Glenn Beck Blasts “Unprofessional” Tomi Lahren, Says Host Was Not Fired
Looks like the legal fires are still burning at Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze. The conservative outlet today countersued the “inappropriate and unprofessional” Tomi Lahren for breaching her contract. The move comes just more than a week after Lahren took the Texas-based site to court for allegedly pink-slipping her and denying access to her well-followed Facebook page – claims Beck’s gang deny. They say the host is suspended but still employed and is receiving pay and benefits.
“Her comments on The View (which demonstrated an apparent flip-flop from opinions she had previously expressed) were simply the latest in a series of events that led TheBlaze management to conclude that TheBlaze did not intend to extend her contract beyond the end of its term in September 2017,” says the 21-page countersuit filed Monday in Dallas, which seeks a temporary restraining order and damages. Citing a slew of issues with the “difficult to work with” Lahren even before The View interview, Monday’s filing notes that her remarks on the show “effectively called many of TheBlaze’s employees, viewers, and readers hypocrites.”
While appearing on the ABC daytimer on March 17, Larhen said she’d “be a hypocrite” if she agreed with the conservative mantra of limited government as well as the government’s power to “decide what women do with their bodies.” She ended the surprising statement that was at odds with what she has said on her Blaze show over the years with “stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”
Soon afterward, Beck’s multiplatform outlet suspended the now-seemingly pro-choice Lahren for a week. Her show was shut down for good by TheBlaze in late March. On April 7, Lahren sued for allegedly firing her and terminating her two-year contract.
TheBlaze has denied those claims and struck back today.
“Lahren’s breach of her obligations in the Employment Agreement has injured TheBlaze by negatively impacting its reputation and goodwill among its current and prospective viewers and readers,” the paperwork says. Claiming that they merely exercised the “pay or play” clause in Lahren’s current contract, TheBlaze is also saying that none of this should have gone to court in the first place because of the arbitration aspects of her employment deal.
Oddly enough, or perhaps telling, neither the social media-friendly Lahren nor Beck has taken to Twitter today over this latest twist.
Eliot Burris of Dallas firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP is representing TheBlaze in the countersuit.
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Pro-Choice Tomi Lahren Sues Glenn Beck For Wrongful Termination: "Play Dead Really Isn't My Style"
Tomi Lahren 'Banned Permanently' From TheBlaze: Report
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