Ailes left network last year amid sexual-harassment controversy
Roger Ailes, who combined political savvy with television showmanship to build the Fox News Channel into a conservative media juggernaut, becoming one of American media’s most controversial figures along the way, died Thursday. He was 77 years old.The cause of death wasn’t immediately known. Mr. Ailes had been in failing health, and had recently been hospitalized after a fall... Mr. Ailes pioneered a style of cable news with opinionated, right-leaning prime-time programming delivered by pugnacious hosts.
.. Through a career in politics dating back to the 1960s and his leadership of Fox News, Mr. Ailes helped shape the modern conservative movement.
.. Known for his bluntness and disdain for the so-called liberal media elites
.. Rupert Murdoch: .. “He will be remembered by the many people on both sides of the camera that he discovered, nurtured and promoted.”
.. Mr. Ailes also demanded loyalty, and he usually got it. When Mr. Ailes was building Fox News, almost 100 people from NBC went with him, causing executives there to complain that he was stealing staff. “You don’t know the difference between recruitment and a jailbreak,” he fired back.
.. In his letter of resignation, Mr. Ailes didn’t address the sexual-harassment claims but told Mr. Murdoch, “I am proud that we have built Fox News and Fox Business channels into powerful and lucrative news organizations that inform our audience and reward our shareholders.”
.. I met him once, and he was more than anything unashamed of his role in creating value by increasing an audience by the means he correctly saw as most potent — conflict. Whether you like the message or not, you cannot ignore screaming, and Ailes proved screaming pays very well regardless of whether there is anything remotely worth screaming about.
Federal probe of Fox News focuses on potential disguising of harassment payout
Federal prosecutors are looking into whether Fox News Channel and its parent company tried to disguise a $3.15 million payment to a former employee who said she had a 20-year affair with the network’s former chairman, Roger Ailes, according to people involved with the investigation.
Investigators in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York have focused on a payment to Laurie Luhn, a former Fox booker and event planner who left the company in 2011 with the seven-figure severance package. Luhn later claimed that she had engaged in a consensual but a mentally abusive, relationship with Ailes and that several of his lieutenants facilitated the assignations and were aware of his alleged mistreatment of her.
.. A series of such payments could be considered material not because of their size but because they could raise concerns among investors about the stability of the company’s management or finances.
Scope of Federal Probe into Fox News Broadens
Federal investigators have interviewed network executives and on-air talent, asking about sexual-harassment settlements
.. In an interview with the Journal, Ms. Luhn said Mr. Ailes harassed her and subjected her to “psychological torture” for years. She said Mr. Shine took steps to keep her from talking to the press, moving her between hotel rooms and at one point calling her father to arrange her placement in a psychiatric-care facility in Texas against her wishes. Eventually her lawyer negotiated a settlement with Fox. Ms. Brandi signed it while Messrs. Ailes and Shine signed a general release of known and unknown claims that was part of the separation agreement... Mr. Kranz was given immunity by prosecutors for speaking to them, people familiar with the matter said. He left the network last year after an internal inquiry found that he was involved in making settlement payments to Mr. Ailes’s alleged victims without the parent company’s knowledge, the people said.
Bill O’Reilly Payout Could Be as High as $25 Million
the total amount of payouts related to sexual harassment allegations at Fox News to more than $85 million — paid by the network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox. The vast majority of that — as much as $65 million in exit packages — is being paid to the men who were ousted because of the allegations.
.. Mr. Ailes received a $40 million package when he left.
.. As examples of how the network had yet to change, the employees pointed to the fact that Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, the network’s co-presidents and former lieutenants to Mr. Ailes, remained in their positions.
.. But the new contract provided the company with some protections. Those included a provision that Mr. O’Reilly could be dismissed if the company was made aware of other allegations against him or if new ones arose, according to one person briefed on the matter. The contract also included provisions meant to get Mr. O’Reilly to address his behavior, the person said.
.. Last November, 21st Century Fox disclosed that for the three months that ended Sept. 30, the company had about $35 million in costs related to settlements of pending and potential litigation after Mr. Ailes was ousted.