CNN anchor and former Fox News personality Alisyn Camerota detailed her interactions with the late, disgraced former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who was forced out after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct.
Camerota, 53, who spent more than a decade at Fox, published an op-ed in Vanity Fair on Friday reflecting on her time at the conservative-leaning network. The piece, titled “‘First, you have to do these things I say’: Inside Roger Ailes’s twisted game of mind control,” coincided with the release of the movie Bombshell, which depicts the events leading up to Fox News personalities speaking up about being sexually harassed by Ailes.
She first noted that just watching the movie “had a PTSD-inducing effect” on her and that it “brought back” memories of Ailes being “a different omnipotent, fear-inducing wizard, one who maintained control over a kingdom of nervous minions through smoke, mirrors, endless corridors, and devastating demands.”
The current New Day anchor detailed her desire to become an anchor at the network and the tests that Ailes set up for her in order to satisfy what he wanted. Camerota specifically described numerous trips to Ailes’ office in which he often referenced her appearance while also continuing to request more from her in order to make good on his promise of giving her a position as an anchor.
She wrote: “And no one knows how to make a star better than me. You would need the right time slot, with the right lead-in, you would need to make appearances on other shows — we would set that up for you. You would need magazine spreads, the right stories planted, I mean placed. You WANT to be a big star and I WANT to turn you into one. But,” [Ailes] went on, pointing at my chest, “first, you have to do these things I say. You’re not there yet. Come back some other time.”
Camerota also referenced a situation in where Ailes appeared to suggest that she could replace Gretchen Carlson if she “kill[ed] her” in the ratings. Carlson, 53, was the first woman to come forward and accuse Ailes of sexual harassment back in 2016. She subsequently settled a lawsuit for $20 million.
