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[door opens]
[somber music plays]
Glenn Beck: I think there was a real tear inside of Roger.
This wanting to be liked,
wanting to be somebody.
He said, "I'm writing a book about my life for my son
because when I go
people are gonna say awful things about me
and I want him to know that that's not all his dad was."
[projector clicking]
I think Roger thought he could control
the little genie in the bottle, and he couldn't.
And here we are.
It's easy to make somebody into a monster.
It's hard to see that you're on that path too.
[somber music plays]
Bret Baier: We are about four hours away
from history here in Cleveland.
A man with no previous political experience, a real estate mogul,
a reality TV star, a millionaire businessman
is about to take his place
at the top of the GOP presidential ticket.
Sarah Ellison: It was a big moment of triumph forFox News.
Joe, what an amazing moment. This is emotional.
all [chanting]: We want Trump! We...
It was unthinkable that Donald Trump
as a candidate would exist without them.
About an hour from now, Mr. Trump and his family
will arrive here via his helicopter
and they will quite literally hover over our cameras.
It was like a hall of mirrors.
You couldn't look anywhere and not see Roger.
He had his people everywhere
operating behind the scenes.
People who were extremely loyal to him
and who would defend him
with every little weapon they had in their arsenal.
Alisyn Camerota: He was the king.
A powerful, influential person
who changed the country.
And the Republican Convention
should've been this crowning moment for Roger.
But instead, he was embroiled in chaos.
Steve Kornacki: Actually, stand by, David
we'll hold you over to the next block,
and I'll tell all our viewers at home why.
It's because we have some
breaking news here.
This is very big news
from the world of politics, the world of media.
And the news is that Roger Ailes has now resigned
as chairman and CEO of the Fox News Channel
and Fox Business Network.
The man who created conservative leaning Fox News two decades ago
was forced out over allegations of sexual harassment.
I'm Gretchen Carlson.
male anchor #1: Journalist Gretchen Carlson
taking onFox News chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes.
female anchor #1: Ailes called Carlson's allegations
offensive and defamatory,
and said that they would be vigorously defended.
He said, "We are going to blow these people out of the water.
We are gonna destroy them."
"And she'll be sorry she ever started this thing."
male reporter #1: Roger almost single-handedly built
Fox News Channel from absolutely nothing
into the most-watched news operation in all of cable.
Fox anchor #1: Revolutionary in American politics,
shaper of American history.
female reporter #1: He was in the Nixon White House,
worked on the re-election campaign for Ronald Reagan.
You could really credit Roger Ailes
with helping to create three Republican presidents.
Ivanka Trump: And I could not be more proud tonight
to present to you
our next president Donald J. Trump.
[crowd cheering]
female reporter #2: It's ironic that on the eve
of Donald Trump's coronation as the Republican nominee,
the ultimate Republican kingmaker, Roger Ailes
is to have his kingdom taken away.
male announcer #1: Ladies and gentlemen
the next president of the United States
Mr. Donald J. Trump!
[firecrackers whistling]
Roger Ailes:
My personal view is we have a desperate need
to return to the basics
common sense things we all learned as kids:
God, family, country,
pay the bills, work hard, help your neighbor.
The New York and Hollywood elites,
they think their job is to drag the rest of the redneck morons
toward the light.
They don't understand the people
that grew up with values.
Austin Pendleton: I first met Roger Ailes
in junior high school, in civics class.
We would have debates about
like, the race between Eisenhower and Stevenson
and I was a closet Stevenson person.
But the arguments that Roger would make
in favor of Eisenhower were so persuasive
that I thought, "I don't agree with you, but I see your point."
We all wanted to be like Roger.
He was witty and intelligent.
Mercilessly funny.
Also, Roger was the handsomest young man you can imagine.
Launa Newman: Warren was a beautiful, clean,
wonderful city.
Everywhere you looked, there was something historic
or, you know, traditional or patriotic.
And you felt it.
It was part of being from Warren, Ohio.
Austin Pendleton: Roger's father was a factory foreman,
and he was a very important figure to him.
He was like one of those prophets from the Old Testament.
Very stern.
Roger Ailes:
I was terrified, but I loved my dad.
His father was a union man who hated the unions.
Who-- who was frightened of the unions.
He said to Roger, "Mark my words.
The liberals will destroy this town."
Now, it's unfair to say that they did that,
but in the '70s, that prophecy came true.
And Roger saw
all the industry move out.
Their livelihood was gone. Overnight.
And he saw the pride that people had
disappearing too.
[thunder rumbling]
Austin Pendleton: Roger lived his whole life in fear.
A physical, real fear
of bleeding to death.
He had hemophilia diagnosed
when he was about four years old.
But he was a survivor.
