Another Ailes Spectacular—Second Amendment saga—erstwhile AP power-duo reunites

THE DAILY AILES -- The Roger Ailes scandal is ballooning into something much bigger than the initial sexual harassment allegations that ignited the controversy a little over a month ago. And those were big enough: In a little more than two weeks, they drove the longtime Fox News chief out of the cable news channel he spent 20 years molding into a media powerhouse for the right and a cash cow for parent company 21st Century Fox, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his sons.

In the past few days alone, there have been reports of surveillance campaigns against journalists covering Ailes (http://nym.ag/2aDOHsD); Fox News employees who “believe our phones are tapped and that we are monitored” (http://cnnmon.ie/2aXbX4b); and incredulity that top brass at the publicly-traded 21st Century Fox were not until recently aware, as the company has said, of a $3.15 million exit package paid in 2011 to a former Fox News booker who claims Ailes manipulated and sexually harassed her for 20 years (http://on.ft.com/2aNm3Hr).

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The question now being tossed around in the private conversations, Twitter exchanges, Gchats and Slack windows of the media-obsessed: How much more dirt is going to come out, and will this sordid affair eventually make the leap from scandalous to criminal? There’s been no smoking gun just yet, but there are specters. The whole thing’s beginning to feel a little Summer 2011, when the U.K. phone-hacking scandal that upended Murdoch’s other conglomerate, News Corp., was starting to catch fire. Here’s the latest that’s come across Morning Media’s desk ...

Dark arts: Ailes’ black ops tactics against New York magazine reporter and Ailes biographer Gabe Sherman were apparently more menacing than just online smears and negative Google ads. A source close to high-level Fox News executives told Morning Media that during a private conversation with Ailes at an event in the period when Sherman was reporting his 2014 book, “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” Ailes said to this source, “I know where he lives, and I'm gonna send people to beat the shit out of him.” (A second source within the Fox News orbit confirmed hearing the same account and a third said Ailes has said some version of this before.)

The first source also relayed a separate conversation (not with Ailes) in which the source was told, "If it ever came out," meaning the lengths Ailes went to in his campaign against Sherman, "multiple people at Fox would go to jail." There’s suspicion, sources said, that phone records were obtained illegally. At one point, Sherman and his wife explored the possibility of having their apartment swept for bugs, according to a source familiar with the matter. Ailes’ attorney, Susan Estrich, did not respond to requests for comment. Sherman declined to comment.

Sources also said that Peter J. Boyer, erstwhile New Yorker staff writer turned Fox News editor-at-large who was let go from the network two weeks ago (under circumstances reportedly unrelated to the Ailes matter) is finalizing an exit package. Boyer was present for a series of “war room” meetings in which Ailes and several consiglieres orchestrated a plan of attack against Sherman -- in other words, Boyer is said to know where bodies are buried. A source familiar with the matter said there’s “no doubt” Boyer has information that could be damaging to Ailes, but that he won’t be getting anything more than a “typical” severance package. Boyer didn’t return an email and a woman who answered the phone at his residence took a message. Fox News declined to comment.

Hush money: A media executive and Morning Media reader got in touch regarding Monday’s Financial Times article (http://on.ft.com/2aKiWlL) about the $3.15 million severance payment made to Laurie Luhn in 2011. The gist: “Corporate governance experts have questioned how Roger Ailes was able to use Fox News funds to buy the silence of a woman who complained about him, without it coming to the attention of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, owner of the news network.”

Our tipster points out, “The parent company said they didn’t know about the settlement. That means the auditors didn’t know. Willful manipulation of financial documents [within] a publicly audited company is a crime. It’s a violation of securities law pretty clearly.” Translation: Will this shady payment, which Ailes reportedly directed in his former role as Fox News CEO, come back to haunt 21st Century Fox?

Reached for comment, a 21st Century Fox spokesman reiterated a statement given to the FT: “The fact is we have a robust compliance structure and strong controls embedded across our company. Within hours of the first public complaint raising an issue at Fox News, we commenced an investigation, and less than two weeks after that investigation began, the Chairman and CEO of Fox News departed.”

