Maria Bartiromo Defends Roger Ailes: ‘I’ve Known Him to Be Nothing but a Professional’

<> at FOX Studios on April 27, 2016 in New York City.
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo defended Fox News boss Roger Ailes amid a lawsuit from former employee Gretchen Carlson accusing him of sexual harassment.

From Variety:

And now, speaking for the defense: Maria Bartiromo.

The veteran business-news journalist joined a number of employees of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network who have stepped up to support Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of Fox News, in the wake of stunning allegations of sexual harassment leveled in a lawsuit by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, and, earlier today, by six women who spoke of their experiences with the executive several decades ago.

“Nobody wants to see anybody have any bad experiences,” said Bartiromo of the allegations, during an interview with Variety. “It’s just not in keeping with what I know, and my experience at Fox.”

Bartiromo has longstanding ties with Ailes, who hired her in the mid-1990s when she was an off-camera producer at CNN, and gave her what has been the opportunity of a lifetime: He sent her to cover the stock market live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for CNBC, making her the first person to do so on camera.

Bartiromo turned heads in late 2013 when news leaked that she would leave CNBC after two decades to join Ailes at Fox, where she has, since 2014, anchored “Mornings with Maria” each weekday on Fox Business Network and “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News Channel. “I’ve known Roger Ailes for 25 years since he first hired me at CNBC and hired me again two and a half years ago. I’ve known him to be nothing but a professional,” she said. “I’ve learned so much from him and continue to grow.”

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