This would be H-U-G-E!!! ~ am I the only one who didn't know Ailes was a "former Nixon aide"????? ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Media watchers say end is near for right-wing Fox News network
David Ferguson / 01 Aug 2016 at 16:49 ET

The Fox News Channel’s days as a reliably right-leaning news source may be numbered, according to media watchers.

Monday’s Morning Media report from Politico claims that in the wake of Roger Ailes’ departure from the network in disgrace, there are questions about whether Fox News will continue to offer the same type of right-slanted programming that has made its fortune over the course of two decades.

Rupert Murdoch has stepped in as interim CEO and director of Fox News, but has made it known that he will be handing the operation over to his sons. Rumors have flown for years that the Murdoch sons — who are more liberal than their 85-year-old media magnate father — are embarrassed by the right-wing antics regularly featured on the network.

While some in the industry argue that Murdoch would never give up the lucrative cash cow that Fox News has become, others say that the network is losing its cachet with viewers. Fox’s audience is aging and dying off, they argue, and many once-loyal viewers have abandoned the network in favor of alt-right media sources like Breitbart.com.

“Ailes’ number may well have been up soon enough anyway; the real question the new allegations continue to raise is what, if anything, Ailes can manage for a next act,” Politico said.

The former Nixon aide was forced to step down due to findings by an internal investigation conducted by the law firm Paul, Weiss into a reportedly widespread and deeply entrenched culture of sexism, harassment and bullying at the company. Female employees were regularly told that to move up the company ladder they must perform sexual favors for higher-ups.

In early July, former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson launched a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, alleging that he repeatedly pressured her to enter into a sexual relationship in order to advance her career. That suit was aimed directly at Ailes and not at Fox News management in general.

However, on Friday, New York magazine editor Gabriel Sherman published an explosive profile of former Fox News employee Laurie Luhn who said that Ailes sexually harassed, abused, bullied and coerced her to the point that she has had multiple breakdowns.

Implicated in the abuse and cover-up are Fox News executives Bill Shine, Dianne Brandi and others who enabled Ailes and silenced women like Luhn with multi-million dollar severance packages that contain “iron-clad nondisclosure provisions.”

Luhn’s story mirrors that of former Fox News reporter Rudi Bakhtiar, who was demoted and marginalized within the network after she turned down the sexual advances of Washington, DC bureau chief Brian Wilson. When she threatened to go public with the accusations, Fox News settled with her out of court and again demanded silence.

Media Matters — an organization that has done some of the most detailed scrutiny of Fox News and its culture — said that Fox urgently needs to “clean house” if it wants to survive.

“(I)f James and Lachlan make no concerted effort to fix the widespread problems facing the women working at Fox News, that means James and Lachlan will soon own that problem and that stigma,” wrote Eric Boehlert. “I don’t expect Fox News to become a beacon of journalism anytime soon. But it’s hard to justify allowing Fox News to continue to reward an outdated, hands-on, Mad Men culture.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/media-watchers-say-end-is-near-for-right-wing-fox-news-network/

That would spell doom for a few big mouths.

There's no question that "Fox" is floundering ~ several of the "big names" that are left there have clauses in their contracts that gives them an "out" ~ and I'm willing to bet if the rumors of DT snowballing his new "fame" into a cable network prove true, they will happily follow those bread crumbs ~ ~ there are a few "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

5 Shocking Revelations About Roger Ailes and Fox News from the Reporter Who Toppled His Regime
Gabriel Sherman still has plenty of delicious dirt to dish.
By Elizabeth Preza / AlterNet / September 9, 2016

NY Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, who literally wrote the book on disgraced former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, has had his life threatened and endured harassment from Ailes' minions for his roll in bringing Ailes' behavior to light. At a talk Thursday night, Sherman made clear that there are still more revelations and fallout to come out about the right-wing propaganda machine and its former leader.

Former Fox host Gretchen Carlson shook the media world in July when she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, alleging she was fired in retaliation for rebuffing the former chairman’s sexual advances. Since news of Carlson’s lawsuit came to light, the impact at Fox News has been swift and massive; multiple women have come forward with their own allegations of harassment; Sherman has reported on an entire workplace culture enabling the abuse; Ailes left the company with a $40 million payout; and Carlson settled with 21st Century Fox Thursday for a reported $20 million and a public apology.

But some of the craziest revelations in Sherman’s reporting involve the massive amount of Fox News resources Ailes used to silence the women he harassed and the reporters (like Sherman) trying to uncover the truth. Here are some of the most shocking details Sherman discussed Thursday.

