CNN’s Brian Stelter: Fox News Had a Staffer Date Me and Spy on Me

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/...source=copyurl

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter revealed that a decade ago Fox News had sent a staffer to date him and spy on him. The allegation comes the day after New York magazine reported that recently deposed Fox News CEO Roger Ailes used network resources and private investigators to snoop on political and personal rivals.

Speaking with CNN’s New Day anchors on Tuesday, Stelter recalled: “About ten years ago I had a crush on a woman at Fox News. She was a low level staffer. I was in college at the time. So I was going out on what I thought were dates. I thought these were dates. These were not dates. She was actually reporting back to Fox News about me. She was reporting back about what I thought of her and about CNN and MSNBC and Fox. Because I was a reporter on the beat, they were actually spying on me that way.”

Stelter’s former colleague Bill Carter added: “They were following reporters around. We knew covering Fox you’d have to deal with that. You’d get a call from them saying, ‘You better be right on this story’ or the implication was, ‘We'll dig into your past, we’ll dig into your private life.’” Stelter founded the media-news site TVNewser and went on to become a prominent media reporter for The New York Times before becoming host of CNN’s Reliable Sources.

sim:

It's not really surprising that Roger Ailes ran Fox News in this manner. After all, he came of age in the 1960's working for Richard Nixon where "dirty tricks" and "enemy lists" were standard practice. In another time and place, (i.e. Nazi Germany), Ailes would have been the kind of guy Hitler would have appointed to be his propaganda minister.

As I was reading the article quote I was thinking this sounds like unsubstantiated BS. But when I clicked on the article and saw the guy's picture it was pretty obvious anyone 'dating' him would need to get paid.

Looking like a bad read.

Gabriel Sherman's Latest Update on the Roger Ailes Train Wreck

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ger-ailes.html

Bump ... Those with short attention spans can skip this as it is definitely TL/DR. For those who are interested, there are a lot of juicy details. (After the comment Roger Ailes allegedly made about James Murdoch, Rupert's son, smoking a cigarette; it's not difficult understanding why the son wanted Ailes fired - for cause.)

Two takeaways from all this. First, the key Fox News executives described in the article as Roger's "enablers" are probably living on borrowed time. As soon as Rupert either dies or hands over total control of the company to his sons, the "housecleaning" Sherman alludes to will commence post haste. If they haven't already "retired" or found jobs elsewhere, executives like Bill Shine, Irena Briganti, Dianne Brandi, et al. will probably be shown the door.

As for Roger Ailes, he'll be lucky if this mess doesn't wind up forcing him into personal bankruptcy. The Murdochs reportedly want Roger to personally pay at least some of the "eight figure settlement" that will go to Gretchen Carlson in exchange for her agreeing to keep those tapes away from a jury. According to the article, Rudy Guiliani thinks Roger's current [third] wife will file for divorce, so that's goodbye to at least half of the $40 million severance agreement. With all the other possible lawsuits and legal entanglements swirling around Mr. Ailes - and his legal team billing him at the rate of $500 to $1,000 per hour - he'll be lucky if he still has two pennies to rub together.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Gretchen Carlson To Get $20 Million (Plus An Apology) For Settling Roger Ailes Lawsuit

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/...for-20-million

I'm surprised the settlement amount is so small, considering the nature of the evidence Ms. Carlson is reported to have amassed. (Didn't ESPN on-air "personality" Erin Andrews get over $50 million due to some creep taking a picture of her undressing through a hotel room peephole?) The Murdoch's are known to be tough negotiators plus Ms. Carlson's demand for a public apology probably trimmed another $5 to $10 million off the settlement.

As a condition of his $40 million severance agreement with the Murdoch's, Mr. Ailes agreed to a 2-3 year non-compete clause promising that he would not start a competing [conservative] news network. However, that non-compete clause did not bar him from being involved (as a "consultant") in political campaigns, so now he's "unofficially" advising Donald Trump - despite Kellyanne Conway's assertions to the contrary. (Ms. Conway claims that Trump and Ailes are just "friends" and Ailes has no official role in the campaign.)

