New York Daily News’s TV editor Don Kaplan got a call yesterday from former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.
Ailes was seeking an apology for a headline in Kaplan’s Sunday column ‘Gropey old men.’ The column began: “Two crusty old media moguls — both undone in court papers by their own loose zippers: Sumner Redstone against Roger Ailes in a race to the bottom of the barrel.”
“I was hoping you would be a gentleman and apologize,” Kaplan quotes Ailes as saying.
At first, Kaplan didn’t believe it was Ailes on the other end of the line. But Ailes’ attorney confirmed it.
“Roger Ailes called the paper because he wanted to make clear that he vehemently denies the ludicrous allegations that were lodged against him by Ms. Curanaj,” Ailes attorney Mark Mukasey said in a statement. “Her complaint is a laughable stunt. And Roger should not be compared to anybody else. He’s an icon, a legend, a visionary — and he’ll be back.”
Lidia Curanaj, a reporter at Fox5 in New York, is the third woman to sue Ailes for sexual harassment, after Gretchen Carlson and Andrea Tantaros filed suit over the summer. Fox, too, is denying Curanaj’s claims. “We do not think the plaintiff’s claims have merit, and we intend to defend vigorously,” a spokesperson told TVSpy last week.
Kaplan’s response to the request for an apology: “I try to be a gentleman, but, sorry, I simply cannot apologize.”