Roger Ailes : Retire or get fired

[tru1cy]

Looks like no a if but a when according to the NY Mag

[JSHAW]

I'll never understand why fuckers like him, with more money than god could spend, don't just
retire and stay outta the world's way. Go buy an island and live there and do whatever it is that
you want, with whoever you want to do it with.

It's maybe me, maybe not, but he LOOKS like a perverted old man.

Yes, innocent till proven guilty, but still, I find him creepy looking.

[hepcat]

So, in short, once you get old, go away? Also, if you're overweight, you're most likely a pervert?

[JSHAW]

Go to google news, and look at the latest picture of Ailes with the current story of him being
said to retire or face firing. Creepy creepy man.

[McNutt]

So, in short, once you get old, go away? Also, if you're overweight, you're most likely a pervert?

Mythbusters actually proved that on an episode.

[hepcat]

And not a day goes by that I don't regret ever volunteering to appear on that episode.

[JSHAW]

The Kelly file drops today and New York magazine is saying Megyn Kelly has told Murdoch investigators
that Ailes harrassed her in the early 2000's.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... d-her.html

Where there's smoke there's fire?

[Pyperkub]

So, in short, once you get old, go away? Also, if you're overweight, you're most likely a pervert?

Mythbusters actually proved that on an episode.

But it was contradicted by Logan's Run...

[hepcat]

The only crime Ailes is guilty of is not being politically correct...

(that's what we're using that for these days, right?)

[Enough]

Drudge has an exclusive up that says he is leaving Fox with a $40 million parachute.

[Pyperkub]

Drudge has an exclusive up that says he is leaving Fox with a $40 million parachute.

Might cover the lawsuits...

[Max Peck]

Fox News chief Ailes resigns after sexual harassment claims

Roger Ailes, who built Fox News into a money-making ratings powerhouse, has resigned as chairman and chief executive of the popular cable channel following allegations of sexual harassment, according to the company. The media executive and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, the parent of Fox News, had been in negotiations over his departure, a person briefed on the discussions said on Tuesday. Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox, will assume the role of chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, the company said.

The exit marks a swift downfall for Ailes, the 76-year-old media executive who advised several U.S. Republican presidents, including George H.W. Bush, and turned Fox News into the most-watched U.S. cable news channel. Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson sued Ailes earlier this month, claiming sexual harassment. Ailes has denied the charges. Fox hired the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to conduct an internal investigation. New York magazine followed up with reports of other women who said they had been harassed by Ailes as far back as the 1960s. On Tuesday, the magazine said that popular Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly had told investigators hired by Fox that Ailes "made unwanted sexual advances toward her" about 10 years ago. Ailes, who founded the cable channel in 1996, did not sexually harass Kelly, according to a statement attributed to his lawyer in the New York Times on Tuesday. His lawyers did not respond to questions from Reuters.

[Isgrimnur]

Andrea Tantaros

Andrea Tantaros, a former Fox News host, has filed suit against the channel and several of its executives, alleging a culture of “misogyny” and “intimidation” that allowed for Tantaros to be sexually harassed.

The suit comes in the wake of former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson’s public allegations of sexual harassment at the cable news channel. But while Carlson’s suit named Fox News CEO Roger Ailes as the sole defendant, prompting his resignation, Tantaros has also named the channel and several of its highest ranking executives, including Bill Shine, the network’s newly appointed co-president, and Irena Briganti, the network’s public relations chief.
...
The suit also names Dianne Brandi, Fox News’ EVP of business and legal affairs, and Suzanne Scott, Fox News’ EVP of programming and development.

The 37-page complaint, obtained by POLITICO, details numerous instances of sexual harassment and inappropriate comments that Tantaros was allegedly subjected to from Ailes, Fox News employees and Fox News guests. Tantaros also alleges a laundry list of inappropriate comments she said Ailes made about other Fox News employees.

