Roger Ailes Leaving FOX News After Latest Sexual Harassment Allegations

[SeaBreeze]

He's quite the bigwig there, suprised to see him backing out of Fox News. More here.

Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, a towering figure in media and politics for the past half-century, is negotiating his exit from the cable network amidst a spiraling sexual harassment scandal, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Ailes, 76, has long been a kingmaker in Republican politics while running the top-rated news channel, which he launched with media mogul Rupert Murdoch nearly two decades ago.

He was seen as untouchable, given his longstanding relationship with Murdoch and his continued business success: Fox News dominates the ratings and brings in more than $1 billion in revenue. And no one inside the network could seriously challenge his power.
But earlier this month, former “Fox & Friends” co-host Gretchen Carlson accused Ailes of sexually harassing her and firing her in retaliation for rebuffing his advances.

Carlson’s lawsuit set in motion a chaotic couple of weeks at Fox News as six women from Ailes’ pre-Fox days came forward with similar accusations and others appeared willing to speak out.

 

[Wandrin]

I can't say that I'm a fan, but intellectually I have to give him credit for his accomplishment. He took Murdoch's tabloid news and branded it to the angry-old-white-guy market in the US as "fair and balanced", in contrast (Fox claimed) to the "mainstream media", which was supposedly biased toward liberal thinking. Under his leadership, his network came to own a major share of the AOWG market. He created candidates from employees and set up a revolving door for right-wingers to run for office, work at Fox, run again, serve, then come back.

He convinced his viewer base that, despite their market share, Fox News was not "mainstream media." When I walk my dog past a local bar, the loudest angry voices are talking about either something on Fox News or Limbaugh, with seemingly no context from anything outside those sources. He created that the same way he created candidates, including Trump.

Having said that, I'm glad he's leaving. I wouldn't be surprised if the allegations by Gretchen Carlson, or others, prove to be true, and I hope he loses in court.

 

[Debby]

How many consider Fox News 'fair and balanced'? I sure don't. Saying it constantly doesn't make it so.

 

[Bobw235]

Glad to see him go.

 

[Grumpy Ol' Man]

O'Reilly talking about retiring. Ailes canned. Hannity and Meagan Kelly are about the only other ones that see decent ratings. The Five sits a long-legged female out front so the redneck viewers can drool.

Fox & Friends morning show has pretty fair ratings. Their competition is strong with the major networks and that is what people see at work or in the airports.

Kelly has offered to testify against Ailes. If this is viewed as "treason", she will probably be gone soon. But, the future of Fox will depend on Ailes and O'Reilly's replacements.

Fox is supposed to be the water carrier for the GOP. There was some turnover when Obama won his second term. If Trump loses, it will be interesting. If the establishment GOP doesn't get behind Trump, Fox may well survive as their op-ed network. OTOH, if Clinton runs away with the election in November, whoever is named as Ailes replacement may well have to fall on the sword to make amends with the Party that supports the network.

 

[Eric]

The Five sits a long-legged female out front so the redneck viewers can drool.

I get my news from a lot of places including fox and I don't mind seeing a pretty woman with good legs on any news report but I don't drool about it. It's funny to watch you politically correct democrats use derogatory names like redneck to describe poor southern white people and say too that they sit there drooling to dog them even more. Whats the matter you only put on the pc mask when its somebody you like? I'm not from the south and I'm not poor but I'm sure you sensitive ones have some derogatory names for me