Gabriel Sherman at the New York Magazine is claiming Fox News TV host Megyn Kelly was one of Roger Ailes sexual harassment victims.
(New Yorker) As a chorus of prominent Fox News women have gone public defending Roger Ailes against the wave of sexual-harassment allegations sparked by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit, the network’s biggest star, Megyn Kelly, has been conspicuously silent. Kelly’s refusal to join in Ailes’s orchestrated defense has led to speculation about why.
Now we have the answer. According to two sources briefed on parent company 21st Century Fox’s outside probe of the Fox News executive, led by New York–based law firm Paul, Weiss, Kelly has told investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her about ten years ago when she was a young correspondent at Fox. Kelly, according to the sources, has described her harassment by Ailes in detail. (read more)
Without looking at the specifics of the harassment allegations, the “fire Ailes aspect” does pass the sniff test.
There has been a transparent evolution within Fox News taking place after Rupert Murdoch moved to put his sons James and Lachlan into place.
Despite the financial benefits of running a more conservative/centrist network, like their father, the Murdoch boys are more ideologically aligned with the Mark Zuckerberg “Clintonian” world-view on all things media/political, (see: Bono, Richard Branson, Brangelina peaceniks etc.)
Almost all Fox watchers have noted the recent leftward shift which is factually more than an executive nudge. It would appear the sexual harassment claim, if factual, is fortuitous as a leverage tool toward the convenient and mounting effort to remove Roger Ailes from Fox News stewardship.
The reason to use Zuckerberg as an analogous comparative for the Murdoch kids, is also because Kelly’s ideological fem-affinity, as evolved, is in direct alignment with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg – a very close bestie for Kelly since 2012.
Ms. Kelly, as a psychologically transparent entity, is was the literal epitome of a woman at risk from the predatory nature of a powerful sexual harasser. Having lost her father at the age of 15, having abandoned a prior marriage -via internal angst amid a reflective life in conflict- searching for a purpose and affirmation, and having reportedly (previously) been involved with another older male suitor/father figure – Britt Hume – Kelly is, well, almost the textbook profile.
Still, it would only be a “profile” if Ms. Kelly didn’t factually act out the self fulfilling role in the past three years.
If these allegations are true, and we suspect they are fact-based, Roger Ailes will be gone very soon… what happens after that is anyone’s guess, but predictably the anti-nationalist undermining of Donald Trump will be much easier to facilitate.
The sun set on Fox News several years ago, it’s been a weird shadowy dusk ever since. Luckily for Murdoch/Ailes Inc. at the same time the center-right apex was reached, then abandoned, their competition went further left. The ideological shift by their competition gave Fox News the false appearance of holding place – they didn’t, the entire media apparatus has shifted left.
