After Ailes, the Pirate Flag Still Flies at Fox News -
Throughout Fox News Channel’s summer of discontent last year, executives at its parent company, 21st Century Fox, assured reporters
that the young, up-and-coming corporate leadership — Rupert Murdoch’s sons, James and Lachlan — understood the severity of the sexual harassment allegations pending against the network’s founding chairman, Roger E. Ailes.
On top of that, take a look at the news, first reported by The Wall Street Journal,
that the network went ahead and renewed Mr. O’Reilly’s contract despite the two new settlements — and a third one from years ago that 21st Century Fox learned about only last year.
Certainly not if you go by the latest lawsuit, from the Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky, who said her own claims against Mr. Ailes —
and her refusal to attack his first public accuser, Gretchen Carlson — caused the current Fox News co-president (and former Ailes deputy) Bill Shine to deny her a promotion.
It said it was committed to “maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect,” and spent millions on settlement deals
that also happened to keep accusers from speaking about their experiences with Mr. Ailes — who, company executives implied, was the isolated cause of all the problems.
Fox News said Tuesday that it was doing so by “expanding our Human Resources department with regional people and adding more people in New York,” a tacit acknowledgment
that when Mr. Ailes was there, employees viewed the department as loyal to him above all, and often didn’t trust it enough to make complaints.
Not if you go by the meticulously reported piece last weekend by Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt of , which said
that some $13 million had been paid out to settle claims of harassment leveled against another man vital to Fox News’s success, its top star Bill O’Reilly.
It was why they moved quickly to hire a white-shoe law firm to investigate the charges
against Mr. Ailes, executives at the company told reporters at the time.
