Monica Lewinsky Wrote a Brutal "Obituary" Dragging Roger Ailes
"This is not another obituary for Roger Ailes.... It is, I hope, instead an obituary for the culture he purveyed—a culture that affected me profoundly and personally."
Fox News chairman and reported sexual harasser Roger Ailes recently passed away, and Monica Lewinsky hit up the New York Times to eulogize his death. By which we mean she wrote an incredibly scathing "obituary" slamming him for his handling of her affair with President Bill Clinton.
Lewinsky starts the piece as follows: "This is not another obituary for Roger Ailes, who died last week 10 months after being ousted at Fox News. It is, I hope, instead an obituary for the culture he purveyed—a culture that affected me profoundly and personally."
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She goes on to recount Ailes' obsession with news of her affair, and says he "made certain his anchors hammered it ceaselessly, 24 hours a day." In a particularly painful and emotional moment, she explains: "I ceased being a three-dimensional person. Instead I became a whore, a bimbo, a slut, and worse. Just days after the story broke, Fox asked its viewers to vote on this pressing question: Is Monica Lewinsky an 'average girl' or a 'young tramp looking for thrills?'"
Notably, Lewinsky also address' the sexual harassment allegations against Ailes, saying, "Thanks to brave women like Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly, it is clear that at Fox, this culture of exploitation wasn't limited to the screen. The irony of Mr. Ailes's career at Fox—that he harnessed a sex scandal to build a cable juggernaut and then was brought down by his own—was not lost on anyone who has been paying attention."
Read the full piece here.
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Mehera Bonner is a celebrity and entertainment news writer who enjoys Bravo and Antiques Roadshow with equal enthusiasm. She was previously entertainment editor at Marie Claire and has covered pop culture for over a decade.
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