I sat in the makeup chair for what felt like hours. It was November 2014, two years before the presidential election. I was about to make my first and only appearance on the Fox News Sunday show “Media Buzz.”

The Fox News makeup treatment is unlike any other in journalism. It involves false lashes, layers and layers of foundation and heavy applications of come-hither lip gloss. While caking cover-up onto the dark circles under my eyes, the makeup artist gossiped about a Democratic senator who, hours after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, had been cranky about how she’d coifed his hair.

“Can you believe that?” she said. “Look up for me.” I obeyed.

Sexing up female reporters — even those from The New York Times — was part of the Fox News look as conceived by Roger Ailes, the television impresario who died on Thursday at age 77. He wanted women to appear a certain way while delivering the news, and as sexual harassment lawsuits last year revealed, he had specific ideas about how women should treat him off-camera, as well.

While Mr. Ailes doled out attractive female anchors in revealing outfits as eye candy, his empire thrived partly on its audience’s widespread fear of the only woman who has ever had a real shot at the presidency, the person I was there that day to discuss: Hillary Clinton.