STEAMY MESSAGES …
As we’ve previously noted, we don’t watch cable television news channels (except on presidential election nights).
When these networks aren’t spreading fake news, they are gleefully fomenting our nation’s “all in” problem – polarizing public opinion in the hopes of keeping the “red team versus blue team” fiction going.
It’s sad – a far cry from what journalism should be. And while Fox News may not be as bad as some of its competitors on this front let’s not forget – this is the network that went “all in” to take out U.S. president Donald Trump during the 2016 “Republican” presidential primary (for all the wrong reasons).
Many “conservatives” don’t remember that … but we do.
Accordingly, we haven’t shed any tears for Fox as the network has grappled in recent months with multiple sexual harassment scandals.
Now the network has another one on its hands …
The latest drama centers around “conservative” pundit Scottie Nell Hughes, who has accused Fox host Charles Payne of sexually harassing her. According to Hughes, she was “coerced” into having a three-year affair with Payne – the host of Fox Business’ Making Money program. She continued this affair – which is alleged to have begun in 2013 – “under threat of reprisals.”
Both Hughes and Payne are married – and Payne has been suspended in the aftermath of Hughes’ allegations.
Payne has confirmed the affair, but called the harassment allegation “an ugly lie I vehemently deny to my core” and that there “is a mountain of proof that also proves its a lie.”
(Click to view)
(Via: Fox Business)
Racy messages sent from the former CNN analyst to Payne certainly seem to suggest he’s telling the truth.
“Do you know what I keep dreaming about … You and I in the pool,” Hughes wrote to Payne in one of the messages. “My legs wrapped around your waste [sic] and you have me pressed up against the wall of the pool. Skin glistening and smelling of coconut … You thrusting yourself deeper inside with each push … And your fingers grasping each of my cheeks.”
Wow …
“You are going to need every ounce of energy if we are even given the chance of lots of time and no commitments,” Hughes wrote in another message to Payne.
Further complicating matters for Hughes are quotes from former “colleagues” referring to her as a “female predator” who sought out powerful, conservative men to have sex with in an effort to advance her career.
“That is literally her pattern, to sleep with, do stuff with, to get ahead,” Hughes’ former colleague Kristina Lee Hall told Daily Wire. “It was so hard working with her because she was constantly playing the ‘I’m the best Christian southern woman, my children, my husband,’ but the whole time we saw her carry on multiple conversations on her phone with multiple guys.”
In one case, Hall claimed Hughes had sex with a prominent Tea Party leader while she was in the room.
That’s obviously not a good narrative for any “Christian, southern woman” – certainly not one who repeatedly blasted former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her husband’s affairs.
To be clear: We don’t begrudge either Hughes or Payne for their relationship. Stuff happens. Nor are we at this point shocked by the hypocrisy of some social conservatives who seek to impose one set of “family values” on the general population while applying quite another set to themselves. Again, that’s par for the course in the “conservative” movement.
And while Hughes’ racy messages certainly don’t suggest she was a woman “coerced,” we’re not going to make value judgments on the case at this point – except to say we hope it ends with a minimum of pain and embarrassment for all involved. And wisdom moving forward.
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