![]() He's had nothing but success in his second career, first as president of CNBC, the business network that became far more profitable under his command. "Have him step outside."įor the gruff, hard-charging Ailes, who spent two decades helping to elect Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, this is a moment of sweet vindication. "I'm not going to go off the record," he barks. And taunting his former network, especially NBC News President Andrew Lack, seems to be his favorite pastime.Īiles says he's reacting to reports from journalists that Lack has privately denigrated him. His 2 1/2-year-old cable venture, Fox News Channel, is consistently beating rival MSNBC in prime time and, earlier this month, for an entire 24-hour period - despite the fact that Fox is in 9 million fewer homes. "Geez, there are some guys on the window ledge over there," he says, glancing across Sixth Avenue at the towering Rockefeller Center complex where he used to work for NBC.Īt the moment, Ailes has plenty to crow about. 8 compared with MSNBC's "Equal Time," with a. Slipping on his glasses, Ailes announces that Bill O'Reilly's Fox talk show had scored a. Her lawyers' detailed account alleges Shine sent her to Texas to live with her family, picked a psychiatrist for her and called her father repeatedly to determine her state of mind.Roger Ailes is conducting the regular 3:30 meeting in his Fox News office when a secretary walks in with the latest overnight ratings. In her suit, Luhn contends that Ailes sought to manage her activities, even reviewing her email traffic as she began to fall apart emotionally from the abuse, with help of Shine. O'Reilly left with a reported $25 million.) Before Ailes' death, attorney Susan Estrich, denied the allegations by Luhn and other women of sexual misconduct. (The Murdochs paid him $40 million in severance compensation - twice what Carlson was paid to settle her lawsuit. Luhn claims he described the tapes as an "insurance policy" that would ensure she met his "loyalty requirement." And she claims he would make clear any career advancement or security depended on satisfying him physically.Īiles died in 2017, less than a year after being forced out. In what the lawsuit calls the most troubling instance, Luhn says Ailes forced her into sadomasochistic acts with himself and another woman, and videotaped the acts. But she alleges other Fox executives repeatedly summoned her to New York City to stay at a hotel near Fox News' headquarters at his behest for coerced encounters. She worked largely out of Fox's Washington bureau. The accusations in the suit - which track those she first made in New York Magazine six-and-a-half-years ago - include lurid and disturbing elements. In Luhn's lawsuit, her attorneys say only the weight of those allegations and Ailes' departure gave her the courage to speak out. ![]() Media Fox News Pays Record Fine Over #MeToo Violations of NYC Human Rights Law Encounters allegedly videotaped by Ailes as "insurance policy" "Any attempt to come forward with Ailes' abuse would have been at best fruitless and at worst devastating to Luhn's safety, career, financial situation, personal friendships, family relationships and public reputation." "Shine and many other executives knew of and enabled the abuse, which ultimately caused severe despair and devastation for Luhn," states the lawsuit filed by her legal team. His departure was part of an ongoing purge of executives and stars amid a crush of sexual harassment allegations there. Shine left the network in 2017 and became White House communications director for then President Donald Trump. Her suit cites the new Adult Survivors Act, passed last fall by the New York state legislature, that lifted the statute of limitations on sexual assault claims for a year. On Wednesday, Luhn filed suit in a New York state court against Fox News, its parent company, and former Fox News president Bill Shine, saying the network was complicit in controlling her personal life and blaming the abuse for the psychological and physical toll she has suffered since. Note: This story contains content that may prove upsetting for some readers.įormer Fox News staffer Laura Luhn helped seal the late Roger Ailes' reputation after his resignation as the network's chairman in July 2016 when she publicly alleged that he had sexually abused her for two decades and blackmailed her into becoming his "sex slave." Ailes is shown above in July 2016 outside Fox's New York City headquarters shortly before his ouster. Former Fox News staffer Laura Luhn sued the network yesterday alleging years of sexual abuse by its former chairman, the late Roger Ailes.
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