Alleged Perv Roger Ailes Out
Fox News confirmed to The Daily Beast editor-at-large Lloyd Grove on Tuesday that beleagured chairman and CEO Roger Ailes will depart the cable news network following sexual harassment claims by former anchor Gretchen Carlson. According to a document obtained by the Drudge Report, Ailes will receive at least a $40 million buyout from the network. The news comes hours after New York Magazine reporter Gabe Sherman wrote that Fox News star Megyn Kelly told investigators hired by 21st Century Fox that Ailes had sexually harassed her ten years ago.
Let’s stop and think about this: $40 million to buy this guy out? I suppose the Murdochs believe it will cut their losses in the end, but still. $40 million to make Roger Ailes go away.
There has been no trial and no admission of guilt on Ailes’s part, so we can’t say if the allegations of sexual harassment are true. If they are, though, I hope they all come out now that Ailes is not in a position to hurt anybody’s career at Fox.
Here’s a great tweetstorm from the other day about sexual harassment within Conservatism, Inc.:
I have no idea if @GretchenCarlson is telling the truth, only two people on Earth know for certain if she is. BUT. 1/
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
I do know there is a serious problem with sexual harassment in the conservative movement. Most women in it have war stories. 2/ — Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
When I was *first* starting out, I had a mentoring meeting w/ an older man in his office. I was naive. He was socially conservative. 3/
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
He spent most of meeting telling me that I would get much farther in my career if I was sexually unattached. (I was dating @SethAMandel) 4/ — Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
I never had an issue at Heritage or Commentary (or since), but that is due to the fact that my bosses were highly ethical and decent. 5/
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
I also chose wisely who I met with and potentially worked for after that incident. I no longer was willing to work for just anyone. 6/ — Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
The most infuriating part is how pervasive it is with social conservatives, this treating women like pieces of meat thing. 7/
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
We talk about honoring women, but oh the things that are said behind closed doors. Someone will write a book about it one day. 8/ — Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
Which is why it’s so important to have women mentors in this movement, and for women to be honest with one another about dangerous men. 9/
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 13, 2016
Preach it, sister. I hope somebody does write that book. And if Ailes is guilty, I hope that Gretchen Carlson gets a good chunk of that $40 million pile.
As little as I like what feminism has become, I am enthusiastically grateful that it has brought about a world in which powerful men have to worry that they could lose everything for mistreating women this way. Clearly not enough of them do. Yet.