The NYPD factor: Another source and Morning Media reader pointed out: A notable aspect that’s escaped attention in the recent spate of Ailes coverage is his deep ties to the NYPD. This came to light in reports in 2011 and 2012 as well as in Sherman’s book. It seems all the more fascinating in the current context of assessing just how much power Ailes wielded, all the way up to NYPD intel guys who he was able to get to do countersurveillance work (meaning Ailes was worried people were conducting surveillance on him and he wanted the NYPD to surveil the alleged surveillance). Morning Media obtained a document that was prepared for an NYPD Intelligence Division team. It’s been made public before, but it’s worth reproducing here, for posterity if nothing else:

Name: Roger Ailes, President of Fox News Network

Residence: Cresskill New Jersey

Work: 1211 Ave of the Americas

Remarks: Request for counter surveillance from Threats Desk. Mr. Ailes employs a retired NYPD Detective as personal escort. He arrives via private Car and is dropped off daily in front of 1211 Ave of Americas daily between 7am and 9am. He is Escorted into building by his security and is met by building security.

At the request of Mr. Ailes his security is not to be notified. He is aware of the pending counter surveillance attempt. Lt. Chapman (917) xxx-xxxx will be notified of the times and dates before conducting counter surveillance.

Odds and ends:

-- "The Carlson team is still actively litigating, we’re not the source of any information regarding a settlement, of which we have no knowledge," a spokesperson for former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson told POLITICO yesterday. On Monday, Vanity Fair’s Sarah Ellison reported that 21st Century Fox has begun discussing an eight-figure settlement for Carlson's sexual harassment lawsuit and that the company wants Ailes to fund a portion of it. http://politi.co/2bhP6kn

-- CNN’s Brian Stelter revealed that when he was in college running the blog TV Newser, he went out with a low-level Fox News staffer. But she wasn’t looking for romance -- she was doing research on Stelter and reporting it back to Fox. Stelter clarified that this happened more than a decade ago, when infamous former Ailes lieutenant Brian Lewis was running Fox News PR. Fox isn’t commenting so far on Stelter’s story. http://mm4a.org/2aDYZHO

AND NOW LET’S ALL PAUSE TO CATCH OUR BREATH! We’ll try to move through the rest of the day’s news as briskly as possible. Keep the tips and comments coming: [email protected]. Twitter = @joepompeo. MM archives are here: http://politi.co/1PdFrwQ. Hadas Gold and Nick Lindseth contributed to today’s column.

GHOST OF FOX NEWS PAST -- Josh Gerstein: “A looming First Amendment showdown drew closer Tuesday as a federal judge ordered conservative media host Glenn Beck to identify at least two confidential sources in connection with a defamation lawsuit stemming from Beck's reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing. The suit was filed by Saudi Arabian student Abdulrahman Alharbi, who was injured at the scene of the deadly bombings. Beck continued to link the Saudi national to the attacks even after U.S. officials said publicly he'd been cleared.

"U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris ruled that Beck must disclose the names of two Department of Homeland Security employees who allegedly gave a Beck producer information backing up the radio and TV host's claim that Alharbi was the ‘money man’ behind the attack.” http://politi.co/2aKwXgl

‘THIS ISN’T A JOKE ANYMORE’ -- That’s the latest cover of the Daily News, which has made waves this election cycle for its strong, advocacy-oriented front page treatments, especially on gun-related matters. Today’s installment, of course, refers to Donald Trump’s infamous “Second Amendment” remark yesterday. “When Trump hinted gun-rights supporters shoot Hillary, he went from offensive to reckless. He must end his campaign. If he doesn’t, the GOP needs to abandon him.” http://bit.ly/2b59uHS

Brian Stelter: “Just three hours after Donald Trump raised the specter of violence against Hillary Clinton, referencing ‘second amendment people’ who might be able to stop Clinton, [Sean Hannity] had an exclusive interview with the candidate. So what did Hannity do? Did he seize this moment to challenge Trump? To denounce talk of political violence? No. He basically put words in Trump's mouth and blamed the media.” http://eepurl.com/ca5FsD

REVOLVING DOOR: Adam Goldman, a prominent national security reporter, is leaving The Washington Post for The New York Times, where he will cover the FBI, and where he will be reunited with Matt Apuzzo, a fellow national security reporter with whom Goldman shared a Pulitzer and a book deal when they worked together at the AP a few years ago, blowing the lid off the NYPD’s secret spy unit. (Woodward-and-Bernstein of the twenty-teens?) “Matt and I have worked closely together for years, and hopefully we’ll find some stories to work on together in the future,” Goldman told POLITICO (http://politi.co/2bhTiAU). Not to be outdone, the Post has poached New York Times Middle East correspondent Kareem Fahim as the paper’s new Istanbul bureau chief (http://wapo.st/2bdWm3Q).

