On Friday night, MSNBC’S star prime-time host, Rachel Maddow, delivered a remarkable announcement. NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, as well as her own network, would allow former staffers to be released from their nondisclosure agreements. “Any former NBC News employee who believes that they cannot disclose their experience with sexual harassment as a result of a confidentiality or non-disparagement provision in their separation agreement should contact NBCUniversal and we will release them from that perceived obligation,” the statement read.
The Peacock’s hand, it’s fair to say, had been forced. Days earlier, former NBC correspondent Ronan Farrow had launched an aggressive publicity tour for his latest book, Catch and Kill, a gripping account of his efforts to break the Harvey Weinstein story—a story that he alleges NBC tried to cover up, ultimately forcing him to take his reporting to the New Yorker. (NBC has strenuously denied many of the claims in Farrow’s book, including the allegation that NBC stopped Farrow’s reporting on Weinstein after Weinstein threatened to reveal Matt Lauer’s misconduct, which NBC has called “a smear.”)
For many women journalists, including myself, it was a clarifying moment, underscoring the frustrating pace of change in the media industry since the fall of Weinstein, and before him, Fox News chief Roger Ailes. For decades, powerful corporations have relied on NDAs to sweep sexual misconduct under the rug, often paying out millions of dollars to keep employees silent about the predatory behavior of senior executives. The system works against victims in other ways too: Litigation is costly, stressful, and frequently prohibits or otherwise prevents a litigant from obtaining new employment. In the post-#MeToo era, these settlement agreements are a relic of a system designed to prevent women from telling their own stories or to correct falsehoods disseminated by former employees or their surrogates.
Now, in the wake of the NBC scandal, at least six former Fox News employees, including Gretchen Carlson, the first woman at Fox News to publicly file a lawsuit against Ailes, are calling to be released from their NDAs. “All women at Fox News and beyond forced to sign NDAs should be released from them immediately, giving them back the voices they deserve,” Carlson told me over the weekend. “None of us asked to get into a workplace dispute. We simply had the courage to stand up and say something—but in the end it’s our voices no one can hear. Because of our NDAs, we can never say what is factually correct or incorrect about what happened to us at Fox.”
Carlson, whose case was settled in 2016, is the inspiration for a new movie, Bombshell, which tells the story of several women at Fox News assisting in the takedown of Ailes. The powerful television executive, who ruled the network with an iron fist for 20 years, was quickly terminated, and died less than a year later. But because of the NDA she signed, Carlson hasn’t been able to tell her own story. “Because of our NDAs, movies and television projects are being produced, but the women muzzled can’t comment on them. Because of our NDAs, others can continue to spread mistruths and deny our claims, knowing full well we can’t say a thing,” she told me. “Almost every woman who has been sexually assaulted or harassed in the workplace faces this same unfortunate fact—silence.”
This week, several former Fox reporters, anchors, and commentators are also asking to be released from their NDAs. Julie Roginsky, a former Fox News contributor who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against the network in December 2017, called NBC’s decision to release staffers from their NDAs “a huge step in the right direction.” Tamara Holder, another former Fox News contributor who settled a sexual assault claim against Fox News in February 2017, described the permanent muzzling of women through NDAs as another form of abuse. “An NDA is really just an extension of the underlying abuse,” she told me. “Sexual abuse is about power. And with these NDAs, the network has chosen to step in the shoes of the abuser.”
NDAs aren’t just psychologically retraumatizing. They also have sharp legal teeth attached. “If the victim ever does speak out, he or she will face serious financial penalties that can be more than the settlement itself,” explained Holder, now a women’s rights attorney. “As a result, women and men live in a constant state of fear, that if they say anything, the company will track them down, force them to hire an attorney, and demand thousands of dollars for the breach. Most victims of sexual abuse don’t speak out because of fear.”
The move by NBC to release network staffers from their NDAs could prove to be a game changer in an industry that has generally resisted the sort of tectonic shifts that could shake up the C-suite. But legislation to ban NDAs, which has been passed in states including California and New Jersey, is just the first of many steps that media companies must make to remedy a history of systemic sexism.
“People have been talking about giving all women more of a voice, to ‘believe her,’ to stand up and fight, to support and encourage women and future generations of women,” Carlson told me. “That fight includes paying women fairly, putting more women in C-suite positions, and giving women more board positions. But until we get rid of NDAs for sexual harassment or assault, women will never be truly equal. NDAs grant the ultimate secrecy, serving to keep our society’s gender inequality intact.”
Having signed a nondisclosure agreement myself, NBC’s decision profoundly resonated with me. In March 2018, I settled a lawsuit against Fox News in which I claimed gender and disability discrimination and retaliation. Since then, it has been frustrating to be unable to respond when false statements have been circulated about me by former colleagues. Many such settlement agreements also contain “no rehire” provisions, which prohibit ex-staffers who have done nothing wrong from even applying for re-employment at that network or any of its affiliates in perpetuity.
In a public statement issued this past Wednesday, Fox News declared, “Over the past three years, we have created an entirely new reporting structure, more than tripled the size of our HR footprint, instituted mandatory in-person sexual harassment training, started quarterly company meetings and mentoring events as well as implemented a zero-tolerance policy regarding workplace misconduct for which we engage outside independent firms to handle investigations.”
Women like Carlson, Roginsky, Holder, and myself are asking Fox News to live up to its public rhetoric by ending the practice of private settlements that force women to keep quiet about sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. There is now an opportunity for media companies to right past wrongs, achieve transparency, and lay the groundwork for healthy and respectful work environments. They hold the key to restoring the voices of all women who have experienced untold sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination in the workplace. Let the women tell their stories if they are so inclined.
