walk away?” Outnumbered Overtime anchor and longtime Fox Newser Harris Faulkner asked LA Times’ Stephen Battaglio during a recent interview. “Yeah, especially when people judged me in public in front of my children. But I didn’t, and I’m glad that I haven’t.”
A Fox Newser since 2005, Faulker says she could be “part of the solution.” She hosts the network’s 1 p.m. hour, Outnumbered Overtime, which is dominating CNN and MSNBC in the ratings department.
Faulkner has been noticing positive change at the company since the departure of former Fox News ceo Roger Ailes and other executives.
“It’s becoming different,” she said. “I’m not Pollyanna. Nobody has a magic wand. I pray that we are [midway] toward the end in this journey.” She cites a human resources department that has doubled in size and access to outside legal counsel. “If women are in a place where they want to communicate now, they almost have so many choices they have to ask which should I choose,” she said.
But Faulkner’s interview with the LA Times came before 21st Century Fox executive chairman Rupert Murdoch went on Sky Broadcasting last Thursday, and made comments which have been interpreted by many as downplaying the longtime problems at his company.
When asked a question about whether or not he believes sexual misconduct cases have hurt his company’s bottom line, Murdoch told Sky’s Ian King: “That’s all nonsense. There was a problem with our chief executive, over the year, isolated incidents.” (21CF has since released statements saying the boss’s comments have been misinterpreted).
Faulkner also recalled an encounter with Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade during a 2015 holiday cooking segment. Faulkner prepared her mother’s peach cobbler recipe with her daughter. During the demonstration, Kilmeade asked Faulkner if she served Kool-Aid at her meals.
Faulkner said she had made a decision to stay focused on the task at hand, and didn’t want the racial stereotype to spoil the segment. Faulkner says she has moved on, but also says Kilmeade has never apologized for the comments.
“If he came to me this day and apologized, I would accept it,” she said.