Gretchen Carlson reportedly recorded Roger Ailes sexually harassing her

Gretchen Carlson says she has evidence of Roger Ailes sexually harassing her.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 2 September 2016

Fox News' former CEO Roger Ailes has been accused of conducting smear campaigns and surveillance, with Ailes apparently "monitoring employee emails and phone conversations and hiring private investigators," New York reports. "Watch out for the enemy within," Ailes reportedly warned staffers at a meeting.

But Ailes apparently got a taste of his own medicine when former anchor Gretchen Carlson, purportedly fed up with being sexually harassed by Ailes, decided to do some surveillance of her own:

Beginning in 2014, according to a person familiar with the lawsuit, Carlson brought her iPhone to meetings in Ailes' office and secretly recorded him saying the kinds of things he'd been saying to her all along. "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better. Sometimes problems are easier to solve" that way, he said in one conversation. "I'm sure you can do sweet nothings when you want to," he said another time. [New York]

More than two dozen women, including Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Andrea Tantaros, have accused Ailes of sexual harassment. "Behind the scenes, [Fox News] operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion–like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny," Tantaros has charged.

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Ailes, who resigned in July from the company he helped found, has denied all such accusations. Read the full report at New York.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.