“We’re not programming to conservatives”, Ailes said in a 2003 interview.
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Sherman reported on Tuesday that Megyn Kelly, one of the network’s biggest stars, had told the law firm investigating Carlson’s claims for 21st Century Fox that she, too, had been sexually harassed.
The Chairman and CEO of Fox News is the subject of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Gretchen Carlson, a longtime anchor of the network. Ailes has denied those incidents as well. According to a person briefed on Kelly’s thinking, Kelly made a decision to speak to Paul, Weiss attorneys and encourage others to do so because she felt that a parade of Fox women marching to Ailes’s defense was presenting a distorted public account of the company’s culture.
The surfacing of the draft separation agreement follows a July 18 story in New York Magazine that Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who serves as his co-chairman, as well as his son James, who is the company’s CEO, agreed that Ailes had to go. Ailes’s lawyer, Susan Estrich, said “When there is an agreement, if there is an agreement, 21st Century Fox will make an announcement”.
There are reports that one or both sons were looking to push Ailes out long before the Carlson suit.
Ailes said the allegations were untrue and defamatory.
Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post says “end is near” for Ailes. All these events sparked speculations in the related industry regarding the future of Mr. Ailes at Fox News.
That Ailes would look to Trump at this juncture is somewhat ironic, given how hard Ailes came down on Trump for his attacks against Kelly following the to-the-point questions about his attitude towards women that Kelly put to the GOP candidate during the first debate. Fox News confirmed Ailes’ exit to the Daily Beast, but then walked it back.
The controversy surrounding Fox News has been the biggest management test thus far for James and Lachlan Murdoch, who were elevated in the 21st Century Fox media empire past year. “The review is ongoing”. Now the only agreement that they have in place with the man is the existing employment agreement between himself and the company.
UPDATE: Matt Drudge has deleted his message showing the purported agreement for Ailes’ departure. Some anchors are believed to have clauses in their contracts that could allow them to leave if Ailes doesn’t remain in power.
Kelly has not commented publicly on the internal investigation or her history with Ailes.
Estrich said Tuesday that Ailes never harassed Kelly, either.
Ailes has denied all accusations.
Whatever the outcome, Cannon, like Brazile, isn’t betting on change at a post-Ailes Fox. The network was flashier than its more staid cable and broadcast competitors, with whooshing sound effects and kinetic graphics.
HOWIE KURTZ: …Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. He also played a major role in the presidential election of George H.W. Bush in 1988. The network also gave regular airtime to Trump in the years before he declared his candidacy.
The fast-moving developments – and the ensuing panic within the network – are happening while Kelly and many of Fox’s other journalists are in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention.
“Fox has dominated not just conservative viewers but has shaped the modern Republican Party”, Donna Brazile, a CNN commentator and Democratic Party strategist, said outside the convention hall. The network, which was spun off from the business-news CNBC in 1994, was an early launching pad for hosts Steve Doocy and Chris Matthews.
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Carlson most recently hosted “The Real Story With Gretchen Carlson”. Matthews joined MSNBC when it succeeded America’s Talking in 1996 – the same year Ailes launched Fox.
