May 20 (UPI) — Fox News says it has fired “The Five” co-host Bob Beckel for the second time in two years.
“Bob Beckel was terminated today for making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter Friday.
“Mr. Beckel stormed out of his office when our client, a black IT employee came to service his computer, telling our client that he was leaving his office because he is black,” Douglas Wigdor, whose firm Wigdor LLP represents clients who have brought complaints against Fox News, said in a statement to NBC News. “To make matters worse, after our client lodged a complaint about Mr. Beckel’s racist behavior, Mr. Beckel, in front of Chief Human Resource Officer Kevin Lord, attempted to intimidate our client and persuade him to withdraw his complaint.”
Beckel, 68, began working for the network in 2011, but was fired in June 2015 due to his reportedly erratic behavior. He went to rehab for an addiction to prescription drugs in the interim and the liberal analyst and commentator returned to the conservative network in January.
Juan Williams, who replaced Beckel on “The Five” while he was gone the first time, was back on Friday’s edition of the show.
Fox News has seen tremendous turmoil in recent months.
Roger Ailes, the former chairman of Fox News, died Thursday after complications from a serious fall last week. He was 77.
Ailes resigned from his post at Fox amid sexual harassment allegations.
On May 1, Bill Shine, a 20-year Fox News veteran and co-president, also left the network because of the sexual harassment scandal, a situation that saw the ousting of popular commentator Bill O’Reilly in April, as well.