There's interesting speculation on the Salon.com web site

http://www.salon.com/2016/09/05/dona...beat-fox-news/

that Donald Trump's "real goal" is not to be elected President but to form a competing [far right] television network that will go head-to-head against Fox. Wonder what role Mr. Ailes might play in that?

So the bottom line is Ailes is getting millions to go away, Carlson is getting millions to go away, and I'm scraping for pennies at the micros.
Still a good day....

If Murdoch is paying $20 mil to avoid discovery then Ailes must have just walked around with his dick out trying to orally sodomize every women in the office for like years. Seems like an unfathomable amount and I can think of no other reasonable explanation other than Ailes must have been a total predator, Carlson's lawyers had a zillion witnesses or other evidence to verify and guilt wasn't in question. So much monies.

It's terrifying how this appears to have been very open and blatant, yet we're only hearing about it now. For what appears to be a stumbling collection of disgusting people who are terrible at what they do, they managed to keep and uncomfortably tight ship.

And of course- this pile of feces is working for Trump now and that's somehow not nearly as big a thing as it should be.

JFC how much money would her family have got if she'd been killed covering a story? Hard to imagine any more than 20 mil

LOL at this. It represents like 0.15% or so of the total corporate revenue. Easily worth it to settle ASAP. Ailes got like $40 million in severance.

lol, for real.

This woman is far from a reliable witness. But she did get $3.15M. So some of this stuff has to be true, and man is it disturbing: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...-20-years.html

suzzer:

It's interesting how Trump claims he respects women while simultaneously maintaining a predator (like Ailes) as a "friend" and political consultant. Oh wait, I forget. Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway claims that Mr. Ailes does not have any "official" title (or role) in the campaign. I guess that makes it all OK.

Is it any wonder polling indicates Trump having a significant problem with women voters? Employing Ailes (whether officially or unofficially) in the campaign adds credence to the theory that Trump isn't really interested in winning the Presidency. (If Trump actually wanted to win, he would be distancing himself - rather than welcoming - a creep like Roger Ailes into his campaign.)

It's looking more like the theory that what Trump really wants is to build (after the election is over) an ultra-hard-right rival network to Fox - in which case Ailes will play an unofficial advisory role since any kind of official role would violate the terms of the non-compete clause in the $40 million severance deal he signed with Rupert Murdoch.

If that is indeed Trump's real goal, it will be hilarious watching a lot of the current FNC on-air "talent" that was/is zealously loyal to Mr. Ailes - folks like Shaun Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Greta van Susteran et al. - walking away from Fox to go to work for Trump and his new network. Then it will be war between Rupert Murdoch and Trump/Ailes. (Rupert must be getting senile in his old age to think he could boot Roger - for a mere $40 million - and Ailes would not seek revenge.)

Who's Sorry Now?

Try Geraldo "I No Longer Have My Book Deal!" Rivera.

http://www.politico.com/media/story/...sherman-004749

I don't always settle for tens of millions but when I do it's because the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Greta van Susteran "Regrets" Supporting Roger Ailes

http://fortune.com/2016/09/09/greta-...t-carlson-fox/

What Greta really regrets is seeing Gretchen Carlson walk away from this mess with $20 MILLION - while she's leaving Fox with nothing. If Greta is lucky, she might bounce back and land a new gig with a competing network, but I doubt if CNN or any of the "liberal" networks will be offering her a new job - especially a regular on-air show. Ted Koppel pointed out years ago that TV journalists live for their daily "face time" and Greta has lost hers.

Greta and Geraldo claim they both knew nothing about Ailes and his true nature, but one wonders if they knew but consciously chose to remain silent and take the money. Something this blatant doesn't go on without people knowing. (I've read accounts of Fox employees openly speculating as to which [female] Fox employees were "... one of Roger's girls". There was undoubtedly water cooler talk along such lines. They knew.

