April 20, 2017

CNN's Margaret Hoover, a former Bill O'Reilly regular, explained on New Day just how oppressive it was to work for him even if you weren't sexually harassed by the man.

Alisyn Camerota, co-host of CNN's New Day, also worked for Fox News for years and admitted she had a few very uncomfortable run-ins with Roger Ailes as well.

The segment opened by playing video of Kirsten Powers from last night, describing how she was harassed and then Alisyn asked, "....that exchange, there on the air where [Bill] he said thank you for your blondness, how did you process that?"

Hoover replied, "I continued to appear on his show for about four years. I want to be clear, I was never sexually harassed by Bill O'Reilly explicitly, but there were moments that were very uncomfortable with him and I had to navigate a minefield... is what it felt like, to make sure that I never was in an experience or situation where I felt vulnerable."

"He would critique everything about our appearances as soon as we'd get on set, from the length of my eye lashes to the color of my lip gloss," she said..

"There was a very clear message of what was acceptable to appear on air, both from what you said at Fox News and what you wore at Fox News."

Camerota agreed and said, "There you have it."

Alisyn explained that the two colleagues had talked in private about their experiences at Fox News.

"I had an experience, more than one, with Roger Ailes. But that wasn't the half of it. The real harassment was emotional harassment there," Camerota said..

She continued, "Roger could be a bully. He called people names, it was that feeling of not wanting to ever run afoul of him that was really the chilling effect."

Hoover replied, "Not just by him, but also by the gossip culture that was set up that helped police what he wanted to see. He really was a bully and enforced it in a culture that became so toxic..."

Later in the segment, Camerota said she's hearing from friends over at Fox News that "there is more to come, this isn't the end - there's more to come."

It's about time.

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