Mediabistro’s TVNewser reports that a Fox News employee, Jane Clark, is suing the Fox News building management and maintenance companies and has filed a workers compensation claim against News Corp.
Clark claims emotional distress caused by a prolonged bed bug infestation:
According to her lawyers, Jane Clark, “can no longer go to work after suffering emotional distress due to a continuous and ongoing bedbug problem at work.”
The case of bed bugs at Fox had been a long-running rumor until it was confirmed by The New York Times in March. At that time the infestation was reported to have been eradicated:
After making large bags available for employees to stash their belongings, and replacing a number of fabric-covered desk chairs, Mr. Vandeveer said that the treatments had ended about a week ago, and that the problem had been contained. “It’s totally eradicated,” he said.
Experienced bed bug news observers would have raised an eyebrow at totally eradicated, no? When the Times story appeared, Bedbugger reviewed the history of the rumors and the implications of the firing of an employee thought to have “brought them in” and noted the dubiously speedy resolution claim:
The NYTimes claims Vanderveer told them that the problem was discovered “a few weeks ago,” the exterminator’s treatment ended “about a week ago,” and the bed bugs are now “totally eradicated.” If that timeline of detection and treatment is accurate, many experts might say it is too soon to say for sure that the problem is “totally eradicated.”
Jane Clark apparently moved to a different office in the same building only to have the infestation continue in the new location:
Clark’s lawyer, Alan Schnurman, says his client “was attacked” by the swarming insects just last month, on April 30. Apparently, after Clark’s department was moved to a different floor, the bedbugs moved with her. A News Corp. insider tell us there’s no proof of that, however. Clark claims she was was also bitten last October and again in November.
None of this is remarkable to those of us who know a little about bed bugs. Prolonged infestations, accidental transmission to a new location, severe emotional distress… Yes, in an office in our city. Is there a kind of threshold that has been crossed?
Whatever the merits of her lawsuit, we hope Jane Clark is receiving good care. And no longer has bed bugs.
UPDATED TO ADD: Gawker has posted the attorney’s press release, where Ms. Clark’s name is given as Joan Clark and the bite events are puzzlingly described as occurring three times:
Joan Clark has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome and finds that she is unable to return to work and maintain her normal daily routine. As a mother with a young child, she is trying to cope and carry on as usual. She is under the care of doctors who are treating her emotional problems due to being thrice bitten by bedbugs.
FINAL UPDATE: Now the story is getting icky, and not because of the bed bugs. And even more puzzling.
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