The writing is on the wall for the remaining Fox employees who steadfastly supported Roger Ailes and besmirched Gretchen Carlson. O'Reilly and Hannity are probably on their way out - as soon as their current contracts expire. Neil Cavuto is probably on the endangered list as well. Gabriel Sherman has been explicit in pointing out how much Ailes and Rupert Murdoch's two sons (James and Lachlan) despise each other. Any of Fox's on-air "talent" who chose to show loyalty to Roger picked the losing horse. For making that mistake, they'll probably pay with their careers.

1. the scope of that settlement is almost approximating some of the largest sexual harassment verdicts in American history. So they settled for like, probably way more than a court likely would have hit them up for.

2 I get that was "easily worth it to settle" which is exactly my point: that News Corps strategy was to settle even before it got to discovery (forget a trial) shows there was ~$20 mil or more of bad publicity lurking in simply the potential leaks coming out of discovery. Like Fox did an internal investigation and then didn't even want to have share the details with Carlson's lawyers (the legal obligation that comes out of the discovery phase) for fear whatever is in there gets leaked and there's > $20 mil of bad press in there. Remember, Ailes is already fired.

Settlements before trial, OK. Settlements to avoid discovery? For like, all the monies you could ever hope to get, plus more?

You can only conclude one thing from that: Roger Ailes basically did everything short of raping his employee(s).

Here, adios, I'll do the assumptions for you. Recognize these are assumptions:

News Corp, who hired an auditor and did their own internal investigation to prepare themselves for trial. All of that is evidence they have to share with Carlson's lawyers at discovery. This is the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the evidence they’ll present at trial. None of this is public.

So, what you can assume: News Corp settled before discovery. For an astronomical amount of money. They didn't even wait to hear what Carlson's lawyers had on them! Think what that says about the radioactive nature of what they already knew to throw in the towel.

This is the poker equivalent of folding before the hand is even dealt. You can settle after discovery! That's when like 99.9% of settlements happen once everyone turns their hands face up.

The only plausible reason you hand someone so much money to go away before you even hear if they have you nailed to the wall is that 1) you already know they have you dead to rights and 2) you don't even want to share the **** you know because it's so embarrassing.

Literally News Corp bet/calculated that the costs of stuff they knew and had to share + chances it leaks > $20 million and quit before even playing.

Not really sure why you're ruling that out.

DVaut:

The relatively quick settlement was a combination of two factors. Gretchen Carlson's lawyer, when asked the specific question as to how strong her client's evidence was, emphatically stated that they were "very confident" with the evidence they had. (This was in direct contradiction of Ailes vehement denials.) Shortly after that, Gabriel Sherman reported - in the New Yorker - that Ms. Carlson had voice recordings on her smartphone of private conversations between herself and Ailes where Mr. Ailes [allegedly] harassed her. (In the complaint filed back in July, one of those "conversations" - the one where Ailes purportedly told Gretchen that he "... had thought for a long time that he and Ms. Carlson should have had a sexual relationship" - was probably lifted verbatim from one of those [alleged] recordings. It probably did not require extraordinary powers of deduction to realize that if Ms. Carlson did indeed have voice recordings of Ailes, hearing it all in discovery was pointless.

The second factor, and I suspect the decisive factor, was the frosty relationship between Roger Ailes and the two Murdoch sons. To put it bluntly, the two sons (and Roger Ailes) despised each other. (Ailes reportedly referred to James and Lachlan Murdoch as "the Boys" and chafed at having to report to them rather than their father.) Once this scandal broke, one of the sons (James) wanted Ailes fired, for cause, with no severance but was overruled by his father.) If Mr. Ailes had had the same kind of relationship with the two sons that he had with their father; who knows - he might have survived this calamity.

