Roger Ailes

The parent company of Fox News Channel said it would launch what it called an “internal review” of sexual-harassment allegations levied against its top executive, Roger Ailes, as well as one of its most prominent personalities, Steve Doocy, by a former news anchor, Gretchen Carlson.

Gretchen Carlson said that after she refused sexual advances by Fox News chief Roger Ailes, he curtailed her airtime and later declined to renew her contract.

Last week’s article in New York magazine saying that Fox News Channel leader Roger Ailes “has become less visible” to its anchors and producers on a day-to-day basis, drew this response from News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch: “Oh, it’s bullshit. Absolutely. I’ve got every confidence in Roger, you know? His health is fine. It’s true he had a little problem with his back for awhile, but otherwise, he’s micromanaging the place just as much as ever.”

Ailes has spent a career straddling the worlds of politics and media. Today, Ailes runs one of the most valuable cable networks, on track to bring in $2.3 billion in revenue this year, per SNL Kagan, twice that of CNN. And now, the net has another jewel in its crown, boasting the most-watched non-sports cable program ever, with 24 million people tuning in for the first GOP debate this past August.

By questioning Donald Trump about this behavior, FNC’s Megyn Kelly has assumed the role in the 2016 campaign of Edward R. Murrow, who questioned the demagoguery of Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, and by fiercely defending Kelly against Trump’s spurious attacks against her, Roger Ailes has assumed the role of William S. Paley, the legendary CBS mogul who believed in Murrow.

The Republican presidential front-runner-turned-TV-critic had welcomed Kelly back from a vacation Monday night by tweeting that he liked her show better while she was away. Trump said Kelly “must have had a terrible vacation” because “she’s really off her game.” He retweeted a message that referred to her as a bimbo.

Roger Ailes has signed a “multi-year contract” to continue running Fox News, Fox Business Network, and Fox Television Stations. The agreement should calm, but not end, debates over how the Fox News chief would fare once Rupert Murdoch hands the CEO title over to his son James and elevates his other son, Lachlan, to executive co-chairman.

Now that Rupert Murdoch’s sons James and Lachlan are taking charge of 21st Century Fox, one of their greatest challenges will be Fox News. Or, more, specifically: Roger Ailes. On Tuesday, moments after announcing the succession plan, 21st Century Fox publicly contradicted Ailes’ claim that he would continue to report to the elder Murdoch even after the sons take over. And his contract is coming due soon. So with the sons in charge, will Ailes stay?

Roger Ailes, opens up about the disgraced NBC News anchor, Rupert Murdoch, that MLK photo in his office, lesbian friends,  his legacy (“I don’t give a rat’s ass what the world thinks”) and new candidates as he grows his $15 billion empire.

A 560-page biography about Roger Ailes being published this month — The Loudest Voice in the Room by Gabriel Sherman — aims to be an exhaustive look at the television executive’s life and monumental career. In the months before publication, the book has drawn sharp criticism from a chorus of people connected to Fox News, including employees and contributors who have taken to Twitter to attack Sherman.

Roger Ailes is used to being in control. For almost a half-century — from his days as Richard Nixon’s media strategist to his creation and expansion of the Fox News empire — he has exerted incalculable influence over the public image of politicians, presidents, even the Republican party. Now, with his career heading toward its twilight, Ailes is in a war for control of his own legacy.

Over the summer Roger Ailes was sitting on his terrace at his home along the Hudson River, reading a book on the Civil War, when he decided his fight wasn’t finished. Last month Ailes, 72, who created Fox News 16 years ago, signed on for another four years as CEO. In a wide-ranging interview he explains why.

Roger Ailes will remain in charge of the Fox News Channel for the next several years, according to a published report on Friday, ending a period of speculation about his contract negotiations.

The network found and suspended the rogue employee who had filed anonymous posts at Gawker that ripped the organization, while FNC chief Roger Ailes blasted the site.

Some viewers, including conservative activists, are upset over a strategy that has been under way at the news network for some time — a “course correction,” as Fox chief Roger Ailes put it last fall — with the network distancing itself from the tea party cheerleading that characterized the first two years of President Obama’s presidency. Lately, Fox has increasingly promoted its straight-news talent in the press and conducted some of the toughest interviews and debates of the Republican primary season. Just last week, it hired the openly gay liberal activist Sally Kohn as a contributor.

Sarah Palin’s announcement that she wouldn’t run for president disappointed her legions of admirers — but it infuriated Roger Ailes. The Fox News chief wasn’t angry  about the decision itself. Rather, he was livid that Palin made the Oct. 5 announcement on a talk-radio program, robbing Fox News of an exclusive and a possible ratings bonanza.

Gawker, the popular blog based in New York, is going to court to investigate the relationship between Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Republican media strategist Roger Ailes launched Fox News Channel in 1996, ostensibly as a “fair and balanced” counterpoint to what he regarded as the liberal establishment media. But according to a remarkable document buried deep within the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the intellectual forerunner for Fox News was a nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the “prejudices of network news” and deliver “pro-administration” stories to heartland television viewers.

During his days as an overt political consultant, Roger Ailes reshaped Republican politics for the era of network television. Now, as chairman of Fox News, he has reshaped a television network as a force for Republican politics.

The circus Roger Ailes created at Fox News made his network $900 million last year. But it may have lost him something more important: the next election.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes was the executive who former HarperCollins exec Judith Regan said encouraged her to lie to investigators, affidavits indicate.

A coalition of rabbis wants Fox News chief Roger Ailes and conservative host Glenn Beck to cut out all their talk about Nazis and the Holocaust, and it’s making its views known in a full-page ad in today’s Wall Street Journal.