Developing…
Roger Ailes, the longtime boss of Fox News who has built it into a hugely profitable channel, has been dealt a massive blow by the bosses at 21st Century Fox.
There has been lots of change at the top at 21st Century Fox: Rupert Murdoch recently announced plans to step down as CEO, handing the company over to his son James. Rupert’s other son, Lachlan, will join his dad as executive cochairman. And Chase Carey, the company’s deputy chairman, president, and COO, will become executive cochairman.
Fox Business Network reported last week that Ailes would continue to “report directly to Rupert Murdoch” — a line that came directly from Ailes according to New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman.
But on Tuesday, a spokesperson for 21st Century Fox issued a statement saying that Ailes would answer to Murdoch’s sons before the big man himself.
“Roger will report to Lachlan and James but will continue his unique and long-standing relationship with Rupert,” spokesperson Nathaniel Brown told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.
Sherman called the move significant and detailed the history of acrimony between the Murdoch brothers and Ailes, noting that, “until now, Rupert always backed Ailes during his messy feuds with Murdoch’s children”:
Ailes and James have maintained a distant, if frosty relationship. James is an environmentalist who led News Corp’s campaign to be a carbon-neutral company. His wife once worked for the Clinton Foundation. Ailes, a fierce climate change denier, openly badmouthed James to friends and colleagues. He’s called him a “fucking dope” and “Fredo,” according to sources.No one I spoke to in the hours after the news broke could remember a time when Ailes has been so publicly diminished.
Fox may be getting a heart. Now if it only had a brain…
Isn’t it rather the brain itself of U.S. conservatives? Maybe old Murdoch has a heart for them and wants to help Republican candidates in their adjustment to undeniable reality?
You give him too much credit.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/20/bernstein-murdoch-ailes-petreaus-presidency
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/murdoch-sends-trusted-general-col-pot-to-bring-down-rudd-over-nbn-20130803-2r6fk.html
https://cafewhispers.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/revealed-the-media-conspiracy-against-the-government/
And then we have
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/the–i-will-destroy-you—remark-that-cost–655-million-001503384.html
and I quote
“Defendant Carlucci made no secret that defendant R. Murdoch was personally instructing him to go after News America’s competitors,” the complaint states. “In fact, according to the founders of Floorgraphics, George and Richard Rebh, defendant Carlucci once told them, ‘I will destroy you. I work for a man who wants it all, and doesn’t understand anybody telling him he can’t have it all.’ The ‘man’ defendant Carlucci was referring to, of course, was defendant R. Murdoch.”
Seems like spin to me. Please excuse my total lack of trust for an entirely abusive entity.
If Ailes gets turfed and doesn’t want to retire, I’m sure he’ll be welcome at Russia Today.
I would not trust anything that comes out of the Murdoch family. After the phone hacking scandal the whole can of worms was exposed and lawyers may keep Murdoch out of jail but we know where the responsibility lies.