And he operated fearlessly,
like a lot of people who have real fears often do.
Roger Ailes: I had a condition that was passed through women.
In other words, the mother has to give you hemophilia.
I don't know that that had anything to do with it,
but I was never particularly physical with my mother.
I think she was scared of it.
She may have had some feeling
about the fact that I got it from her.
Austin Pendleton: Roger's daily life was a fear of annihilation.
He said, "It's like you walk around all your life
with a time bomb in you."
And I think this allowed him
to understand the fears of other people.
You're in danger, I'm in danger.
We're at war, and this is not going to stop.
We gotta understand what's in our country
and take out the people that wanna see us die.
You're seeing them come out of the shadows, the caves...
Picture is really shocking.
Jihad right here on our own soil.
This is the ultimate battle of good versus evil.
We need to kill them. We need to kill them.
[static]
♪ If a picture paints A thousand words ♪
♪ Then why can't I paint you?
[indistinct chatter]
Roger Ailes: I used to be a production assistant for Mike Douglas.
I ran sandwiches for the stars,
and I moved up quickly.
I learned if your audience likes you
they'll forgive just about everything else you do wrong.
[audience cheering]
[The Mike Douglas Show theme music plays]
The Mike Douglas Show was the only daytime talk show
uh, at the time.
And we did it five days a week live.
♪ I bought it At a second-hand store ♪
I co-created The Mike Douglas Show,
and I booked all the big stars.
Look, the pig that I am today. [laughs]
Kenneth Johnson: Every actor in a movie,
a lot of directors would come through.
Plus, there were animal acts.
And, obviously, there were a lot of dieting segments
and that sort of thing.
- Oh, something's on fire here. - It'll go out.
Launa Newman: It was just fun.
Kenneth Johnson: Roger was an associate producer on the show,
and a guy named Larry Rosen
was really next in line to be the producer.
Launa Newman: He was the first producer hired.
He'd been on the show the longest, next to me,
and it was obviously gonna be Larry. Uh-uh.
Kenneth Johnson: Roger convinced Mike
that he would be the better producer than Larry.
And Roger became the producer of The Mike Douglas Show.
And that was a big shock
because you couldn't see him maneuvering.
[aircraft droning]
The only person that I saw Roger Ailes ever really hit on
was Richard Nixon.
Kenneth Johnson: In 1968, during the presidential campaign,
when he was going to be running against Bobby Kennedy,
Nixon came to Philadelphia because, like all politicians
he recognized the impact that The Mike Douglas Show had
on millions of people.
Why, you look wonderful.
You're suntanned, you're rested-looking.
Yes.
Have you ever regretted entering politics
at such a, an early age?
No, um, politics, of course, is a, is a great battle.
Uh, all of life is a great battle.
- Indeed, yes. - You're really a riot.
[laughing]
Kenneth Johnson: After the show was over,
Roger pulled Nixon into his office
just the two of them, and said, "You need a media advisor."
"What's a media advisor, Roger?"
And Roger said, "I am. It's a title I just created.
You need someone that can shape you,
that can make you presentable
and the most palatable you can possibly be
and get you elected president."
And Nixon believed him.
So Roger, very soon after, left the show
and went off to produce Richard Nixon.
Roger Ailes: Let's face it, a lot of people think Nixon is dull.
They think he's a bore, a pain in the ass.
We have a sound dollar...
They look at him as the kind of kid
who always carried the book bag
who was 42 years old the day he was born.
They figure other kids got footballs for Christmas,
Nixon got a briefcase,
and he loved it.
...projects that otherwise would be feasible.
Nixon needed someone who had knowledge of
and command of the use of television.
And that, of course, was reinforced
by what had happened to him in 1960.
Felycia Sugarman: That was the Nixon-Kennedy debate
where Nixon loses to Kennedy
because he sweats on television.
[Kennedy indistinctly speaking]
Pat Buchanan: He looked bad. He had not put on makeup.
And even his own mother was calling in
and asking how her son was. Was he okay?
Felycia Sugarman: And, of course, Kennedy went on to become president.
So Roger told Nixon
"If you don't take television seriously this time
you're gonna lose again."
Roger Ailes: I'm gonna fire this fucking director right after the show.
I mean, look at the positioning of these cameras.
I told him 50 times, "I want close-ups."
Close-ups.
I wanna see faces. I wanna see pores.
That's what people are. That's what television is.
I don't give a fuck about the seats.
I gave up 30 seats to get a tight show.
Kenneth Johnson: Roger and I had had many conversations
about the power of, uh, the media
and particularly, the great Nazi propaganda film
by Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph Of The Will.
[speaking in German]
And I talked to Roger a lot
about the specific camera angles that she used
to make Hitler seem heroic
and about putting it in the right kind of setting
which made it so powerful.
