Former Fox News host Alisyn Camerota chided the network after multiple high-profile personalities at the cable news network were accused of sexual harassment.
One day after a lawsuit was filed against Fox News by two women with ties to the network, which prompted stern denials, Camerota, now an anchor on CNN, said on her show New Day that she now believes her former employer “is rotten to the core.”
Camerota alluded to a segment she did when she joined CNN in 2016, during which she said Fox News was “not rotten to the core.” She said on Tuesday that she wanted “to amend my answer now.”
“Because, given everything that has come out since then, I guess it is rotten to the core,” she said. “I guess that, even though there are really good people there who are trying to do their jobs, it’s not enough, because unless you get rid of and stamp out the predators, then of course the culture is still going to be rotten.”
Cathy Areu, a network guest, and Jennifer Eckhart, a former associate producer on Fox Business, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday accusing Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Howard Kurtz, Gianno Caldwell, and Ed Henry, who was fired earlier this month, of sexual misconduct ranging from inappropriate comments to rape. The network outright denied the accusations against its current staffers. Henry also released his own statement denying the allegations.
Areu alleged that Carlson and Kurtz, on separate occasions, invited her to their hotel rooms. She also claimed in the lawsuit that Hannity offered money to any man in the studio who would take her out on a date, while also alleging that Caldwell repeatedly tried to foster a romantic relationship against her wishes. Areu also said Henry repeatedly sent her explicit messages and offered to help her career if she were to indulge his advances.
The network released a statement addressing the lawsuit, saying a “comprehensive independent investigation conducted by an outside law firm” concluded that the allegations “are false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.”
In the lawsuit, Eckhart accused Henry, who was fired after the network said it received a sexual misconduct complaint, of having “preyed upon, manipulated and groomed [her] starting at the young age of 24, by exerting his abuse of power over her and her career.”
“Ms. Eckhart’s counsel also explained to Fox News, in graphic and specific detail, that Ms. Eckhart was violently raped while helpless and restrained in metal handcuffs, as Mr. Henry preformed sadistic acts on her without her consent that left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists,” said the lawsuit, which went on to allege that Henry took photos of her naked without consent.
A spokeswoman for Henry also denied the allegations, claiming that Eckhart “initiated and completely encouraged a consensual relationship.”
