Now the only agreement that they have in place with the man is the existing employment agreement between himself and the company. Carlson said in the lawsuit that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances towards her and would make comments about her appearance that were sexual in nature.
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Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes is negotiating his departure from the network, according to United States media reports. Shine, the senior programming executive, does not command the same level of respect from the Murdochs, while the former top news executive, Michael Clemente, was recently sidelined by Ailes.
The Murdoch-owned newspaper cites sources who said Ailes is out as CEO and chairman of the company.
The lawyers have been conducting interviews with members of Ailes’ staff at their offices instead of Fox News Channel’s Sixth Ave. headquarters over allegations the offices may have been bugged.
The online Drudge Report posted a tweet about an exit package worth $40 million (36 million euros) for Ailes, but moments later deleted it. But the tweet was nearly immediately taken down.
Estrich, his attorney, said the news of Ailes’ possible departure has upset some of the Fox News talent who called to offer support.
“I think this situation could only solidify her as the face of Fox”, said Karen M. Turner, a journalism professor at Temple University and media critic. She added that there are “lots of proposals and ideas going around”.
A person close to Ailes denied a claim on The Drudge Report, since changed, that Ailes was officially leaving the channel.
Ailes said the allegations were untrue and defamatory.
Carlson claimed in the suit that Ailes took her off the network’s popular morning show “Fox & Friends” in 2013 and reassigned her to an afternoon time slot at significantly reduced pay. Carlson left Fox on June 23 when her contract wasn’t renewed. It’s refreshing news that the exec will no longer run Fox News, but the fact that he’ll be payed to leave taints the bit of progress achieved. “Gretchen Carlson’s allegations are false”, he wrote.
21st Century Fox responded to the reports by tweeting that Ailes “is at work”, which neither confirms nor denies reports of his ouster.
NY magazine followed up with reports of other women who said they had been harassed by Ailes as far back as the 1960s. Fox is now dominating all of the other networks in this week’s coverage of the Republican National Convention.
According to The Drudge Report, Ailes will be kept on a consultancy basis until June 30, 2017, during which time he will be paid his current $6.25 million salary in addition to bonuses for 2016 and 2017 – a sum of almost $40 million by the time it’s all said and done.
Fox News is about to trim its rotten roots.
Fox News boss Roger Ailes is negotiating his exit from the cable outfit after 20 years in the news business.
Since the lawsuit was filed on July 6, several other women have alleged sexual harassment by Ailes, detailed in an article in New York Magazine.
If Ailes, as appears likely, does depart under a cloud, it would be a sudden fall from grace by a powerful media figure who also wielded considerable political clout. “Roger Ailes has never sexually harassed Megyn Kelly”.
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“It has become obvious that Ms. Carlson and her lawyer are desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue”.
