Andrea Tantaros, a former Fox News host, charged in a lawsuit filed Monday that top executives at the network, including the man who replaced Roger Ailes, punished her for complaining about sexual harassment by Ailes. The suit by Tantaros, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, is the latest round in a contentious volley that began in late winter.
Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman ousted last month over charges of sexual harassment, is advising Donald Trump as he begins to prepare for the all-important presidential debates this fall. Ailes is aiding Trump’s team as it turns its attention to the first debate with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, on Sept. 26, according to four people briefed on the move, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Ever since former Fox host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the network’s co-founder, Fox has been tight-lipped about telling its viewers about the allegations.
More women have come forward as the media giant carries out an internal probe. The number of women who have come forward in the investigation to say they were victims of Ailes reaches into the double-digits, people familiar with the matter said. 21st Century Fox is anticipating having to reach settlements with some of those accusers, the people said.
The CNN Reliable Sources host said Fox News spied on him under the cover of a romance with one of the network’s staffers while he was in college running his TVNewser blog.
In the cable news network’s subterranean newsroom, fear is everywhere. “Hacking was bad,” says one person familiar with the internal investigation. “This is arguably worse.” Perhaps the biggest object of curiosity in the newsroom these days is the internal investigation currently being conducted by the law firm Paul, Weiss. The investigation originally focused exclusively on Ailes, but has expanded to other Fox News executives.
Exclusives
Shelley Ross, once one of the most powerful women in TV news, writes on resisting Roger Ailes’s invitation to have a ‘sexual alliance’ with him, the epidemic of sexual harassment in TV news, and how to solve it.
As Rupert Murdoch seeks to stabilize Fox News in the wake of Roger Ailes’s ouster, a crucial question remains unanswered: How was Ailes able to spend millions of dollars to settle sexual-harassment claims without setting off alarm bells? New York magazine says according to three highly placed sources, part of the answer is that there were few checks on Ailes when it came to the Fox News budget.
New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman has clearly led the reporting of the harassment claims against the former Fox News chief. Why? Deep sources and dogged persistence.
An attorney for former Fox News anchor Laurie Dhue, who says Roger Ailes once asked her if she was wearing underwear, says 21st Century Fox has not investigated sexual harassment claims against Ailes properly.
Some Fox News employees say there is an internal split inside the network, pitting those who support Roger Ailes against those who do not. Looming over the Fox News operations is a battle for succession to Ailes, who over 20 years established his position as one of the most powerful in television.
Roger Ailes has stepped down as chairman of Fox News, but the fallout from his controversial tenure won’t end anytime soon. The swift action to oust Ailes may bring a speedy conclusion to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson. But the move could embolden other women to file complaints against Ailes and expose Fox News to lawsuits over the conduct of the once powerful TV executive, legal experts say.
If the Murdochs were hoping the removal of Roger Ailes from Fox News was going to bring to an end the controversy that has enveloped the organization, they were sorely mistaken. Reports from The New York Times and New York magazine Saturday made clear that Ailes wasn’t the only Fox News executive who may have sexually harassed female on-air talent.
Now that Roger Ailes has stepped down as head of Fox News, the television news industry is bracing for a seismic shift. But the impact on the nation’s political discourse may be just as significant. Without Ailes guiding the network, conservatives and Republican politicians are left wondering whether the talk might soften under new leadership.
Does it need “a tweak or a transformation”? Might Megyn Kelly be its younger, more feminist-seeming new face? Is it just a tonal shift that’s in order, or does the whole news product have to change? These are among the questions that media analyst Ken Doctor surmises Fox News must be asking itself post-Ailes as James and Lachlan Murdoch look to how far they will fashion their company’s golden goose.
Fox News 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. For now, Rupert Murdoch will fill the spot left vacant by Ailes departure. “I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice,” Murdoch says. “Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country,”
Though Rupert Murdoch has stepped in to run Fox News in the interim, the search is on for a permanent replacement for Roger Ailes. But Murdoch, the 85-year-old executive chairman of 21st Century Fox who hired Ailes to invent Fox News two decades ago, is no long-term solution, and Ailes groomed no obvious successor.Among the names thought to be in the mix: current Fox managers Bill Shine, Jay Wallace and Mark Kranz and Michael Clemente, as well as The New York Post‘s Jesse Angelo.
Rupert Murdoch, the 85-year-old media mogul who started Fox News with Ailes, will assume the role of chairman and chief executive of Fox News and Fox Business Network.In a statement, Murdoch praised Ailes, 76, and his “remarkable contribution” to the company, without making mention of the sexual harassment scandal that felled him.
Ailes Only One Of Challenges Facing FNC
Fox News Channel is caught in the same whirlwind of technology, viewer migration and millennial multiculturalism as every other entity on the set-top box, says Variety’s Brian Steinberg.