The complaint also alleges that Tantaros was subjected to a sustained negative media campaign orchestrated by Briganti and Fox News’ media relations team. According to the suit, when Tantaros went to Shine and other executives to complain about the harassment and about the negative media campaign, they repeatedly brushed off her concerns.
...
Much of the conduct alleged in Tantaros’ suit mirrors some of the treatment that Carlson said she was subjected to at the network. Tantaros, for instance, alleges she was made to “twirl” in front of Ailes, who she said made suggestive comments about her body. And like Carlson, who alleges she was demoted from “Fox & Friends” for rebuffing Ailes’ advances, Tantaros alleges that she was booted off the weekday program “The Five” in retaliation for her response to the treatment about which she allegedly complained.

After Carlson’s suit, filed in July, 21st Century Fox launched an internal investigation to look into the claims. A number of women have come forward, alleging that Ailes subjected them to sexual harassment while they were at the company, while several Fox News employees have said they did not see sexual harassment. After Ailes resigned, reportedly under pressure from executives, Bill Shine was promoted to co-president of the news channel.

[Holman]

When the news broke about the Ailes lawsuit, Bill O’Reilly went absolutely ballistic and declared that the network was under attack by a conspiracy of politically correct liars.

Oops. Turns out O’Reilly is now being implicated in the harassment claims.

[killbot737]

O’Reilly being implicated in the harassment claims?

You can't explain that.

[tgb]

In other news, I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

[Holman]

The New York magazine story reveals that all of this was even worse than was first assumed.

Carlson knew her situation was far from unique: It was common knowledge at Fox that Ailes frequently made inappropriate comments to women in private meetings and asked them to twirl around so he could examine their figures; and there were persistent rumors that Ailes propositioned female employees for sexual favors. The culture of fear at Fox was such that no one would dare come forward. Ailes was notoriously paranoid and secretive — he built a multiroom security bunker under his home and kept a gun in his Fox office, according to Vanity Fair — and he demanded absolute loyalty from those who worked for him. He was known for monitoring employee emails and phone conversations and hiring private investigators. “Watch out for the enemy within,” he told Fox’s staff during one companywide meeting.

Apparently he was been this hideous for decades. Who knows how many victims he really has?

Though Ailes had married his college girlfriend, he used his growing power to take advantage of the parade of beautiful women coming through his office hoping to be cast on the [Mike Douglas] show. Over the past two months, I interviewed 18 women who shared accounts of Ailes’s offering them job opportunities if they would agree to perform sexual favors for him and for his friends. In some cases, he threatened to release tapes of the encounters to prevent the women from reporting him. “The feeling I got in the interview was repulsion, power-hungriness, contempt, violence, and the need to subjugate and humiliate,” says a woman who auditioned for Ailes in 1968 when she was a college student.

The fact that these incidents of harassment were so common may have contributed to why no one at Fox came forward or filed a lawsuit until now. Ailes’s attitudes about women permeated the very air of the network, from the exclusive hiring of attractive women to the strictly enforced skirts-and-heels dress code to the “leg cam” that lingers on female panelists’ crossed legs on air. It was hard to complain about something that was so normalized. Other senior executives harassed women, too. “Anyone who claimed there was a hostile work environment was seen as a complainer,” says a former Fox employee who says Ailes harassed her. “Or that they can’t take a joke.”

Laterza, Shine, and Shine’s deputy Suzanne Scott would take turns summoning Luhn for “meetings” in New York. (A Fox spokesperson said executives were not aware Ailes was sexually involved with Luhn.) Ailes and Luhn would meet in the afternoons, Luhn said, at hotels near Times Square, and Ailes paid her cash for sexual favors. She was also on the payroll at Fox — at her peak, she earned $250,000 a year as an event planner for the channel; multiple sources confirmed that she was a “Friend of Roger,” with special protection within the company. But the arrangement required her to do many things that now cause her anguish, including luring young female Fox employees into one-on-one meetings with Ailes that Luhn knew would likely result in harassment. “You’re going to find me ‘Roger’s Angels,’ ” he reportedly told her. One of Luhn’s employees received a six-figure settlement after filing a harassment claim against Ailes.

