Roger Ailes Could Be on the Way out at Fox News
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The head of Fox News, Roger Ailes, is about to get the boot, according to an explosive report from New York Magazine. Weeks after former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against Ailes alleging sexual harassment, the media empire's president is reportedly close to being fired.
Two anonymous sources with information about the sexual harassment investigation told Sherman that 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, "have settled on removing the 76-year-old executive." CEO Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan are reportedly divided about the timing of the decision, but they all agree that it needs to happen.
"After reviewing the initial findings of the [sexual harrasment] probe, James Murdoch is said to be arguing that Ailes should be presented with a choice this week to resign or face being fired," New York Magazine reports. Lachlan and his father reportedly want to wait until after the GOP presidential convention.
More from New York Magazine:
"While Gretchen Carlson’s sexual-harassment lawsuit against Ailes sparked the investigation, sources say it has expanded into a wide-ranging inquiry into Ailes’s controversial management style. The interviews are now being conducted at Paul, Weiss’s midtown offices because of concerns that the Fox offices could be bugged, sources say. The lawyers are seeking to interview former female employees of Fox News in addition to current staff. They are also looking into the appropriateness of Ailes’s pressuring employees to speak out on his behalf, against his accusers."
Carlson, who co-hosted the Fox News program Fox & Friends before launching her own program, The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson, joined the news organization in 2005. In June, the company declined to renew her contract, citing low ratings. But Carlson contends that the decision not to renew her contract constituted "retaliation" after she allegedly rejected Ailes' sexual advances, CNN reports. She filed a lawsuit against Ailes on July 6.
ATTN: reached out to 21st Century Fox for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.