As of Wednesday night, negotiations between 21st Century Fox and soon-to-be-ousted CEO Roger Ailes were still unresolved. The New York Times looks at the wider implications of his departure at Fox, including how much of Ailes’ management team will remain, and meanwhile staffers remain in the dark on what’s to happen next.
Fox News’s seemingly unassailable position as the most powerful cable news channel was rocked this week by the news that Roger Ailes, the only leader the network has ever known, was negotiating his exit as chairman after accusations of sexual harassment. But no matter how unseemly his departure, Ailes will leave Fox News in strong shape. Speculation about who will replace him has already begun, with names including Bill Shine, Fox News’s senior EVP for programming; David Rhodes, president of CBS News and a former Fox exec; and Jesse Angelo, CEO of The New York Post, thought to be among the contenders.
Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker says that Fox News chief Roger Ailes’ troubles will likely be an “overhang” on the stock of 21st Century Fox, given that the news channel accounts for 9% of the parent’s revenue and 25% of its EBITDA.
The fall of Fox News chief Roger Ailes likely marks the end of the Rupert Murdoch era at 21st Century Fox. “The ouster of Ailes, a sorry PR capitulation in [Rupert] Murdoch’s view, is not just an abrupt end to Ailes’ career at 21st Century Fox, but, in a way that’s hard to miss, rather a Murdoch coda,” according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Michael Wolff.
News of Roger Ailes’ exit from Fox News seems to have been premature. The Fox News chief’s attorney said Tuesday that “there is no agreement,” and CNN’s Brian Stelter and Dylan Byers report that numerous media organizations walked back an initial story, first posted by Drudge Report, that Ailes was in fact out.
Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Fox News head Roger Ailes, released a statement denying reports that Ailes had harassed Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. “Roger Ailes has never sexually harassed Megyn Kelly,” Estrich said. “In fact, he has spent much of the last decade promoting and helping her achieve the stardom she earned, for which she has repeatedly and publicly thanked him.”
The Daily Beast late Tuesday said that 21st Century Fox had confirmed that Fox News chief Roger Ailes, embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal, was leaving the news network. The site later said that Fox News had walked back their confirmation, with the news network issuing the following statement: “Roger is at work. The review is ongoing. The only agreement that is in place is his existing employment agreement.”
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who has been conspicuously absent among the group of Roger Ailes defenders, has broken her silence, according to a report in New York magazine. According to two sources briefed on parent company 21st Century Fox’s outside probe of the Fox News chief, Kelly told investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her about 10 years ago when she was a young correspondent at Fox.
“In many ways, [Roger] Ailes is Fox News. So the notion that he could be sacked at the height of a captivating presidential election is even more earth-shaking,” says The Washington Post‘s Callum Borchers. “A change at the top would immediately raise questions about the role of Fox News throughout the remainder of the presidential race … and beyond.”
In response to a New York magazine story that said Roger Ailes was to be removed as head of Fox News, 21st Century Fox said late Monday afternoon that its investigation into former anchor Gretchen Carlson’s accusations of sexual harassment is not over. “This matter is not yet resolved and the review is not concluded,” 21st Century Fox said.
Roger Ailes’s tenure as the head of Fox News may be coming to an end. Rupert Murdoch and sons Lachlan and James — co-chairmen and CEO, respectively, of parent company 21st Century Fox — have settled on removing the 76-year-old executive, according to a report from New York magazine.
In the year since Rupert Murdoch handed over the reins of 21st Century Fox to his sons James and Lachlan, the brothers have been remaking the company. During that time they’ve largely kept their hands off Fox News and Roger Ailes. But as Ailes’ sexual harassment scandal plays out, 21st Century Fox now faces questions about succession planning at the linchpin operation. Analysts say, it has become the Murdoch brothers’ biggest leadership challenge since taking over.
In a filing made in federal court in the Southern District of New York City late last week, Susan Estrich, the attorney for Fox News chief Roger Ailes in the sexual-harassment case leveled against him by former anchor Gretchen Carlson, asked the case be moved for arbitration to New York City.
If former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson’s suit is forced into arbitration, her chances of winning are lessened, and little will be made public about it.
The former Fox News anchor repeated the allegations she made last week against Roger Ailes, her former boss at the news network.
A growing contingent of Fox News employees are coming forward to publicly support embattled chairman and CEO Roger Ailes in the wake of the sexual harassment claims by former anchor Gretchen Carlson.
From the network’s inception, Roger Ailes has been so synonymous with Fox News that it’s hard to imagine the operation running without the seasoned TV programmer and former Republican political adviser at the helm. But in the wake of the explosive sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Ailes by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, the question of succession at Fox News has taken on new urgency.
Lawyers for Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes on Friday asked a federal judge to halt anchor Gretchen Carlson’s “shameless publicity campaign” against her longtime former boss and send her sexual harassment lawsuit against him to arbitration. In a filing with the federal court in Newark, N.J., Ailes’ lawyers said Carlson’s contract with the network had required her to arbitrate any employment disputes.
