Eric Bolling. Photo courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter.
Summary: Journalist Yashar Ali has responded to the defamation lawsuit from Eric Bolling of Fox News.
Journalist, Yashar Ali, is taking a stand against Fox News’ Eric Bolling. Ali wrote a piece about Bolling allegedly harassing employees at the conservative news outlet, and in return, Bolling filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against him.
On August 4, Ali published a piece for The Huffington Post that exposed that Bolling had allegedly sent lewd text messages to his Fox coworkers. In response to the media attention, Fox News suspended the anchor and hired law firm Paul Weiss to handle the sexual harassment investigation.
Paul Weiss also conducted the probe into the actions of other Fox employees, former host Bill O’Reilly and former Fox CEO Roger Ailes; and the law firm found that both men had conducted themselves inappropriately with multiple female employees. Both men were subsequently fired by the network.
In Ali’s story, he wrote that Bolling had sent two female colleagues dick pics unsolicited. Bolling said in his defamation lawsuit that he had no recollection of those communications and that he was looking to “vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made.” He is seeking $50 million in damages.
Bolling’s lawsuit comes at a time when several high-profile individuals have sued media publications for unflattering stories and won. In 2016, wrestler Hulk Hogan bankrupted Gawker Media for publishing a sex tape between him and his friend’s wife, and this year, stars such as Rebel Wilson and Blake Shelton have won settlements against publications that wrote stories that allegedly harmed their respective reputations.
Bolling chose to sue Ali only and not Huffington Post, and Ali’s high-profile attorney, Patricia Glaser, said that this was a “calculated effort to harass and intimidate Mr. Ali personally,” according to Politico. Although not named in the lawsuit, Huffington Post said that they would support Ali with his legal battle.
On Friday, Glaser sent a letter to Bolling’s attorney Michael Bowe and Dianne Brandi, Fox News’ executive vice president of legal and business affairs” and said that Bolling’s lawsuit did not list which parts of Ali’s lawsuit contained “‘false and misleading’ statements could possibly support a $50 million damages reward.” Glaser’s letter also said that Ali did not publish defamatory statements and did not work with “malice,” a key component of winning a defamation case.
“We welcome the opportunity to depose Mr. Bolling and review his message history, as we presume that you have instructed him to preserve communications. We are also confident that Paul Weiss’s internal Fox investigation will corroborate Mr. Ali’s article,” Glaser wrote.
Glaser demanded Bolling’s lawsuit be dropped immediately or sanctions would be pursued, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In Glaser’s letter, she said that Ali had emailed Bolling’s representative prior to the publication of the lewd text story and that although it was said that Bolling did not recall such inappropriate communications, that was not a denial of the accusations.
“Mr. Ali conducted a thorough investigation and verified his information with 14 independent sources,” Glaser said in her letter. “Furthermore, truth is always a defense to defamation.”
In response to Glaser’s letter, Bowe told The Hollywood Reporter, “It is ironic and telling that Ms. Glaser accuses us of a publicity stunt in a letter she has yet to send me and that I learned about from the New York Times. She is right about one thing. No evidence has been produced about these claims, and that is why we filed suit so that the evidence and truth will come out.”
Below is a copy of Glaser’s letter obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Bolling v Ali | Letter to Bowe by ashley6cullins on Scribd
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