00:00Tamara Holder is a former contributor for Fox News, where she also had her own show
00:05covering high-profile sports controversies.
00:08Hi, I'm Tamara Holder and welcome to SportsCourt.
00:10But in 2015, her life changed completely.
00:14Former Fox News contributor who settled with the company after she reported that she was sexually assaulted.
00:19I had a man pull out his penis in his office and shove my head on it.
00:24After reporting what happened, Tamara's contract wasn't renewed and she was left without work.
00:30Then, the company's owner, Rupert Murdoch, publicly dismissed her story.
00:34It's really painful to have everything stripped away from you when you think you're doing the right thing by standing
00:43up for yourself.
00:44I'm Amanda Knox, and I've also had to overcome a campaign of people who didn't want to hear my side
00:50of the story.
00:51Now I want to know how women today are fighting back against those trying to keep them silent.
01:06I'm here in Chicago to meet with Tamara Holder.
01:10Tamara signed an NDA so I don't actually know what she's going to be able to talk to me about.
01:17But from what I've gathered, the picture is she had lunch with the boss.
01:22He invited her into his office afterwards to further discuss work opportunities.
01:29He poured them tequila shots, barred the door, took out his penis, and tried to force her head down onto
01:37it.
01:39And I want to talk to her about what it means to be betrayed by the people you trusted,
01:45by your own colleagues. And further, to have her story dismissed.
01:53Hi.
01:54Hello. Hi.
01:56Nice to meet you.
01:57Oh, it's nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having me here.
02:00Of course.
02:00It's beautiful.
02:02How long did you work at Fox?
02:0410 years.
02:05I always wanted to be on TV.
02:07I started my law practice and would put money from my law practice into a publicist and whatever to get
02:16there.
02:16It was just, it was a passion of mine.
02:19As a left-leaning contributor for Fox, Tamara wasn't popular with the viewers.
02:24But she pushed through the negativity she got online and thrived in a competitive environment.
02:30Let me ask you a question.
02:32All right.
02:32I'm actually going to let you finish your answer.
02:34I know this is shocking.
02:34She was looking for bigger career opportunities when she found herself shut in an office with
02:39Fox executive Francisco Cortez.
02:42The reason why I was in that office was because I wanted to work.
02:48It was a meeting about work.
02:52Can you walk me through what happened?
02:56It was horrifying to feel trapped.
03:02The first thing that I thought of was, I can't run out of this office and scream for help.
03:10I can't.
03:11When you're in a situation like that, you're thinking, am I going to die?
03:14Am I going to be raped?
03:15Is somebody going to see this?
03:17Is somebody, do I have help?
03:18Do I have anything?
03:19And it's one of the safest buildings in the world.
03:22There's bulletproof glass and I'm not safe.
03:28Do you remember what you did immediately afterwards when you escaped?
03:31All I remember is saying to myself, I'm going to go back to my desk and I'm going to be
03:40okay.
03:40And I'm just going to get back to work.
03:47What was it like talking to your lawyers about what had happened?
03:51First, I went to the agents and he said, if you say something, you will forever be toxic in television.
04:00So I went away to Jamaica and I came back and I said, I thought about what you said.
04:06I am going to keep my mouth shut because I just want to work.
04:11I just want a career in an email. And he responds, good choice.
04:17After the assault, Tamara worked at Fox for over a year without reporting it.
04:22Welcome to SportsCourt. I'm Tamara Holder.
04:24What made you decide to go against the advice of your agents and report the incident to Fox?
04:33I wasn't okay.
04:34I was literally sleeping on my walk-in closet floor in my apartment in New York City.
04:44I was losing my mind because I just had kept this inside.
04:49Around the time that Tamara reported the incident, Fox was fielding several allegations of sexual
04:54misconduct levied at executives of the company. So the story was largely buried.
04:59Longtime Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filing a lawsuit against Ailes on Wednesday,
05:04alleging pervasive sexual harassment by Ailes.
