ABC News’s Barbara Fedida will exit her post as senior vice president for talent and business following an internal investigation into insensitive treatment of her employees.
A Monday memo from Walt Disney Television Chairman Peter Rice informed workers that Fedida will not return to the network after the investigation into her conduct.
“The investigation substantiated that Ms. Fedida did make some of the unacceptable racially insensitive comments attributed to her. It also substantiated that Ms. Fedida managed in a rough manner and, on occasion, used crass and inappropriate language,” Rice said.
“Lastly, the investigation found no basis for the claims that Ms. Fedida was the subject of dozens of HR complaints and that ABC News spent millions of dollars in confidential settlements related to Ms. Fedida, as alleged in some press accounts,” he added.
The company’s investigation was sparked by a June report from the Huffington Post, which detailed allegations that Fedida had a long track record of making insensitive remarks. In one instance, Fedida was accused of using such language during a negotiation with ABC News’s Robin Roberts, who is a black woman, saying it wasn’t as though the company was asking her to “pick cotton.”
Other sources told the Huffington Post that Fedida would openly refer to women in the office as “c—s.”
“To say that she’s an abusive figure is an understatement,” one former ABC News employee told the outlet.
Fedida was put on administrative leave last month after the reports emerged.
