Ailes is out as Fox News head, Murdoch named acting chief

[webfact]

Ailes is out as Fox News head, Murdoch named acting chief
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Ailes is out as chief executive at Fox News Channel, his career at the network he built from scratch and ran with an iron hand for nearly 20 years over with stunning swiftness following allegations that he forced out a former anchor after she spurned his sexual advances.

Network parent 21st Century Fox said Thursday that Rupert Murdoch, the company's executive chairman, would run Fox News and its sister Fox Business Network, which Ailes had also led, until a successor could be found.

Murdoch and 21st Century Fox did not address the widening scandal in the statement on the resignation but lauded Ailes for his contributions. Ailes did not comment in the statement, and no details were given on a settlement agreement.

"I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice," Murdoch said. "Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country."

Cutting short a vacation, the 85-year-old Murdoch addressed Fox News employees in New York on Thursday. Details were not given on the settlement agreement for a contract that was supposed to run through 2018, but Ailes is expected to get a payment of at least $40 million.

Ailes will have no formal role in the company, but is expected to serve as an informal adviser to Murdoch, said a person familiar with the agreement who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is a personnel matter.

Fox is heading into a general election campaign in its customary spot at the top of the ratings, but without the man who sets its editorial tone every day. The announcement came on the day Donald Trump is to accept the GOP nomination for president, a speech likely to be watched by more people on Fox than any other network.

The blustery, 76-year-old media executive built a network that both transformed the news business and changed the political conversation. Fox News Channel provided a television home to conservatives who had felt left out of the media, and played a part in advancing a rough-and-tumble style of politics that left many concerned that it was impossible to get things done in government.

Ailes' downfall began with the July 6 filing of a lawsuit by Gretchen Carlson, who charged that he sabotaged her career because she refused his suggestions for sex and had complained about a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment at Fox. Ailes has denied the charges, but 21st Century Fox hired a law firm to investigate.

In a statement, Carlson's attorneys credited Carlson's "extraordinary courage" with causing "a seismic shift in the media world."

Several Fox employees jumped to Ailes' defense, but notably not Megyn Kelly, one of Fox's top personalities. In rapid succession, it was reported that Kelly was among other women who had told investigators about harassment — again denied by Ailes — and that corporate heads Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, determined that Ailes had to go. The company has no plans to make results of its investigation public.

Within two weeks of the court filing, Carlson's lawyers also said more than 20 women had contacted the firm with stories of alleged harassment by Ailes either against themselves or someone they knew. Two came forward publicly.

Before the charges, Fox's sheer success had insulated Ailes despite some previous scrapes with the Murdoch sons over who he would report to. Fox News Channel is the parent company's single most important property, said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser, with some estimates that it accounted for nearly a quarter of the company's profits.

Ailes was a prominent Republican media consultant who later ran CNBC before Murdoch asked him to create a cable news network to compete with CNN at the same time MSNBC was starting. Ailes' slogans, "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide," appealed to an audience that believed mainstream outlets didn't live up to those promises.

"He was ahead of his time in recognizing that dividing, not uniting, an audience would be the key to commercial success in the 21st Century cable news business," said Matt Sienkiewicz, communications professor at Boston College. Ailes blew apart the notion that public affairs programming should target a broad audience with civil debates, he said.

Ailes hired a combative broadcast journeyman in Bill O'Reilly and turned him into the star of an opinionated prime-time lineup. He directed news coverage and emphasized issues like the so-called "war on Christmas" or the Benghazi investigation that otherwise got little attention. Republican politicians considered Fox the first stop for reaching their intended audience, and they learned to talk tough. "We're not going to be defensive about anything," Ailes said at the network's launch.

"It is always difficult to create a channel or a publication from the ground up and against seemingly entrenched monopolies," Murdoch said on Thursday. "(Ailes') grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media."

He was also a showman. Fox had flashier graphics, brighter colors and a vitality its staid rivals lacked. The daytime show "Outnumbered" is a classic Ailes concept: four women in dresses, their legs prominently displayed, debating issues with a single male panelist.

In 2011, Ailes told The Associated Press that he hired Sarah Palin as an analyst — a decision that later gave him headaches — "because she was hot and got ratings."

Ailes demanded and usually received loyalty from a team that knew there could be hell to pay otherwise. When Paula Zahn left Fox for a job at CNN, Ailes retaliated by saying that a dead raccoon could have done her show and gotten the same ratings.

Critics scoffed at Ailes' promise that he'd lift Fox to first place. By 2002, he did, and Fox hasn't looked back.

Ailes groomed no obvious successors, and has been so identified with the brand that many have a hard time envisioning the network without him. Will his successor lack Ailes' political instincts, or tone down aggressive opinion? That could make Fox more broadly palatable, but also risks alienating the audience that has grown to love Fox and made it such a success.

