Roger Ailes, the longtime Fox News chairman who helped found the network and build it into a cable ratings behemoth, has been forced out of the company following allegations that he sexually harassed numerous subordinates, including former host Gretchen Carlson and star anchor Megyn Kelly.
Attorneys for Carlson saluted her “extraordinary courage” and said Ailes’ exit represented a “seismic shift in the media world”.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox’s parent company 21st Century Fox, cut short a vacation on the French Riviera with his wife Jerry Hall to return to New York and finalise the departure of his long-term ally. He will assume the role of chairman and acting chief executive of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network.
Murdoch said Ailes had made “a remarkable contribution to our company and our country”. Ailes will remain a consultant to the network until 2018 and is expected to receive as much as $40m in severance pay, according to a leaked copy of a “separation agreement” published on Tuesday by the Drudge Report.
The news followed several days of public turbulence at Fox, including reports that members of the Murdoch family, which owns 21st Century Fox, had given Ailes a deadline of 1 August to resign or be fired.
Ailes’s highly public downfall began on 6 July, when Carlson alleged in a lawsuit that Ailes fired her after she refused to have sex with him. In her 11 years working at the network, Carlson said, Ailes personally subjected her to “severe and pervasive sexual harassment”.
“You and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better,” Ailes told Carlson according to her suit. “Sometimes problems are easier to solve that way.”
When Carlson refused his advances and complained about the harassment, her lawsuit said, Ailes had her reassigned from Fox & Friends to a less desirable afternoon slot, slashed her pay and ultimately fired her.
The statement released by her attorneys on Thursday read in full: “Within just two weeks of her filing a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, Gretchen Carlson’s extraordinary courage has caused a seismic shift in the media world.
“We hope that all businesses now understand that women will no longer tolerate sexual harassment and reputable companies will no longer shield those who abuse women. We thank all the brave women who spoke out about this issue. We will have more to say in coming days as events unfold.”
Carlson’s claims sent shockwaves through the media world, and lawyers for Carlson soon announced that six other women had come forward as victims of harassment by Ailes at different points in his long television career. 21st Century Fox swiftly hired a law firm to conduct a full investigation.
This week Kelly, easily the network’s most high-profile news anchor, told investigators Ailes harassed her at the start of her Fox tenure, some 10 years ago, according to information first leaked to Ailes’s biographer, Gabriel Sherman. Kelly gained a national profile last year, after a confrontation with Donald Trump at a Republican debate. She had remained conspicuously silent after Carlson filed her lawsuit, while nearly a dozen other Fox hosts, mostly women, publicly defended Ailes.
Ailes maintains that he fired Carlson over poor ratings and he dismissed her and others’ allegations as categorically false.
“This defamatory lawsuit is not only offensive, it is wholly without merit and will be defended vigorously,” he said in a statement.
Ailes was an adviser to presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and is a longtime power player in Republican politics. He has sat at the helm of Fox News for nearly two decades. Under his leadership, the channel has delivered billions in profits to its parent company and given Murdoch and his sons enormous leverage in the television market. His exit leaves a substantial power vacuum at the top-rated cable news network on television.
“Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years,” Murdoch said in a statement on Thursday.
“Fox News has given voice to those who were ignored by the traditional networks and has been one of the great commercial success stories of modern media.”
Murdoch said Ailes had “defied the odds” and that his grasp of policy and “his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media”.
Ailes released an open letter to Murdoch to the Drudge Report.
“With your support, I am proud that we have built Fox News and Fox Business Channels into powerful and lucrative news organizations that inform our audience and reward our shareholders,” it read.
“I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and on-air positions. Many of these talented journalists have deservedly become household names known for their intelligence and strength, whether reporting the news, fair and balanced, and offering exciting opinions on our opinion programs.”
