For a few glorious weeks this summer, Fox News seemed as if it had emerged from a retrograde stupor defined, in part, by “leg cams,” the cinematic technique predicated on shooting broadcasters at thigh level, in favor of a period of enlightenment. After former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual-harassment lawsuit against the network’s co-founder, Roger Ailes, numerous other women came forward with surprising velocity to voice their own allegations. Meanwhile, James Murdoch, the C.E.O. of 21st Century Fox, and his brother, Lachlan Murdoch, its executive chairman, swiftly ordered an aggressive internal investigation to be administered by the white-shoe law firm Paul, Weiss. As I have previously reported, many within Fox News’s subterranean newsroom credited the younger Murdochs, still ubiquitously known as “the Boys,” for handling the crisis so expeditiously, and for pledging to sanitize Fox News’s culture. Ailes once said that the company was prepared to broadcast until the end of time, meaning up until the critical moment of a potential apocalypse or world war. In less than two weeks, however, he was out. The wooden door that famously cordoned his office suite from prying eyes was removed. Within, two handguns were discovered—one a Glock, the other a Smith & Wesson—with ammunition for both. (“Roger has a permit for those two guns,” Ailes’s attorney, Susan Estrich, told me, adding that her client has a license to carry a handgun in New York, “for his personal protection.” She continued: “Those guns are licensed and appropriate.” Ailes has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual harassment.)
Within the newsroom, according to one staffer, the days following Ailes’s departure were defined by “shock and awe.” But as Rupert Murdoch moved in to take over as interim C.E.O., it seemed like the big boss was working in tandem with his heirs. The Murdochs tried to extract some of Ailes’s associates. The company announced that former Fox News C.F.O. Mark Kranz was retiring. Some of Ailes’s closest allies were also dismissed. His so-called black ops team left Fox. Several of his former assistants followed.
As reporters and producers grew accustomed to the sweeping changes, however, the Murdochs did something seemingly peculiar: they elevated Ailes’s closest deputy, Bill Shine, and a Fox Television Stations executive, Jack Abernethy, to co-presidents of Fox News. They also kept on Dianne Brandi, the general counsel, and Suzanne Scott, executive vice president, programming and development. These moves seemed counter-intuitive to those who saw the younger Murdochs agitating for change. Not only had Shine and Brandi been influential deputies in the Ailes regime, but they were also reportedly implicated in the allegations of Laurie Luhn, the former Fox booker, who accused Ailes of sexual harassment and psychological torture. As Gabriel Sherman detailed in New York, Luhn received a $3.15 million settlement. (Through a Fox News spokesperson, Shine and Brandi said they had no knowledge of Laurie Luhn’s sexual relationship with Roger Ailes.) A person close to 21st Century Fox also insists that Shine was vetted. “We wouldn’t have given Shine the job if he wasn’t clean,” this person says. Another staffer confirmed this perspective: “Everybody inside these walls knows Bill Shine.”
Read More...
No comments:
Post a Comment