Williams, who now hosts a weekly news show for the much smaller Revolt TV, understands what they meant: After Fox, she needed to go somewhere else first, before they would even consider hiring her.

“Nobody wants to be the first to pick up a Fox News talent,” she said. “Once you’re at Fox three or more years, you are indoctrinated with that Fox News branding, and it becomes almost impossible to shake.”

Williams is among the Fox News veterans, both journalists and pundits, who say they’ve faced skepticism in the job market since leaving the network. While Fox has always leaned right, particularly its nighttime punditry hours, its image as a fortress of conservatism has been hardened during the Trump presidency, as fire-breathing hosts such as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have gone to extreme rhetorical lengths to defend the president and attack his critics. Fairly or not, that reputation has rubbed off even on many of Fox’s most ardently nonpartisan journalists.

“Every time one of the prime-time hosts says something inflammatory, it does end up coloring the view of the entire place and all the people who work there,” said former news host Alisyn Camerota, one of a dozen on-air Fox veterans interviewed for this story. “You are often painted with a broad brush, and it’s a negative one, for having worked at Fox.”