Murdoch said Fox managers Bill Shine, Jay Wallace and Mark Kranz will assist him in day-to-day management of the network. Long-term, CBS News President David Rhodes is well-regarded and worked at Fox in the past. The Murdoch sons may also seek to make a statement by reaching outside the current Fox News culture.

"Whoever invented the Coca-Cola formula has long since passed this Earth, but the brand keeps selling because people like the taste," said Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. "I think that's how it's going to be with Roger Ailes. He invented this winning formula and all you have to do is not mess with it too much and it will continue to mint money for you."

Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald, who made 2004's "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," said he hopes the younger Murdochs will take this moment to change the network's philosophy.

"I certainly think that some of the hatred and anger and racism and fear that we're seeing in this election has clearly and absolutely been stoked and stroked by Fox News," he said. "Once he's gone, I hope the younger Murdochs will attempt to take an approach in which it does become a news outlet rather than a propaganda outlet."

While ratings are soaring in an election year, a newly aggressive CNN is making inroads among younger viewers that advertisers seek. Fox faces the challenge of trying to inject youth into an audience that is among the oldest in television, and viewership is expected to inevitably fall without the excitement of a campaign.

The network has also been remarkably stable, with personalities bonded from loyalty to Ailes. O'Reilly has recently mused about retirement, and he and Sean Hannity reportedly have contract provisions that would allow them to leave if Ailes does. Kelly's contract ends later this year and it would be a huge blow to the network if she left.

____

AP Television Writers Frazier Moore in New York and Lynn Elber in Los Angeles and Business Writer Tali Arbel in New York contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-07-22

[phuketandsee]

Out with a $60 million reward for sexual harassment. True Republican values.

[GOLDBUGGY]

Gosh! A 76 year old man fired from his 85 year old boss for sexual harassment?

Where do they work? I couldn't find a decent job once I turned 60 years old.

[bendejo]

And to think he was brought down by the dingy ex-Miss America whose specialty was the war on Xmas.

There's a fat man

in the bathtub

with the blues....

Maybe he'll get hired by MSNBC, they're right across the street

[adhd]

in the meantime, the rest of us is slaving for a pennies & dimes

[Skeptic7]

And to think he was brought down by the dingy ex-Miss America whose specialty was the war on Xmas.

There's a fat man

in the bathtub

with the blues....

Maybe he'll get hired by MSNBC, they're right across the street

Not sure MSNBC would have him. They are pretty good fact checkers, while those at FNC are great fact-maker-uppers!

[Buzzz]

It's gonna get real bad for Rupert and FOX.

From reports, other execs were using the casting couch.

The <deleted> is about to hit the fan. Nice.

[bendejo]

And to think he was brought down by the dingy ex-Miss America whose specialty was the war on Xmas.

There's a fat man

in the bathtub

with the blues....

Maybe he'll get hired by MSNBC, they're right across the street

Not sure MSNBC would have him. They are pretty good fact checkers, while those at FNC are great fact-maker-uppers!

That was a jab at MSNBC who bears some responsibility for DT's success. They may have one or two decent reporters, the people who run the station couldn't care less about a liberal agenda.

[boomerangutang]

Murdoch and his two grown boys, who are all in top corporate positions, should know what's going on in the top echelons of their business. If so, then one of the following two things are true:

A. They didn't know Ailes has been a sexual predator, ruining women's careers for decades

OR

B. They did know, but allowed it to keep happening.

If A, then they're abysmal business managers who don't have any idea what goes on with their top employees.

If B, then the Murdochs are complicit in Ailes' crimes. I think it's B. Need proof? How about 40 million proofs.

[phuketandsee]

It's gonna get real bad for Rupert and FOX.

From reports, other execs were using the casting couch.

The <deleted> is about to hit the fan. Nice.

A bit off topic but reminds me of a story a few years ago involving the late, widely disliked, majority owner of the NY Yankees George Steinbrenner. Apparently he got into an argument with a fan in an elevator who punched him. One reporter commented afterwards that he believed this was the first recorded occurrence of the fan hitting the sh1t.

Edited July 25, 2016 by phuketandsee

[Berkshire]

This is some really good commentary from Colbert and Jon Stewart about Ailes, Fox News....and some other stuff. Colbert glossed over in his intro some comments about Fox News, basically opining its legacy and the "damage (Ailes) has done to the world." He's right.

[bendejo]

Murdoch and his two grown boys, who are all in top corporate positions, should know what's going on in the top echelons of their business. If so, then one of the following two things are true:

A. They didn't know Ailes has been a sexual predator, ruining women's careers for decades

OR

B. They did know, but allowed it to keep happening.

If A, then they're abysmal business managers who don't have any idea what goes on with their top employees.