Because the mutual animosity and disrespect was so intense between Mr. Ailes and James and Lachlan, Ms. Carlson's lawsuit presented the sons with the perfect opportunity to justify [to their father] that it was time for Roger to go. Too much power went to Roger Ailes head - he thought he could get away with misogyny and crude treatment of women forever.

Sure, whatever, fine. The point remains: they had Ailes nailed, and News Corp didn't even bother to hear the evidence.

As I said in my first post that adios disagreed with:

adios came along to be like lol no, it went so quickly to avoid bad PR.

Which....OK. We all seem to have consensus here. You, adios, and I. They settled out for so fast so quickly because the proceedings were destined to be farcical and the outcome preordained: Roger Ailes was super guilty and everyone knew it. That they didn't even make Carlson's lawyers throw her iPhone on the table and play the recording(s) is demonstrative the case was super hopeless. They already knew it. Which is exactly what I said.

You can even go from there and note that by avoiding discovery, plus the humongous settlement -- just to avoid showing their hand -- probably spared News Corp from even further embarrassment about Ailes conduct. If Murdoch's lawyers had to turn their hand face up and turn over tons of ****ing witnesses and other stories of Ailes wretchedness and predatory behaviors, they had to be nervous it would have leaked. They were so confident Carlson had the goods and that whatever defenses they had tried to muster buried Ailes even further that they just dumped tons of money on Carlson to not even bother showing their hand.

Again, poker analogies are strained but it's like you show up for a game of poker then just hand all the money in your wallet to your opponent and throw the deck in the trash because if the other side even catches sight of the cards then you might have to go run to the ATM to pay off your opponent even more.

I don't understand how Ailes has walked away from this basically unscathed, reputation-wise. How is it that Trump can take him on and no one raises an eyebrow? Mike Murphy, on his podcast, refers to Trump as "The Orange Menace" in the same breath as mentioning "The Great Roger Ailes".

Trumpfans: Bill is a womanizer!

Normal people: You have Roger Ailes on your team.

Trumpfans: You can't prove Trump is sexist! He loves women.

Vecernicek:

It would be inaccurate to say that Roger Ailes has walked away from this unscathed. First and foremost, his "reputation" - with all but Donald Trump - is in tatters ... he no longer commands the "respect" he previously enjoyed. With his forced resignation from Fox News Channel, the network he basically created, Ailes has lost his power base - he's now just another citizen. Ailes is so radioactive that no reputable [existing] television news organization will hire him as a "consultant" or executive. (He might wind up working for Donald Trump if "The Donald" goes ahead with a plan to create his own right wing television/media empire, but even that would be problematic as Rupert Murdoch would be sure to sue Trump - and Ailes - for violating the non-compete clause of his $40 million severance agreement.) Losing his power and influence is just the start of Mr. Ailes problems.

Ailes still faces other lawsuits from other aggrieved parties and individuals. (The complaint filed by Andrea Tantaros is just one of the remaining legal complications to which Roger can look forward. He'll be spending quite a bit of time with his lawyers over the coming weeks and months, plus high octane lawyers don't work cheap. According to Gabriel Sherman, Ailes, acting in his official capacity as a paid executive of 21st Century Fox, ordered private investigators to obtain phone records of journalists. That may be a violation of law, so Media Matters - a "liberal" news organization - has indicated they may be filing suit against Mr. Murdoch and his corporation. There may also be a shareholder lawsuit against TCF as the way Ailes used shareholder money to pursue his "enemies" may have violated the fudiciary duties of top executives to their shareholders.

As if all that weren't enough, Rudy Guiliani believes there is an excellent chance Roger's marriage will not survive this debacle - his current wife [Elizabeth] will probably be seeking a divorce. If Elizabeth files for divorce, Roger can say goodbye to a significant chunk of that $40 million severance. Between taxes, legal settlements, lawyers fees, and whatever Elizabeth winds up with; Roger will be lucky if he's left with two pennies to rub together. Bottom line: Roger is not walking away from this unscathed.