05:07Francisco Cortez was fired, though he claimed the relationship was consensual.
05:11And he sued Fox, saying that the company was making him a scapegoat for its larger sexual harassment issues.
05:18The lawsuit was dismissed, both when it was filed and when he appealed.
05:24Tamara eventually settled with the company, and as part of her settlement, she had to sign an NDA.
05:30What motivated you to break the NDA?
05:34I wanted to be believed, and I thought that I was until Rupert Murdoch said that this was all fussy,
05:42that it was just Roger Ailes.
05:44How harmful has the whole raft of allegations about sexual harassment at Fox News been for the business?
05:52Oh, that's all nonsense.
05:54Um, there was a problem, uh, with our chief executive.
05:58Man, there are other things.
06:00Um, but did it depress?
06:01It would probably amount a bit of flirting, you know?
06:03When somebody says, no, this is wrong and this is abusive, you can't say, no, you're, you're lying.
06:10It's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be, uh, guilty of something that you
06:16may not be guilty of.
06:17And that's where we've gotten, where I think that we're going to see a lot of backlash for speaking out.
06:25Punishment the other way.
06:26Did you feel punished for speaking out?
06:29Of course.
06:31I don't have a job.
06:33Tamara struggled to find work in TV after leaving Fox.
06:36Eventually she gave up and moved back to Chicago to pick up her law practice again.
06:41I represent men and women in the workplace who've gone through what I went through.
06:46Sexual harassment, sexual assault, any kind of hostile work environment.
06:52Something that's unsafe.
06:54I currently represent an enormous group of men and women against Twin Peaks restaurants.
07:01They're the new Hooters.
07:03I met one of Tamara's clients in the class action suit, who was a waitress at Twin Peaks.
07:08She told me some of the things that women at her job were expected to do.
07:13Um, they said it was going to be like B-dubs, girl next door.
07:16We were told certain outfit requirements and we were excited for it.
07:20So six months into working at this restaurant, they started making us wear lingerie, bikinis,
07:26show less, and then they started grading us on our bodies.
07:29So it was not even like a restaurant.
07:32It was just, it was, it was a hostile, degrading environment.
07:37And the crazy thing is that people truly think that girls signed up for this.
07:42Did you feel like she understood your case better than anyone else?
07:48Oh, there's, I can't name anybody else better than Tamara.
07:52Tamara helped me like become stronger.
07:59Ever since the Me Too movement erupted, there's been a lot of discussions about NDAs.
08:06How do NDAs contribute to this like cycle of abuse, do you think?
08:11Fear.
08:12Fear.
08:12An NDA says, if you open your mouth, I'm going to take a large amount of money.
08:21Question is, are you paying me for my silence?
08:26Or are you paying me for the damage that you've done?
08:30And in an NDA is wrapped up into a settlement agreement for the damage.
08:35And so it's really two things combined into one amount of money.
08:43Have you ever felt ashamed in this whole process?
08:47I stood up for something to prove something that I haven't proven.
08:54To say, I'm not toxic.
08:57I am going to get another job in television.
09:01But I, I don't have that.
09:05What do you think you've learned from this whole experience that you want to take with you,
09:11or that you want to share with other women?
09:12I've learned that it doesn't get easier.
09:16That no amount of money
09:20cures the pain.
09:23Peace of my soul is gone.
09:25And I can't get it back.
09:27So the only thing you can do is just
09:32wake up and help somebody else.
09:36And I just hope that I'm doing that.
09:40I think you are.
09:42Thank you for sharing that with me.
09:44Thanks.
09:50In the end, Tamara didn't have an easy choice to make.
09:55Either keep silent and maintain her career, or do the right thing and speak out and pay the price.
10:04It was a price Tamara should never have had to pay.
10:08A choice Tamara should never have had to make.
10:13As well as the opening of the family.
10:36I'm trying to get my first revelation.
10:36It's auyorography idea.
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