If B, then the Murdochs are complicit in Ailes' crimes. I think it's B. Need proof? How about 40 million proofs.

There has been mention. time and again, that Rupert was embarrassed by Fox News/NY Post content. I suspected, during the Cheney-Rove years, that those thugs had Murdoch with his back to wall, should he decide to get rid of Ailes and cease allowing the station to be a GOP tool (there are times it is unclear if the party is running the station or vice versa). It's obvious the strong-arm boys are no longer running the GOP, that was fully apparent at the convention, otherwise DT would now be up in his golden tower crying into his pillow. Also, in 2008 there were indications that Rupert was going to support Hillary, he threw a fundraiser for her. With this in mind, I find the timing of the dumping of Ailes with the DT ascendancy to be conspicuous: will Fox go pro-Hillary?

Imagine, for a moment, if a former WH communications operative who worked for a Democrat president became the head of a cable news station -- how would Republicans respond to that? The nearest to that right now is George Stephanopoulos, who does a dorky morning show.

Edited July 25, 2016 by bendejo

[mopar71]

And to think he was brought down by the dingy ex-Miss America whose specialty was the war on Xmas.

There's a fat man

in the bathtub

with the blues....

Maybe he'll get hired by MSNBC, they're right across the street

Not sure MSNBC would have him. They are pretty good fact checkers, while those at FNC are great fact-maker-uppers!

Despite the absurdity of MSNBC checking facts, they would love to have someone like Ailes to turn their bottom-feeder network around.

Ailes just might be part of a new 2nd conservative cable news network. Think about that one for a while. Double the conservative voices on TV.

[Buzzz]

Murdoch and his two grown boys, who are all in top corporate positions, should know what's going on in the top echelons of their business. If so, then one of the following two things are true:

A. They didn't know Ailes has been a sexual predator, ruining women's careers for decades

OR

B. They did know, but allowed it to keep happening.

If A, then they're abysmal business managers who don't have any idea what goes on with their top employees.

If B, then the Murdochs are complicit in Ailes' crimes. I think it's B. Need proof? How about 40 million proofs.

There has been mention. time and again, that Rupert was embarrassed by Fox News/NY Post content. I suspected, during the Cheney-Rove years, that those thugs had Murdoch with his back to wall, should he decide to get rid of Ailes and cease allowing the station to be a GOP tool (there are times it is unclear if the party is running the station or vice versa). It's obvious the strong-arm boys are no longer running the GOP, that was fully apparent at the convention, otherwise DT would now be up in his golden tower crying into his pillow. Also, in 2008 there were indications that Rupert was going to support Hillary, he threw a fundraiser for her. With this in mind, I find the timing of the dumping of Ailes with the DT ascendancy to be conspicuous: will Fox go pro-Hillary?

Imagine, for a moment, if a former WH communications operative who worked for a Democrat president became the head of a cable news station -- how would Republicans respond to that? The nearest to that right now is George Stephanopoulos, who does a dorky morning show.

I know it's a long shot, but perhaps Rupert's kids have some integrity and will turn the FOX News station into a legitimate news organization with actual journalists.

As of now, I view them as anti American with their 24/7 degrading remarks about the President of the USA being broadcast worldwide. Even Al Jazeera doesn't insult the US President of the USA like FOX constantly does.

My friend from Norway recently watched FOX and was astounded at the way they deliver the "news. He asked, "how is this legal"?

Roger Ailes, Republican Campaign Strategist & Chairman of FOX has the goal of personally destroying Democratic candidates by drip feeding hate & fear into their audience packaged as news.

Willing to say ANYTHING to promote the right wing agenda. It aint news. It's a campaign.

His audience is so misinformed you can easily distinguish the people that watch that program. Within 5 minutes they launch into their ant iObama rant mode. I cant get away from those people fast enough.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.

[Buzzz]

My friend from Norway recently watched FOX and was astounded at the way they deliver the "news. He asked, "how is this legal"?

I guess they don't have freedom of speech in Norway, but the English say much worse things about their politicians than we do. The United States legal system is based predominantly on English common law. As for Fox News, thank God SOMEONE is telling the truth about Obama.

Freedom of speech is great. FOX viewers can watch that nonsense all day long... and they do.

My gripe really is their kids watch that garbage too.

Sadly they are being told that evolution and Darwin are a joke and the distinguished members of the national academy of science that advice our president are all wrong on climate change. It's a hoax those kids are being told!

Those poor children are going to be prepared to compete in the world of science and technology?

That programming is a disgusting example of how low politics will go.

Feeding nonsense to their audience for politics.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Buzzz

[Skeptic7]

My friend from Norway recently watched FOX and was astounded at the way they deliver the "news. He asked, "how is this legal"?