MUST READS:

-- “Is America Any Safer?” http://theatln.tc/2ayWPxx [The Atlantic]

-- “No regrets: An insider’s guide to Brexit failure” http://politi.co/2avtCmX [POLITICO]

-- “The Drone Presidency” http://bit.ly/2aLCcf7 [NYRB]

GAWKER ‘BLOWOUT’: A big party at Gawker headquarters tonight was billed as a celebration of a 14-year “noble experiment” that will come to an end in a few more days as Gawker Media is sold to whoever wins the bidding for the bankrupt company. But as late as yesterday, a court was listening to arguments from the company’s creditors that Gawker should not be allowed to host it. WSJ: “In the end, the creditor’s committee—led by representatives of former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose invasion-of-privacy legal victory forced Gawker and its founder Nick Denton to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection—decided not to object to the event because the cost is expected to be only $1,000.” That doesn’t buy a lot of booze; let’s hope someone else is chipping in too. http://on.wsj.com/2aAvc73

THE BATTLE FOR MILLENNIALS -- Ken Doctor’s latest POLITICO column takes a look at which media companies are winning, based on audience metrics. “Who does the best with Millennials? “over-indexing”? Appropriately enough, it’s Vice.com. … Just behind it: Mic, Buzzfeed, Vox.com, Mail Online and The Guardian. … On the other hand, big legacy news brands show substantial audiences, but look to Millennials to make up only about a third or a little more of their overall visitors. Thirty-nine percent of the New York Times audience is made up of Millennials. For USA Today, it’s 37% and for NBC News it’s 35%. These companies look at Millennials as a kind of blood transfusion, bringing new readers into the habit.” http://politi.co/2aJeMoe

SPEAKING OF MILLENNIALS -- Mic, Public Radio International and Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y are teaming up on an “UnConvention” -- “an ambitious multiplatform initiative to engage millennials in meaningful civic conversations during this year’s election season,” according to a press release. “The UnConvention includes streams of social, digital, audio and video content created and shared by 92Y, Mic, PRI and others. … The initiative culminates October 17-21, in five nights of high-profile discussions and performances taking place at 92Y.” http://bit.ly/2aU5iaH

SOUND BITES:

-- “The thing about reporting on both Ailes & Trump is that the facts themselves are so outlandish it can trigger charges of hyperbole or bias” http://bit.ly/2aY3U98 [David Folkenflik]

-- “Man, to know what Lachlan and James are thinking about Hannity right now.” http://bit.ly/2b562Ni [Joshua Benton]

FOX BUSINESS IS LATEST TO HOST LIBERTARIAN TOWN HALL -- Alex Weprin reports: “Fox Business Network will host a town hall with the Libertarian Party presidential ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, the channel announced Tuesday. John Stossel will moderate the town hall, which will air on Friday, Aug. 26 at 9 PM, in Stossel's normal timeslot. … Fox Business, which hosted a Libertarian debate earlier this year, now joins CNN in hosting town halls with the third party ticket. CNN has hosted two town halls with Johnson and Weld.” http://politi.co/2b1Jdaw

BLOOMBERG MEDIA NUMBERS ARE UP -- “Total global revenue in the first seven months of this year has grown +10% year-to-date compared to the same period in 2015,” CEO Justin Smith wrote in a memo yesterday. “Global advertising revenue year-to-date through July is up +10%. U.S. advertising sales in July grew a remarkable 32% vs. July 2015.” http://bit.ly/2aShV5U

SOUNDTRACK: Rod Stewart, “Young Turks” http://bit.ly/1jIoMLN

EXTRAS:

-- What does the job title “publisher” mean in 2016? http://bit.ly/2aY518K [Poynter]

-- An update on Storyful, News Corp’s social news agency: http://bit.ly/2aJk5nq [Medium]

-- Tribune Media reported a loss yesterday for its latest financial quarter, but underlying profit was on the rise. http://bit.ly/2b6YMlm [The Hollywood Reporter]

-- Tribune Media is selling off more real estate holdings. http://politi.co/2aKSoNk [POLITICO]



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