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 / Updated By Corky Siemaszko 
 
 Fox News gave “The Five” co-host Bob Beckel the boot Friday for making a racist remark to a black IT worker. 
 
 The embattled network, which has been dealing with a swirling sex harassment scandal and is still reeling from the death Thursday of founder Roger Ailes, gave only a bare bones explanation for why it was parting with the 68-year-old pundit. 
 
 Co-host Bob Beckel attends FOX News' "The Five" at FOX Studios on February 26, 2014 in New York City. Noam Galai / Getty Images file 
 
 “Bob Beckel was terminated today for making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee," a spokesperson said in a statement. 
 
 Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who is representing the IT worker and nearly two dozen other Fox News employees who have sued the network for racial discrimination, said Beckel couldn't handle having a black man fix his computer. 
 
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 “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,” Wigdor said in a statement. “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.” 
 
 When the IT worker refused to back down to Beckel, Fox “leaked the story on a Friday to minimize the attention drawn to Mr. Beckel’s racist behavior.” 
 
 “Fox also neglected to inform the media of what was actually said, as well as the attempt to convince our client to withdraw the complaint,” Wigdor added. “As with our other 22 clients, we intend on holding 21st Century Fox accountable for these actions and will be filing multiple other complaints in other matters next week.” 
 
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 In an email to NBC News, Wigdor said he will release the name of the IT worker "when we file." 
 
 Fox has previously denied the allegations behind the suit. And later Friday, the network released a fuller statement about the Beckel incident in response to Wigdor's assertions about Tuesday's racially-charged incident, including a denial that anybody tried to pressure the IT worker into not filing a complaint. 
 
 "No one tried to persuade Mr. Wigdor's client to withdraw his complaint," the statement said. 
 
 In fact, Lord launched an investigation "within seven minutes" of the IT worker making the complaint. 
 
 "Today, Fox News delivered that message to Mr. Beckel and facilitated an apology from Mr. Beckel to the employee minutes after he was terminated," the statement said. 
 
 Wigdor confirmed Beckel apologized. 
 
 "Sadly the head of human resources permitted Mr. Beckel to try and convince my client into withdrawing his complaint in an effort to sweep this entire matter under the rug," the lawyer added. "In my years of practice I have never heard of a human resources executive permitting this to happen." 
 
 There was no immediate statement from Beckel, but this was the second time he was fired by Fox. 
 
 Beckel was canned in June 2015 after the network revealed he had been treated for addiction to prescription pain medications. He was rehired by Fox in January after a brief stint with CNN. 
 
 A former member of the Carter Administration, Beckel wrote candidly about his battles with the bottle and cocaine in his 2015 memoir, “I Should Be Dead: My Life Surviving Politics, TV, and Addiction.” 

 For Fox News, it was another unkind week in an unkind year. 
 
 The network’s founding chairman, Roger E. Ailes, died on Thursday, sending a shock through a newsroom still reeling from a string of harassment scandals, lawsuits and high-profile departures. The threat of a federal investigation into the network’s financial practices has lingered. 
 
 And on Friday, another prominent on-air personality was abruptly tossed. Bob Beckel, a co-host of the prime-time talk show “The Five,” was fired after an African-American employee accused him of making a racially insensitive remark. 
 
 The drumbeat of tough headlines has taken a toll on morale at Fox News, with employees on and off camera describing a feeling of being under siege. 
 
 And after years as the undisputed king of cable news, Fox News ranked third in prime-time this week among the 25-54 age group most important to advertisers, finishing behind its rivals MSNBC and CNN. In total audience, MSNBC edged out Fox News in prime-time on three nights, an unsettling sign for an evening schedule scrambled by last month’s exit of Bill O’Reilly. 

 Fox News on Friday announced that it had fired "The Five" co-host Bob Beckel for a remark he made to an employee of color. 
 
 "Bob Beckel was terminated today for making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee," a network spokesperson said in a short statement. 
 
 It wasn't immediately clear who would replace Beckel on "The Five" and Fox News did not provide details on the incident that led to his firing. Beckel was not immediately available for comment. 
 
 Douglas Wigdor and Jeanne Christensen, lawyers handling a growing racial discrimination lawsuit filed by current and former Fox employees, said in a joint statement that Beckel told one of their clients, a black IT worker, that he was leaving the office while the employee serviced his computer because the employee is black. When the IT worker filed a complaint, Beckel attempted to intimidate him to withdraw it, Wigdor and Christensen said. 
 
 "As with our other 22 clients, we intend on holding 21st Century Fox accountable for these actions and will be filing multiple other complaints in other matters next week," Wigdor and Christensen said. 
 
 In response, a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement that the network "made the decision to terminate Mr. Beckel after a prompt and thorough investigation." 
 
 "No one tried to persuade Mr. Wigdor's client to withdraw his complaint," the Fox News spokesperson said. 
 
 This is not the first time Beckel, who was also a contributor at CNN for a brief period beginning in late 2015, has parted ways with Fox News. Beckel previously left Fox News in 2015 after undergoing back surgery. 
 
 Bill Shine, who was at the time Fox News' executive vice president of programming, said at the time that the network refused to be held "hostage" to his "personal issues." 
 
 "He took tremendous advantage of our generosity, empathy and goodwill and we simply came to the end of the road with him," Shine said in a statement then. 
 
 Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of Fox News, unexpectedly announced Beckel's return to Fox News earlier this year, saying he was "missed by many fans of 'The Five.'" 
 
 Fox News recently moved "The Five" to the 9 p.m. hour as part of a broader shakeup of its programming following the cancellation of "The O'Reilly Factor" in the wake of a scandal surrounding its host Bill O'Reilly and settlements made with five women who had accused him of sexual harassment or verbal abuse.
– Another host is out the door at Fox News: The network confirmed Friday that The Five co-host Bob Beckel was fired for making a racist remark. Beckel "was terminated today for making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee," the network said in a brief statement. A lawyer handling a racial discrimination lawsuit against Fox says Beckel became angry when a black IT worker turned up to service his computer, and told the man "he was leaving his office because he is black," NBC reports. To make matters worse, after the worker lodged a complaint, Beckel "attempted to intimidate our client and persuade him to withdraw his complaint," attorney Douglas Wigdor says. Wigdor says the discrimination case against Fox now involves 23 clients, and lawyers "will be filing multiple other complaints in other matters next week," CNN reports. Fox denied that anybody tried to persuade the employee to withdraw the complaint, saying the investigation of the complaint was "prompt and thorough." Beckel, 68, was one of the only left-leaning Fox hosts, the New York Times reports. He served in the Carter administration and was Walter Mondale's campaign manager in 1984. He was previously fired by Fox in 2015 after having back surgery but was welcomed back in January this year. (Fox founder Roger Ailes died Thursday, eight days after a serious accident at home.)