The former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson is “angry it took so long” for Roger Ailes to be fired as the network’s chairman over multiple allegations of sexual harassment.
“At first, satisfaction – or no, I think validation,” Carlson told Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan in an interview published on Thursday, about how she felt when Ailes left Fox News last week. Soon, she said, she felt another emotion: “I felt angry that it took so long.”
On 6 July, Carlson filed a lawsuit that accused Ailes of propositioning her for sex and threatening to ruin her career if she refused. The lawsuit unleashed a wave of accusations from other women who encountered Ailes during his long career in television. Carlson said their willingness to speak brought her some comfort.
“I thought I would be fighting this all by myself,” she said.
Carlson said she was disappointed that Ailes had harassed her with impunity throughout her 11 years at the network.
Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, appears to have moved swiftly once Carlson’s accusations became public. About two weeks elapsed between Carlson filing her lawsuit and Ailes leaving the company.
Ailes reportedly used his final days there to encourage employees to speak publicly in his defense. About a dozen former and current Fox News hosts did so, some suggesting that Carlson had an ulterior motive. Speaking to the Post, Carlson said the campaign against her was “orchestrated”.
“I was at Fox a long time,” she said. “I know how it works.”
She and her attorney, Nancy Smith, disputed the idea that Carlson filed her lawsuit as retaliation for being fired in June. Without giving specifics, Smith said she and Carlson had been preparing the suit since before Carlson left the company.
Carlson said she held off publicly accusing Ailes because she maintained “that glimmer of hope that the punishment would stop, and that my work would be recognized”.
More than 20 women have approached Carlson’s attorneys to accuse Ailes of similar misconduct. Some 25 current and former Fox employees made harassment allegations to a New York law firm hired by 21st Century Fox to conduct an independent investigation. One was Megyn Kelly, the undisputed star of the network.
The network has faced broader accusations of allowing a hostile work environment to thrive and coding sexism into the DNA of its popular news shows. A one-time guest, Nell Minow, recalled to the Guardian that producers of her segment told her to “attack the manhood” of another member of her news panel.
“They made it clear I was there to be incite-ful, not insightful,” said Minow, vice-chair at ValueEdge Advisors, a corporate governance consulting firm. “I refused to go back.”
At Fox News, a shakeup continues. Michael Clemente, until recently executive vice-president and once seen as a likely successor to Ailes, left the company this week.
His No2, Peter Boyer, is also leaving, according to TVNewser. A source close to the situation said his dismissal was unrelated to the investigation by legal firm Paul, Weiss into sexual harassment allegations against Ailes and some of his subordinates.
For years, Clemente and Bill Shine, currently the network’s head of programming, have been favorites to succeed Ailes as chairman. Shine reportedly helped to rally Fox News employees against the women who spoke out against Ailes: Fox business anchor Maria Bartiromo gave an interview defending her boss and Fox News host Greta van Susteren called Carlson “a disgruntled employee”.
Others expressed themselves on Twitter – notably Sean Hannity, who told several media reporters that the accusations weren’t true.
