| | | | "Everybody is just waiting. Everybody. All levels. Just waiting." That's what one of my Fox News sources told me this evening, confirming that staffers remain in the dark while Roger Ailes negotiates his exit from the network. The announcement could come at any time. So I'm going to hurry up and hit "send" on this newsletter...
Here's what we know:
-- Ailes was back at work in NYC today
-- His departure could be imminent or it could take several days
-- Fox staffers haven't been told anything
-- There are conflicting reports about whether a talent "walkout" is possible
-- There is some resentment toward Megyn Kelly among other Fox hosts
-- Fox is #1 during #GOPConvention week
Here's what we don't know:
-- The sticking points in the negotiations
-- Whether any progress was made today
-- Who is going to replace Ailes
-- How staffers will react to the successor
-- What, if anything, he is planning to do next
-- Whether any of Fox's loyal stars will leave with him | | I wish I had more to report tonight. But we're in an info vacuum right now. To be clear, the Murdochs HAVE decided that Ailes must leave amid allegations of sexual harassment. But when? How? Gabriel Sherman just fired off this tweet storm:
>> "Sources briefed on Ailes-21CF negotiations say Ailes now asking for considerably more than $40 million to go in exchange for non compete..."
>> "The talks are described by two sources as a 'very fluid situation.' Read: anything is possible..."
>> "As of earlier today, Ailes's key demands according to source are 1. Money 2. Press release language 3. Terms of non-compete" | | Here's my latest story: "Inside Fox, A-list hosts and rank and file producers alike are in the dark and worried about what's next. But they say they're happy to have a giant story to cover — the nomination of Donald Trump — on the favored channel of the GOP."
"I think it's best it's happening when we're all so busy, everyone is so focused on putting on good shows this week," one on-air employee told me. The shakeup "might not fully set in until conventions end." My understanding from hosts, producers and other Fox Newsers is that Ailes was in his office today, but wasn't communicating much if at all... | | Writing for THR, Michael Wolff makes the case that Ailes' end is also Rupert Murdoch's end. Click here to read it.
Now the question is: How will Ailes get revenge? Wolff: Ailes "has gone to war — for money, for a clean bill of health, resisting any admission of wrongdoing, and for the ability to stay in the game, avoiding any meaningful noncompete prohibitions. Indeed, now begins Ailes' war against the Murdochs..." | | | Ailes' spokeswoman is unreachable | | | I've been trying to get ahold of Fox News PR boss Irena Briganti all day. She is unreachable. This is unusual. (If you're a fellow media reporter and you were able to reach her, please lemme know and I'll correct my story.) | | | Knowing Briganti, she does NOT want to "be the story." But I think Erik Wemple is onto something with his latest: "Will Fox News's feared PR machine outlive Roger Ailes?" David Folkenflik, Paul Farhi and Lloyd Grove are quoted in this must-read... | | | "The channel was his singular vision" | | This is also a must-read: CNN's Bill Carter takes stock of Ailes' imprint on media and says the imminent departure is "nothing short of a seismic event in both the media world and the conservative movement in America."
"The channel was his singular vision, and he ruled it as much as led it. The network's dominance over conservative messaging has been so complete -- and so successful—that Fox has played a central role in the creation of what has amounted often to a second, separate version of daily news and information, one subscribed to by a legion of devoted viewers, some of whom have watched the channel to the virtual exclusion of almost everything else on television..."
Read the rest of his column here... | | I don't want to overwhelm you with links, but here are 3 more columns that stood out today:
-- Margaret Sullivan examines why "it took so long" for the allegations against Ailes to catch up to him...
-- Jim Rutenberg says that "just as Mr. Ailes reached the peak of the mountain, he hit the end of his own path…"
-- Felix Salmon says this is the best thing that could have happened to Fox: The Murdochs have the opportunity to "take a successful and profitable business and help it to evolve in a way that was impossible while Ailes still held the tiller..." | | | This, up above, is THR's illustration of possible Ailes successors... David Rhodes, Jay Wallace, Jesse Angelo, Bill Shine... Part of Marisa Guthrie's story, which says one scenario "would be to temporarily put Shine and Wallace in a dual role running Fox News, giving the Murdochs time to conduct a search for a permanent replacement..." | | | Let's not lose sight of this: | | | Carol Costello said it perfectly on her newscast this morning: "Usually women who accuse powerful men of sexual harassment don't come out the victors." When she said that, I asked aloud, Will this encourage other women in other workplaces to feel more confident speaking up? | | | What Gretchen Carlson is saying | | | During the hour she used to host on Fox, she tweeted, "It's 230pm -- here's #TheRealStory -- Sex harass victims should not be silenced w/ secret arbitration." She also promoted this petition, the "No Ripoff Clause," fighting against forced arbitration... | | -- Frank Sesno to Stephen Battaglio: "I don't know another Roger Ailes out there..."
