Federal probe into Fox News casts shadow over Murdoch empire

For Rupert Murdoch, the timing could not be worse. Six years after the tabloid phone-hacking saga engulfed his media empire and torpedoed his bid for Sky, a federal investigation into another company controlled by the 86-year-old billionaire could undermine his latest offer for the European pay-TV group

The sexual harassment scandal at Mr Murdoch’s Fox News Channel has already cost millions of dollars in payouts to victims after Roger Ailes, its former chairman, was fired last summer following allegations that he harassed a former presenter. Several other women came forward claiming similar treatment, including Megyn Kelly, then the network’s star presenter, and Laurie Luhn, a former Fox News talent booker, who was paid a secret $3.1m settlement by the channel in 2011 in exchange for her silence.

Yet the turmoil at the cable news channel is far from over. Fresh allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse have been levelled at leading presenter Bill O’Reilly, leading more than 20 companies to pull their advertising from his programme.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are investigating whether settlements for alleged harassment with Ms Luhn and potentially other Fox News employees were concealed from investors in 21st Century Fox, the network’s parent company, according to two people briefed on the probe. Investigators are looking into whether any financial misreporting was limited to the Luhn payment, or whether there was a more systemic effort to conceal payments.

https://www.ft.com/content/26ce771c-1916-11e7-9c35-0dd2cb31823a

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/16/515509093/lawyer-alleges-fox-news-is-under-federal-investigation-related-to-sexual-harassm