The Roger Ailes scandal is ballooning into something much bigger

[n2doc]

By JOE POMPEO 08/10/16 06:47 AM EDT
THE DAILY AILES -- The Roger Ailes scandal is ballooning into something much bigger than the initial sexual harassment allegations that ignited the controversy a little over a month ago. And those were big enough: In a little more than two weeks, they drove the longtime Fox News chief out of the cable news channel he spent 20 years molding into a media powerhouse for the right and a cash cow for parent company 21st Century Fox, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his sons.

In the past few days alone, there have been reports of surveillance campaigns against journalists covering Ailes (http://nym.ag/2aDOHsD); Fox News employees who “believe our phones are tapped and that we are monitored” (http://cnnmon.ie/2aXbX4b); and incredulity that top brass at the publicly-traded 21st Century Fox were not until recently aware, as the company has said, of a $3.15 million exit package paid in 2011 to a former Fox News booker who claims Ailes manipulated and sexually harassed her for 20 years (http://on.ft.com/2aNm3Hr).


The question now being tossed around in the private conversations, Twitter exchanges, Gchats and Slack windows of the media-obsessed: How much more dirt is going to come out, and will this sordid affair eventually make the leap from scandalous to criminal? There’s been no smoking gun just yet, but there are specters. The whole thing’s beginning to feel a little Summer 2011, when the U.K. phone-hacking scandal that upended Murdoch’s other conglomerate, News Corp., was starting to catch fire. Here’s the latest that’s come across Morning Media’s desk ...

Dark arts: Ailes’ black ops tactics against New York magazine reporter and Ailes biographer Gabe Sherman were apparently more menacing than just online smears and negative Google ads. A source close to high-level Fox News executives told Morning Media that during a private conversation with Ailes at an event in the period when Sherman was reporting his 2014 book, “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” Ailes said to this source, “I know where he lives, and I'm gonna send people to beat the shit out of him.” (A second source within the Fox News orbit confirmed hearing the same account and a third said Ailes has said some version of this before.)


Read more: http://www.politico.com/media/tipsheets/morning-media/2016/08/another-ailes-spectacularsecond-amendment-sagaerstwhile-ap-power-duo-reunites-001084

[ms liberty]

1. Kick and rec. Off to the Greatest page! n/t

[Raster]

2. Fox "News" under the direction of Ailes would have made Joseph Goebbels PROUD!

For years this was and still is, the Ministry of Propaganda. EVERYTHING OUT OF FOX IS BIASED AND SLATED. Everything. And now to find the Ministry had their own "Brownshirts" is not surprising in the least.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Yup, shades of UK 2011 Murdoch phone-hacking scandal. . . . nt

[Jerry442]

4. When a person is a scumbag in public, unlikely they're a saint in private. NT

[vkkv]

5. I hope he rots in prison.

[Beowulf42]

10. Ain't gonna happen

Unfortunately he's rich. They are never never held to account. Justice for the poor. Mercy and forgiveness for the filthy rich.

[aggiesal]

18. One of the side effects of ...

[font color=red size=20]Affluenza[/font

[stonecutter357]

6. K&R!

[randr]

7. A few women have reported that he threatened to "share" them with his friends

and one woman stated she was asked to run his "DC bordello".
This scandal not only has wings, it has a rocket engine.

[jalan48]

8. The attention span of television viewers, especially FOX viewers is very short.

This will become another Brian Williams story, erased by "latest news".

[Midnight Writer]

23. Fox News viewers will be blissfully unaware, since Fox News is not covering this story

There was a story by a Fox News producer that Fox News had to change it's stationary logo at the bottom of the screen into a rotating icon because the logo image was being "burned" into the television screens of folks who watch nothing else.

[Kablooie]

9. Fox news and the Republican party collapsing at the same time.

Very strange.
Maybe there is a God.

[rivegauche]

11. Definitely disgusting, but I doubt anything will change.

The idiot Faux viewers don't care. Just as they don't care that their candidate is a lying, incompetent con artist who is an actual danger to this country. I swear to god they live in another alternate reality.

[gratuitous]

12. Popped the lid off the bulging barrel of toxic sludge

Surprise! It isn't just the creepy spectacle of Roger Ailes slobbering after the office women. There's much, much more.

[lindysalsagal]

13. " “I know where he lives, and I'm gonna send people to beat the shit out of him.” (A second source w

“I know where he lives, and I'm gonna send people to beat the shit out of him.” (A second source within the Fox News orbit confirmed hearing the same account and a third said Ailes has said some version of this before.)

When you think you run the world, you say things you don't think you'll ever live to regret.

[bluestateguy]

14. I will openly celebrate when Roger Ailes drops dead of a coronary

nt

[saidsimplesimon]

16. He best serves

our purpose as the face of the GOP. Long live the fat man for our entertainment and enlightenment.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

15. Ailes' case helps nullify Julian Assange/Vlad Putin's war on Democracy. N/T

[saidsimplesimon]

17. Ailes is a symptom

of some deep seated bias against "the other". Be that women, people of color or rational human beings who challenge his power over the media. He has a "golden parachute". His only remorse will come with the prospect of spending some time in prison.

[colsohlibgal]

19. Fox News/Goebbels Comparisons Are Valid

You wonder just want Trump would have to do or say to move people like Hannity and think maybe it's impossible. He could be naked on a video robbing a liquor store and Sean would rationalize it.

The damage Faux and Rush and the Glenn Becks have caused is incalculable....all done with the help of plenty of gullible and not too bright viewers/listeners.

I hope it all comes crashing down and a critical mass of people come to their senses. And maybe the republican party goes the way of the Whigs.

Oh...and one trait seems to be uniform from Ailes and his minions and Rush etc. - hypocrisy.

[yellowcanine]

20. Fox News may not survive this scandal, imo.

There may be scores of women coming out of the woodwork and claiming harassment. The potential liability is huge and likely not going to be covered by insurance if it is demonstrated that Fox actively covered up abuse. Insurers look for outs when there is a lot of exposure and this is a huge one.

[niyad]

21. was going to say that it couldn't happen to a more deserving ass**** and company--

but that leaves out the entire puke party.

[zentrum]

22. Nah, he'll take his

Last edited Fri Aug 12, 2016, 11:53 AM - Edit history (1)

….40 Million plus and retire to some tropical island. Very few MSM journalists will pursue this—FOX, Murdoch etal are too powerful and have too much "dirt" on the very people who would need to pursue this story.

My observation is that the rich and powerful always skate, with just a slapped wrist.

[Rose Siding]

24. Not so sure about that. When he got the bum's rush I figured there was solid evidence

At the very least, Fox will will be on the hook for quite a bundle.

[glennward]

25. Not blowing up as big as Bill Cosby's was. Wonder why?