Roger Ailes Blasted in Biography
On January 21, Gabriel Sherman’s biography of Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in The Room, will be released. The New York Times got a peek at it, and let’s just say that Ailes probably isn’t going to want a signed copy. In fact, he might try to buy every copy he can, and then burn them.
What do we learn about Ailes from Sherman’s book? As far as we can tell, mostly bad things. Here’s just a few:
- Ailes used Fox News to try to influence the 2012 election and make Mitt Romney the president. He uh, wasn’t so good at that.
- Ailes is not a nice boss, as former employees cited his “volatile temper and domineering behavior.”
- Ailes described Fox News stars Bill O’Reilly as “a book salesman with a TV show,” and Brian Kilmeade as “a soccer coach from Long Island.” Is that a bad thing? We’re not quite sure. Soccer is lame, so maybe?
- Randi Harrison, a TV producer, said that when she tried to negotiate her salary with Ailes when they both worked at NBC, he offered her more money if she would just have sex with him whenever he wanted. Ah, the ol’ “money for sex” tactic! A classic corporate maneuverer.
Unsurprisingly, a spokesperson for Fox News told the Times “These charges are false. While we have not read the book, the only reality here is that Gabe was not provided any direct access to Roger Ailes and the book was never fact-checked with Fox News.”
