Former FOX Newscasters Alisyn Camerota and Suzanne Sena Detail Harassment Endured by Male Producers

Two former Fox newscasters, Alisyn Camerota and Suzanne Sena, are speaking out and detailing the harassment they allegedly endured during their time at the network. In a new episode of Sena’s podcast, The Confidence Connection: Building Trust in a Virtual World, the pair discuss their separate experiences, which coincide with one common truth: they both grew deeply concerned over the way late Fox News boss Roger Ailes conducted himself.

“At some point, I concluded, after going down a few different dead-ends at Fox, that it wasn’t really a meritocracy,” Camerota, now the host of CNN’s New Day, said. “It wasn’t like it had been at other places where I’d worked, where hard work and producing a good product, a solid product, and trying really hard, and delivering, paid off. The rules were different. And what I figured out was that you really just had to curry favor with the king. And the king was Roger Ailes.” Camerota went on to say that “currying favor” with Ailes was “challenging.”

With Sena lockstep in agreement, Camerota later went on to admit that she “wanted to leave Fox for a long time” because she was “frustrated by how [Ailes] ran it.” She referred to the system as not being a “meritocracy,” Ailes would regularly put “his cronies in positions of power.” She also stated that Ailes actively sabotaged “job offers” for many, sometimes by “threatening lawsuits,” and this became a “huge impediment” for her being able to leave. She eventually decided just to make the leap, knowing that “there are no guarantees,” but hoping for the best.

Notably, Camerota and Sena are not the only two former Fox News contributors to comment on sexual harassment at the network, as many others — like, Gretchen Carlson — have shared similar experiences. Aside from Ailes, current and former personalities Fox News — such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Ed Henry, and Howard Kurtz have been accused of sexual harassment as well.

This is not the first time that Camerota has spoken freely about her personal experiences at the network, as in 2018, she sat down for an interview on BuzzFeed News’ Profile and shared what she had encountered. “Certainly, there is sexual harassment and it is unpleasant, and it was certainly unpleasant to be on the receiving end of that,” she said. “But even on the days when that wasn’t happening, there was an all-powerful man who held the keys to your future in his palm and who wielded power in a really sort of unpleasant, bullying way.”

Camerota went on to claim that Ailes would use “grossly inappropriate” behavior when hugging her, that he once proposed they “get closer outside of the office.” She added, “The sexual harassment was the least of it. There was sexual harassment and there was emotional harassment. And there was sort of bullying and there was ideological harassment.”