I guess they don't have freedom of speech in Norway, but the English say much worse things about their politicians than we do. The United States legal system is based predominantly on English common law. As for Fox News, thank God SOMEONE is telling the truth about Obama.

Freedom of speech is great. FOX viewers can watch that nonsense all day long... and they do.

My gripe really is their kids watch that garbage too.

Sadly they are being told that evolution and Darwin are a joke and the distinguished members of the national academy of science that advice our president are all wrong on climate change. It's a hoax those kids are being told!

Those poor children are going to be prepared to compete in the world of science and technology?

That programming is a disgusting example of how low politics will go.

Feeding nonsense to their audience for politics.

Spot on! And the infamous quote by FNC's hero and biggest Blowhard, Bill O'Reilly to David Silverman..."Tides go in, tides go out. You can't explain that".

Hey Bill-O...maybe you and your supporting cast of morons can't explain it, but most junior high students can.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Skeptic7

[phuketandsee]

I am forced to watch Fox for coverage of the conventions due to my cable package and I have already seen signs of a softening of their position (except for idiots like Lump Hannity and O'Reilly). They were clearly blown away by Michelle tonight and maybe the few there that actually have a brain are starting to worry that Trump actually has a chance - thanks in large part to their actions - and they will be held responsible.

[Usernames]

It's gonna get real bad for Rupert and FOX.

From reports, other execs were using the casting couch.

The <deleted> is about to hit the fan. Nice.

A bit off topic but reminds me of a story a few years ago involving the late, widely disliked, majority owner of the NY Yankees George Steinbrenner. Apparently he got into an argument with a fan in an elevator who punched him. One reporter commented afterwards that he believed this was the first recorded occurrence of the fan hitting the sh1t.

That was said about Rex Harrison in the late 1950s. Even in that instance, it may be apocryphal.

[mopar71]

Out with a $60 million reward for sexual harassment. True Republican values.

Research for yourself what happens to women who claim sexual harassment by Democrats.

Ailes did get off easy, whether he did it or not. At that age to get such a retirement package? If I got that they could say about me whatever they wanted.

Edited July 26, 2016 by mopar71

[phuketandsee]

"Research for yourself what happens to women who claim sexual harassment by Democrats".

Such as?

[Chicog]

I know it's a long shot, but perhaps Rupert's kids have some integrity and will turn the FOX News station into a legitimate news organization with actual journalists.

That is one of the funniest things posted in World News this year!

[alanrchase]

I know it's a long shot, but perhaps Rupert's kids have some integrity and will turn the FOX News station into a legitimate news organization with actual journalists.

That is one of the funniest things posted in World News this year!

The whole "news" world is getting a bit tiresome these days. Right wing, liberal, lefty, commie. The sooner the US election and Brexit are sorted out the better. Missed out Muslim radicals in there.

[dageurreotype]

Fox News has, incredibly, been consistent in it's reporting on the debacle that is the US DNC and Hillary Clinton's misdemeanours of late. The ultra rightist news source has done an astonishing about turn on it's upholding of the establishment's agenda throughout the world. Murdoch didn't get where he is without being the first to sniff the way the wind blows in either the US or the UK. He's a whore, same Clinton and Bliar.

[alanrchase]

Fox News has, incredibly, been consistent in it's reporting on the debacle that is the US DNC and Hillary Clinton's misdemeanours of late. The ultra rightist news source has done an astonishing about turn on it's upholding of the establishment's agenda throughout the world. Murdoch didn't get where he is without being the first to sniff the way the wind blows in either the US or the UK. He's a whore, same Clinton and Bliar.

Is the thread about Hillary?

[mtls2005]

This one is painful to watch, unless you're a "typical" Fox News lover... ("typical" based on their advertisers would seem to be old, balding white males who suffer from ED)

 

 

[baboon]

13 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

This one is painful to watch, unless you're a "typical" Fox News lover... ("typical" based on their advertisers would seem to be old, balding white males who suffer from ED)

 

 

I despise Fox as much as the next man, but that video was nonsense. It provided no context whatsoever.

[mtls2005]

20 minutes ago, baboon said:

I despise Fox as much as the next man, but that video was nonsense. It provided no context whatsoever.

 

Well all of the video came from Fox News, so calling it "nonsense" sort of makes sense now doesn't it?

 

But if you want "context" I can pull thousands of videos, and maybe even get some good "leg cam" shots too.

[baboon]

^^

Please do. Anything credible that exposes Fox for the disgrace it is is fine with me...

[HappyDazed]

26 minutes ago, baboon said:

I despise Fox as much as the next man, but that video was nonsense. It provided no context whatsoever.

 

The video is titled "70 awful displays of sexism on fox news"...how much more 'context do you need?