1. Ailes enabled a culture of widescale sexual harassment at Fox, and women who were targeted were too afraid to speak up for fear of being labeled complainers who "couldn’t take a joke."

Anyone who’s read Sherman’s reporting understands how pervasive the culture of sexual harassment was at Fox News under Ailes’ leadership. But according to Sherman, much of it was enabled through Ailes’ “sense of humor,” which allowed sexualized or derogatory comments to go on in the newsroom under the guise of being “just a joke.”

Though Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox, denies any knowledge of the accusations levied against Ailes, Sherman said the chief executive was well aware that Fox News operates as the "Wild West” and has a reputation for being a “boys club.” As Sherman noted, all it takes is a scan of Fox News channel to recognize the “hyper-sexualized” way in which the network portrays women.

2. Ailes amassed so much power at Fox News, sources told Sherman the current climate at the network is reminiscent of a toppled regime.

Ailes’ access to corporate resources at Fox News was truly unparalleled. Not only was he able to use his PR team to discredit the women he harassed (as was the case with Laurie Luhn, who had a false story insinuating she had an affair with political strategist Lee Atwater planted in the New York Daily News), he also used the network’s legal department to dole out massive payoffs to women who complained about his harassment.

“If you worked for Murdoch, you didn’t challenge Ailes,” Sherman said. During Ailes' long heyday, no one, not even Murdoch’s sons Lachlan and James Murdoch, could push back against him. The chairman’s political genius, knowledge of the TV industry and staggering ratings made stars of Fox News personas like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, leverage Ailes—combined with his “charisma and ruthlessness”—used to cement his power.

3. In 2012, Sherman received a death threat for his reporting about Ailes.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of Ailes’ reign at Fox News was the paranoia that informed his leadership. As Sherman wrote last month, Alies had a “Black Room” in the News Corp building that targeted journalists from Gawker, NY Magazine and Ailes’ own Putnam County News and Recorder siccing private investigators on them. As CNN’s Brian Stelter reported, Fox News has a 400-page opposition file on Sherman, complete with the reporter’s marathon times.

But Ailes did more than just send goons to follow journalists who were critical of his tenure at Fox. He subjected Sherman to the same PR machine he used against the women he harassed. Sherman said the “scariest moment” that occurred during his reporting took place in 2012, when the conservative news site Breitbart (whose former executive chairman Stephen Bannon now runs Donald Trump’s campaign) published a false story accusing Sherman of being a shill for George Soros.

According to Sherman, he and his wife, ProPublica editor Jennifer Stahl, received a death threat at their home shortly after the article’s publication. Sherman said it was at that point he realized the extent of Ailes’ power and influence.

4. Though Fox News settled with Carlson, her taped recordings of Ailes’ harassment still exist.

None of these revelations would have been possible were it not for Gretchen Carlson’s brave decision to come forward with her allegations, as well as the evidence she collected to prove Ailes’ guilt. As Sherman noted, the tapes she recorded must have been so damaging that 21st Century Fox was willing to settle with Carlson for tens of millions of dollars.

According to Sherman, the tapes still exist, and while a condition of Carlson’s settlement likely means she won’t be releasing the recordings, there’s the potential for another victim of Ailes’ harassment to carry out litigation against the former chairman—and subpoena the tapes in the process.

5. As Fox News embarks on a post-Ailes era, Sherman predicts a splintering of conservative news.

Sherman said Ailes' downfall marks a dramatic shift in the media landscape, one that began with the splintering of conservative media and corresponds with a broader fracturing of the Republican Party. Whereas for 20 years Fox News served as an “umbrella” for fringe-right radicals like Glenn Beck (who hosted a show on Fox News before forming his own media company, the Blaze) and establishment intellectuals like Charles Krauthammer, right-wing news sites like Breitbart and the Weekly Standard are micro-targeting far-right extremist factions and painting Fox New as an overly liberal establishment.

“In the crush of daily headlines it can seem like the story has really played out, but I think we are still in the middle of what I think will be remembered as one of the seismic shifts in the American media landscape,” Sherman said. “It took just 15 days from when Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit for Roger Ailes to be pushed out the door of Fox News, an institution he built and shaped in his image and in the process remade American politics in his image.”

Watch the entire conversation below, via Columbia Journalism.

[Video accessible via the end link.]

http://www.alternet.org/media/5-most-shocking-revelations-about-roger-ailes-and-fox-news-ny-magazines-gabriel-sherman

i wouldn't count on it. corporations are hard to kill.

but here's hoping!