-- # of the day: "SNL Kagan estimates that Fox News generated $2.3 billion in sales last year, an increase of 14% from 2014," Paul R. La Monica reports...
-- The Wrap: "Fox Offers to Pay Ailes' Legal Fees, Damages in Carlson Suit"
-- Margaret Talbot: "The women at Fox News do make a particular bargain..."
-- Longtime Fox critic Robert Greenwald says good riddance... | | 8:45am: "CNN's Chris Cuomo accuses Trump campaign chief of 'lying' about Melania speech in contentious interview..."
11:35am: Trump tweets: "Good news is Melania's speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!"
12:16pm: Mike Madden tweets: "'All press is good press' is sort of the essence of Trumpism..."
12:30pm: The campaign fessed up and ID'ed the apparent speechwriter... | | | (BTW, the 2016 answer is, ALMOST all press is good press...) | | There's been no "Trump ratings bump" for this convention yet... Tuesday night averaged 19.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen, versus 20 million for the same night in 2012 and 21 million in 2008. The #'s were a bit higher on Monday. As in 2012, Fox News is beating the broadcasters. Details here...
-- Programming note: Dylan Byers and I will be on Thursday's "New Day," 6:50am ET, talking about convention "momentum" or lack thereof... | | | Fox/CNN ratings race is tightening | | Something really interesting is happening in the Fox-CNN ratings war. I wrote about it in today's ratings story:
Some viewers who tuned into Fox last time appear to be checking out CNN this time. Throughout prime time, CNN averaged 2.8 million viewers, more than double its average of 1.1 million for the equivalent night in 2012. Fox News averaged 4.8 million viewers on Tuesday, versus 5.8 million four years ago...
The race has tightened dramatically in the 25-54 demo. Fox News had 1.42 million in the demo on 2012's night two while CNN had 342,000. The gap was over 1 million. This year, Fox News had 1 million while CNN had 816,000. The gap is under 200,000. Read more right here... | | | Montel walks off the "Factor" | | Dylan Byers emails: Bill O'Reilly called Montel Williams a coward after he walked off the Factor tonight: "He will never be on this program again. He's not a man of his word, he's unprofessional," O'Reilly said. "That is about as low as it gets."
O'Reilly attributed the walk-off to "some gay thing." Williams offered me a more specific account of what happened: He'd been told the segment was going to be about an LGBT speech he gave today, as well as a poll suggesting that President Obama is a racist (which Williams intended to knock down). But when he arrived, Williams said he was told the segment was strictly going to be about Obama being a racist: "I walked before air, they chased me half way around the building. My detail had to stop them," Williams told me. "I'm solely focused on my [LGBT-related] speech. When that was eliminated, why stay?" Read more from Dylan here... | | | Cleveland police say media are getting in the way | | | At 7:21pm the P.D. tweeted: "Massive media presence is making it difficult for law enforcement officers to police demonstrations..." There were hordes of cameras all around the flag-burning protest earlier in the day... | | | Car bombing kills journalist in Ukraine | | | Awful story out of Ukraine: Pavel Sheremet, a well-known Belarusian journalist, was killed today "after an explosive device placed under the car he was driving detonated in central Kiev... A native Belarusian, Sheremet has been an outspoken critic of Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian leaders. His killing has raised speculation that he was targeted because of his work..." | | | Kathleen Carroll stepping down | | | Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of The Associated Press for the past 14 years, is leaving the news agency in December. The A.P., one of the world's foremost news organizations, said a "successor is expected to be in place by Jan. 1, 2017." Carroll, a longtime journalism industry leader, said her future plans include vacation time and her son's college graduation next spring. An internal memo to staffers said that "she informed AP's Board of Directors of her decision" on Wednesday morning. Here's my full story... | | | ThinkProgress moving over to Medium | | | Tom Kludt reports: Medium "is about to add the largest website yet to its growing portfolio. The liberal site ThinkProgress will shift over to the platform next month." Check out Tom's interview with Judd Legum here... | | | We're keeping a close eye on late night TV coverage of the convention... Chloe Melas has this wrap-up of Tuesday night's one-liners... | | Send us feedback! Good, bad, ugly... | | | What do you like about today's newsletter -- and what do you think we should improve? Email your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We'll be back tomorrow... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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