On Wednesday news broke that longtime Fox News broadcaster Gretchen Carlson was suing network chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. At the time, per his Twitter feed, New York magazine reporter and Roger Ailes expert Gabe Sherman was on vacation (possibly in France, the world’s least-Fox News-approved country). Well, as of Thursday Gabe Sherman is no longer on vacation and definitely not in France, and he’s got the goods:
In the wake of Gretchen Carlson’s shocking sexual-harassment lawsuit against Ailes, there are signs that the 76 year-old’s luck may have finally expired.
On Wednesday, Fox’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, released a terse statement saying it took the allegations “seriously” and is conducting an “internal review of the matter.” The wording and timing of the press release—Ailes had yet to issue his own response, which, when it came, described the lawsuit as “retaliatory” (Carlson was just dropped from Fox) and claimed it would be “vigorously defended”—signal that Ailes’s standing with the Murdochs is precarious.
What happened? Did the Murdochs consider the seriousness and level of detail of Carlson’s accusations and decide that demonstrating their commitment to a fair workplace environment would simply be the right thing to do? Hahahahahahahahahaha LOLOLOL no, of course not, it is apparently all just part of a long-running power feud between Ailes and Rupert Murdoch’s kids.
Executives I spoke with over the past 24 hours said the hiring of an outside lawyer is also an indication that Murdoch’s sons may be capitalizing on the Carlson scandal to achieve a long-held goal: forcing Ailes out. “It’s a coup,” one person close to the company told me.
Also:
There is no God.
Fred Prouser/Reuters
