Newspaper Columnist Rachel Marsden Ousted From Fox News Channel Show Canadian Press
Published: Friday, June 01, 2007
TORONTO (CP) - Right-wing pundit Rachel Marsden, best known in Canada for a couple of high-profile sexual harassment controversies, was escorted out of Fox News Channel's New York offices by security guards earlier this week and removed from the show "Red Eye." Marsden says on her blog, www.rachelmarsden.com, that she will no longer appear on the show.
"I have been told that it is heading in a 'different direction' from its inception, and I am the 'first casualty,"' she wrote. But the New York Post reported Thursday that Fox's reasons for dismissing Marsden might not have simply been about changing direction, quoting an insider as saying she was removed due to erratic behaviour. In an e-mail exchange, Marsden denied the Post claim, and said it was standard procedure to be escorted from the building when given a pink slip at Fox News.
"They are always concerned that someone will take a laptop or a computer or something," Marsden said in the e-mail. "Truth be told, the show started off being newsy and political, but the content had changed drastically from its inception."
Marsden added: "I have nothing but the utmost respect for Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and the other show hosts at Fox News who have been very professional and supportive of me, and I prefer to leave 'Red Eye' with my own professionalism and integrity intact - and that includes staying clear of any mudslinging."
The telegenic Marsden, 31, a political columnist at the Toronto Sun, was involved in a controversy at Simon Fraser University in the late 1990s when she accused a swim coach of sexually harassing her. The coach was fired from the university and then later reinstated after he contended that, in fact, Marsden had stalked him. In an unrelated case, Marsden was charged in 2002 with criminal harassment of a Vancouver radio show host and given a conditional discharge with one year of probation.
http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=98452642-ceb5-4ca0-a263-ffd5345f7b75&k=82177PS - Further excerpt from her blog:
" It was also the first time that I was ever considered the "sane one" on any program, so I am grateful for that unique opportunity and wish the boys the very best of luck."www.rachelmarsden.com
*** - When Faux News gives you the ax for "erratic behavior", where in the hell do you go from there? And more to the point, how can THEY tell when someone's erratic???
Still, she did have nice gams.....