CNN Anchor Lays into Roger Ailes
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When Alisyn Camerota worked at Fox News, she seemed like everything was fine and all was good.
She left Fox News and never mentioned anything about it being a bad place to work or a toxic work environment, until she landed at CNN.
And now that Camerota has taken up residence at CNN, she pulls no punches when talking about Fox News and former boss and now dead Roger Ailes.
In a piece she wrote for Vanity Fair, Camerota writes that as the credits rolled at a recent screening of Bombshell, out today, several of us former Fox News Channel staffers were left reeling. Watching John Lithgow’s spot-on performance as Roger Ailes, the Fox chairman and CEO who was ousted amid a sexual harassment investigation, had a PTSD-inducing effect, transporting us back to the years we spent under the control of the all-powerful leader.
Thinking back to her time at Fox News, the CNN Anchor writes, “I was so struck by Roger’s warped behavior that I began taking contemporaneous notes, as close to verbatim as I could recall, immediately after some of my visits to his inner sanctum. I had planned to turn these notes into a novel, but the following passages never made it into the manuscript. They’ve sat in a notebook, collecting dust in my closet, until now.”
She then goes onto talk about meeting Ailes in his office:
“Roger gave me a penetrating stare, then grinned. “I like this little number you’re wearing,” he said, pausing to let his words hang. “Stand up,” he commanded. “Give me a spin. Let me look at you.” Surprised, I obeyed. “You need some bronzer on your legs,” he said, sizing me up. “They’re too white.” Sometimes it was hard to tell if Roger was joking. “And, your skirt should be a little shorter.” At that, I cocked my head. This would not be the only time in Roger’s office when I would have to suppress my fight or flight reflex. “Listen,” he said, his eyes softening, “we’ve got research showing ratings go up two-tenths of a point for every two inches higher the skirt. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to program TV. If you’re going to be successful and get what you want, you’ll have to trust me. Can you do that?” “I think so,” I said. “Good,” he said. “Let's see if you have what it takes to be a star.” He stood up. “Come back next time and we’ll get to work.””
There is no doubt that Roger Ailes was a pig and treated female employees like a piece of meat.
But, one has to wonder why Camerota is going public with her story now?
Ailes has long been ousted, a number of women have come forward with their stories and the man has been dead for quite some time.
Now, that Camerota is at the competition which is really struggling right now, it seems that telling her story at this moment seems more opportunistic than anything else.
Also, the fact that she was holding onto her Ailes’ stories for a book, is a bit of a head-scratcher.
Here you have information that you can share to help the women that were currently working at Fox News, under Roger Ailes and his perverted ways and you are saving the info for a book?
Huh?
You can read her full piece Vanity Fair.
