Open Letter to Fox News President, Mr. Roger Ailes

Dear Mr. Ailes:

On behalf of over 500,000 women veterans who have been raped or sexually assaulted by a fellow service member, and in light of Fox News Commentator Liz Trotta’s recent dangerous rhetoric that women in the military should “expect” to be raped, we ask that you take a moment and hear first-hand from these survivors.

Trotta’s comments are unpatriotic, damaging to morale and deeply harmful to all female service members who put themselves in harms way every day to keep our country safe.

While Liz Trotta is entitled to her views, she is not entitled to endanger the lives and well-being of the thousands of women who serve with honor and distinction in our armed forces. She must bear the responsibility of being an apologist for predators and rapists and must be held accountable.

Fox News’ refusal to hold Trotta accountable makes your organization complicit in her remarks. Your silence is perpetuating, even encouraging, a justification for rape.

Rape in the military is at a crisis level – and it is not the result of “biology,” as Ms. Trotta suggests. It is the fault of a broken system. The Department of Defense estimates that over 19,000 incidents of rape or sexual assault occurred in 2010 alone but that only 13.5% of such incidents are ever reported.

The system for investigating and adjudicating incidents of sexual assault and rape is not working. But rather than advocate for fixing the real problem, Trotta chose to blame the victim and excuse sexual assault as a simple product of “biology,” essentially arguing that women deserve to be raped because men just can’t help themselves. As you know, she did not stop there. Trotta also made attacks on “fake heroism by female service members.”

Your network’s silence and continuation of Trotta’s weekly commentary can be interpreted in no other way than you stand by her comments.

To date, 10,795 patriotic Americans including many veterans some of whom are survivors of rape in the military have joined with us to demand that Fox News fire Ms. Trotta immediately and issue an apology to all US female military personnel.

Ms. Trotta’s comments are not only shameful and unpatriotic, they excuse the rapist and insult America’s finest, our men and women who proudly wear the uniform of our armed forces. Mr. Ailes, your silence is deafening. The record must be corrected. Her voice discredits your network and calls your patriotism into question. Fire Trotta.

Sincerely,

Nancy Parrish
President, Protect Our Defenders