A recent New York magazine article stated that Rupert Murdoch is “upping his presence” at Fox News while Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes has “become less visible,” all while painting a picture of chaos at the network.
Now Murdoch is firing back, telling Fortune Magazine that everything is fine:
I’ve got every confidence in Roger, you know? His health is fine. It’s true he had a little problem with his back for awhile, but otherwise, he’s micromanaging the place just as much as ever.
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Murdoch went on to tell Fortune that the idea of Ailes taking a backseat is “bullshit.”
At least one prominent FNC personality agrees with Murdoch, as On The Record host Greta Van Susteren stated in her blog. Van Susteren bashes the New York magazine piece for its use of anonymous sources and tells an interesting story of the only time Ailes ever told her what to report.
In 2004, as I was walking into Fox Bureau in DC, I ran into Roger Ailes who is not frequently in our DC Bureau – he is busy running the huge headquarters operation in NYC. Roger stopped me as we passed through the glass doors and said, “don’t report that the son of Governor Howard Dean – who was then running for President on the Democratic ticket – got picked up for stealing beer.” I said that I did not intend to, but why? Roger Ailes said something like, “he is a kid. You don’t want to ruin a kid’s life.” I agreed. Period. That’s it in 14 years.