CNN media reporter Brian Stelter revealed that Fox News had sent a staffer to date him and spy on him a decade ago. The allegation comes the day after New York magazine reported that recently deposed Fox News CEO Roger Ailes used network resources and private investigators to snoop on political and personal rivals.
Speaking with CNN’s New Day anchors Tuesday, Stelter recalled: “About 10 years ago, I had a crush on a woman at Fox News. She was a low-level staffer. I was in college at the time. So I was going out on what I thought were dates. I thought these were dates. These were not dates. She was actually reporting back to Fox News about me. She was reporting back about what I thought of her and about CNN and MSNBC and Fox. Because I was a reporter on the beat, they were actually spying on me that way.”
Stelter’s former colleague Bill Carter added: “They were following reporters around. We knew covering Fox you’d have to deal with that. You’d get a call from them saying, ‘You better be right on this story’ or the implication was, ‘We’ll dig into your past, we’ll dig into your private life.’” Stelter founded the media-news site TVNewser and went on to become a prominent media reporter for The New York Times before becoming host of CNN’s Reliable Sources.
Read it at Media Matters
