“If Fox wants to become the ‘all about Megyn Network,’ that’s fine,” one top Fox News host said. “We stand with Roger. And real anger has emerged that the so-called Megyn incident happened 10 years ago. The consensus among the hosts and contributors is: ‘Why didn’t she say anything then? Really, the same woman that posed half naked in GQ? The same woman on Howard Stern saying what?’”
.. The fact that nearly the entire network is willing to walk out over this, and support Ailes over Kelly is significant in that they have banded together to show their strength. It will harder than ever now for the Murdochs to side with Kelly over Ailes, especially with the lack of any evidence of her allegations–and the fact that Kelly waited 10 years to say anything about this evidence-less supposed incident.
.. In comments to the outside firm investigating the matter, according to New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman—an anti-Ailes agitator in the mainstream media—Kelly alleged that Ailes sexually harassed her. She and her attorneys have, sources say, manipulated her way in a manner that rival Claire Underwood of the hit Netflix dramaHouse of Cards. “Even her haircut looks like Robin Wright [the actress who plays the ruthless First Lady in the series],” said one source in Cleveland. “She’s a woman who not just will do anything for power, but anything to make it all about her.”
Fox News Names 2 Insiders to Top Posts
The inquiry has expanded into whether other executives knew of any improper behavior and failed to act on it.
On Friday, Fox also announced that its longtime chief financial officer, Mark Kranz, would retire. His departure was linked to his oversight of the network’s finances during a period when financial settlements were made with women who had complained of harassment
.. Mr. Shine, 53, has been with Fox since shortly after the channel debuted in 1996. He is a favored figure among some veteran anchors, including Mr. Hannity, who first recommended him to Mr. Ailes for a job. A Long Island native, Mr. Shine cut his teeth at the network producing Mr. Hannity’s program and working closely with personalities like Bill O’Reilly.
.. “I could not be happier with the new management team at Fox News Channel,” the anchor Greta Van Susteren, who also worked closely with Mr. Shine, wrote on Twitter on Friday. “Each is well liked and well respected; Thank you Rupert!”
..Still, Mr. Shine was considered one of Mr. Ailes’s most loyal lieutenants. And his name, along with those of other executives, surfaced in recent accounts by two women who came forward to describe difficult experiences at Fox News.
Andrea Tantaros, a daytime host, told The New York Times that when she complained to Mr. Shine about being harassed by Mr. Ailes, he told her, “Don’t fight this.” Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Shine said that Ms. Tantaros never complained to him about Mr. Ailes harassing her.
What It Was Like to Compete Against Roger Ailes and Fox News
Mr. Ailes had created the greatest news show on earth. Even the Fox News slogan, “Fair and Balanced,” was somehow a mantra anyone could remember: It tweaked Fox’s strait-laced competitors and winked to delighted Republican viewers.
Fox was cleaning our clocks in the ratings in part because conservatives were flocking to that one network while the rest of us scrapped over the remaining and divided moderates, independents and liberals. But to claim Fox’s success was only political would be a cop-out. They were just better. And I needed to figure out why.
.. Mr. Ailes would pick one or two “hot” stories, add numerous live guests and stick to that story throughout the day. Many cable viewers, it turned out, were not interested in television news’s bread and butter — a diverse newscast of multiple dispassionate stories — no matter how important. Despite what they might tell pollsters, viewers were clearly looking for a great yarn, and Mr. Ailes knew how to spin one.These days that sort of live blanket coverage (for example, a certain plane crash on CNN) has become far more commonplace but had been considered anathema to the very fiber of what a news network ought to be doing.
Mr. Ailes was equally adept at knowing what not to cover... So while MSNBC and CNN were focusing on the challenges and failures of the war, Fox covered the story far less often, and when they did so, in a far more sanguine way, highlighting successes from the field... Mr. Ailes didn’t seem to care how anyone reacted to his often-controversial network... Fox News would simply ignore them or hit back harder, on the air or through its relentless public relations department. There were no objective norms, no establishment rules, no journalistic sanctity. Just Roger’s rules... We knew it was the right call when Mr. Ailes began treating Mr. Olbermann’s success as a potential threat, leading him to instruct Bill O’Reilly to refrain from responding to Mr. Olbermann’s attacks.
With Roger Ailes Out, Will Fox News’s Influence on Politics Change?
For more than two decades, the network helped legitimize political issues like birtherism and “death panels” and usher into the mainstream the shock-jock language embraced by Mr. Trump.
.. “Roger Ailes is the epitome of somebody that is not politically correct and has the guts to say a lot of what Americans are thinking,” said Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa, who used Mr. Ailes as a consultant in his early campaigns in 1986 and 1990. He added, “It will be interesting to see where we go from here.”.. “Once Fox made it an issue, then all of the sudden Congress made it an issue, and it was something that the Bush administration hadn’t seen as an issue, but suddenly became a big priority.”.. at times David Axelrod would meet directly with Mr. Ailes to address a flare-up — but those were not always successful.“Basically, Roger was going to do what Roger was going to do,” Mr. Axelrod said, calling the Fox News chief “brilliant.”