And it just goes on and on like that.

Ailes is now considered to be Trump's most influential adviser.

[Isgrimnur]

The more things change...

It's despicable that people like that have been able to continue bullshit like this in this day and age.

[Isgrimnur]

Settlement

21st Century Fox is settling a lawsuit brought by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, the company confirmed Tuesday morning. Terms of the settlement were not public, but Vanity Fair reported that it is for $20 million.
...
Now Fox News is settling the suit on Ailes' behalf, even though the company was not named as a defendant in the case. It isn't clear whether Ailes will be paying a portion of it.

According to Vanity Fair, the settlement will come with a public apology to Carlson on behalf of Fox, which is also reportedly in talks with two other women for their own settlements.

Though a settlement was never off the table, Carlson and her team indicated early on that that wasn't their ultimate goal.

[Moliere]

Greta Van Susteren leaving Fox News

The sources said Van Susteren had been unhappy with the way Ailes ran the network the past few years, and with the way the network was perceived
"It didn't appear it was getting better" after Ailes left, one of the sources said, so she looked to the exit.

Van Susteren said on Facebook that she gave notice to Fox last Thursday.

[Holman]

Settlement

21st Century Fox is settling a lawsuit brought by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, the company confirmed Tuesday morning. Terms of the settlement were not public, but Vanity Fair reported that it is for $20 million.
...
Now Fox News is settling the suit on Ailes' behalf, even though the company was not named as a defendant in the case. It isn't clear whether Ailes will be paying a portion of it.

According to Vanity Fair, the settlement will come with a public apology to Carlson on behalf of Fox, which is also reportedly in talks with two other women for their own settlements.

Though a settlement was never off the table, Carlson and her team indicated early on that that wasn't their ultimate goal.

Ailes' punishment was to accept a $40,000,000 golden parachute and a position as the GOP presidential nominee's leading adviser.

[gilraen]

Greta Van Susteren leaving Fox News

The sources said Van Susteren had been unhappy with the way Ailes ran the network the past few years, and with the way the network was perceived
"It didn't appear it was getting better" after Ailes left, one of the sources said, so she looked to the exit.

Van Susteren said on Facebook that she gave notice to Fox last Thursday.

...and moving all the way across the political spectrum to MSNBC

[LordMortis]

And that's all

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... dies-at-77

[Holman]

Tens of thousands of better people will die today.

[msteelers]

He's at the very least indirectly responsible for so much of what is wrong with our country at the moment.

[Kurth]

Not reveling in his death, but no tears here either.

[gilraen]

[tgb]

Similarly I was going to quote Bette Davis' reaction to Joan Crawford's death.

"They say you should only speak good about the dead. Joan Crawford died today. Good."

[Holman]

Sean Hannity last night was simultaneously pushing the debunked Seth Rich story and attacking critics for bringing grief to Ailes' family.

[tgb]

More than anyone Ailes was responsible for making the GOP a safe haven for racists. Whether is was Nixon's "Southern strategy", Willie Horton, or Fox, if it had more than a tinge of racism, Ailes was behind it.

Rot in Hell, you ignorant bastard.

[Fireball]

I'm sure his family is very sad, and I feel for them in their time of pain. Of the man, I have nothing kind to say.

[Sepiche]

Matt Taibbi has a few choice words to say on the death of Herr Ailes:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/fe ... er-w483013

Ailes was the Christopher Columbus of hate. When the former daytime TV executive and political strategist looked across the American continent, he saw money laying around in giant piles. He knew all that was needed to pick it up was a) the total abandonment of any sense of decency or civic duty in the news business, and b) the factory-like production of news stories that spoke to Americans' worst fantasies about each other.