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Fox News faces new race discrimination claim

Fox News is facing a racial discrimination class action from past and present employees.

Fox News is facing a racial discrimination class action from past and present employees.

Eleven current and former Fox News employees have filed a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit against broadcaster, adding to the mounting troubles at the 21st Century Fox-owned cable news network.

The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, accuses Fox News of “abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination”.

It expands on a complaint filed in March by Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright, two black women who previously worked in Fox News’ payroll department who say that longtime company comptroller Judith Slater engaged in racist behaviour that was routinely overlooked by Fox News executives.

Monica Douglas, a third Fox News employee, joined Brown and Wright’s lawsuit last month after she was fired by the cable channel in February.

Adasa Blanco, another Fox News employee, filed a separate lawsuit against the network, Slater and Fox News lawyer Dianne Brandi, in federal court in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.

The lawsuits come as the channel faces increased scrutiny of its work environment after the network parted ways last week with its top talent, Bill O’Reilly, in the face of multiple allegations he sexually harassed women at the cable channel.

Last year, longtime Fox News chief Roger Ailes was fired from the network over similar allegations of harassment.

The class action suit accuses Fox News’ actions as being “more akin to Plantation-style management than a modern-day work environment” and that Brandi and other executives actively covered for racially discriminatory behaviour by O’Reilly, current Fox News co-president Bill Shine and others.

A representative for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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