CNN’s Stelter claims Fox News had staffer spy on him on dates

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter said that Fox News arranged for a young staffer to date him in order to collect information while he was in college.

Stelter, host of the network’s media affairs show, “Reliable Sources,” told anchor Chris Cuomo on the morning program “New Day” about the alleged setup.

{mosads}”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,” Stelter said. “So I was going out on what I thought were dates. Chris, I thought these were dates. These were not dates. She was actually reporting back to Fox News about me.” 

Stelter was a student at Towson University outside of Baltimore at the time, where he created the blog TVNewser. He would go on to The New York Times after graduation before jumping to CNN in 2013. 

“She was reporting back about what I thought of her and about CNN and MSNBC and Fox,” Stelter continued. “Because I was a reporter on the beat, they were actually spying on me that way.”

“Now I didn’t think that was a big deal at the time,” he said. “I thought it was the way Fox operates. Fox is a political organization. But now we know they were actually sending out private investigators. They were tailing other reporters.” 

Stelter’s claims come on the heels of a report by Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine alleged via three anonymous sources that former Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes used network money to spy on journalists. 

Stelter later said in a tweet that he found out about the arrangement about a year later, after the staffer had left Fox News.

Stelter also tweeted that the alleged incident took place 10-11 years ago when there was a different head of Fox News Public Relations, Brian Lewis. Lewis was fired by the network in 2013.