And Roger told me he really thought about that
when he created for Nixon, um
"The Man In The Arena."
male announcer #2: Tonight from Philadelphia,
live and in color, Nixon In Pennsylvania.
Tonight, Richard Nixon, in person, is going to face
a panel of citizens asking questions they want answered.
Kenneth Johnson: He put him in the arena surrounded by the audience.
And, uh, it was an amazing propaganda piece.
I'd like to stress the point that this is a live program.
male announcer #3: No one has any idea what questions will be asked.
Mr. Nixon cannot possibly know.
male announcer #2: Tonight from Atlanta, The Nixon Answer.
You have to have the big stroke of the federal government
in order to handle a particular problem like that.
Richard Nixon.
We've got the power, we've got a wonderfully motivated people.
male announcer #3: Richard Nixon.
Well, anyway, uh...
male announcer #4: With 287 electoral votes
Richard Nixon goes over the top to win the 1968 election.
[crowd cheering]
Good evening. I'm Mike Wallace.
For better or worse, television has changed
the nature of the political process in the United States.
- [applause] - Right. Okay.
This year, another innovation was tried.
The controlled discussion with the questioners
picked by the candidate's producer.
male anchor #2: Roger Ailes was that producer.
And in the book, The Selling Of The President,
he was given a good share of the credit
for the successful format.
male #1: In your estimation, is television
the single most important factor
in a winning political campaign?
Let me put it this way, I don't believe
any, anyone will ever be elected
to a major public office again
including mayors of big cities
without the skillful use of television.
And that skillful use
is that an illumination of the issues
or an emotional sell of the man involved?
I think both.
I think both. I don't think you can isolate one or the other.
I think that there's an emotional reaction
to what you see on the screen regardless of what it is.
John Cook: When I was first reporting on Fox News
everyone knew what Roger Ailes' history was.
That he was an aide to Nixon
and-and other Republican presidents,
but it was kind of below the radar.
So I filed information requests with the Nixon archives.
And one of the things that I discovered
was this astonishing document
called A Plan To Put The GOP On TV.
Its author is unclear.
However, the copy I obtained
had Roger Ailes' handwriting all over it
in notes that were directed to H.R. Haldeman,
a-a top aide in the Nixon White House.
And the memo said the liberal elite
has a chokehold on the national news networks,
but local television stations in Wisconsin
and in Utah have their own news programs
and they are hungry for footage.
So it was a proposal
that the Nixon White House, with taxpayer dollars,
fund an operation that would interview
Republican members of Congress, in Washington,
and fly the footage to these local stations
so that they can get a message out to their constituents
without having to rely on the institutional press.
And Roger Ailes is all over it saying, "I can do this."
Now, it never happened, but the idea
the germ goes straight into what Fox News is all about.
...our immigration could be...
How do we get a message to the people
without having to go through a critical press?
[indistinct chatter]
I think that Roger was a kind of genius,
in the sense that he created something
that didn't exist before.
And I think that there is a "Citizen Kane" quality
to his life.
And I remember he told me this story
that when he was a boy, he and his brother had bunk beds
and Roger was on the top bunk
and his dad walked in
and opened up his arms and said
"Jump, Roger. Jump."
And Roger jumped and his father stepped away
and Roger fell on the ground.
And his father looked down on him and he said
"Don't trust anybody."
And I still have an image of Roger's face
when he would tell me that.
I felt like he was searching.
He was like, "How could my dad do that to me?"
So there was a lot anger.
There was a lot of anger.
And I think he capitalized on that.
male #1 on TV: Al D'Amato, a family man fighting...
male #2 on TV: Deukmejian, the difference is leadership.
I'm Dan Quayle. I'm very optimistic about our future.
Felycia Sugarman: Ailes Communications did political media consulting
for congressional races, senatorial races
gubernatorial races.
And we were a small team doing 14 races
in 14 different states simultaneously.
Stephen Rosenfield: We did a lot of executive coaching
and we did political coaching.
And because of the Nixon campaign
and the fact that he had pulled that thing off,
you were lucky to get him and you had to keep him happy.
- man #1: How is that, Roger? - man #2: Stand by.
male anchor #3: As Jefferson County Judge, Mitch McConnell won
national recognition for exceptional leadership.
Felycia Sugarman: Mitch McConnell was a judge.
He was way down in the polls.
He was going to lose.
And Roger was hired to do a bunch of commercials.
So we were doing a fishing spot
and we had him in the boat, fishing rod in hand.
We put a worm and a fish on the hook
reeled it into the water
and then we hear this little voice go
"What do I do now, Rog?" And it was Mitch McConnell.
And Roger looks at me and I look at him and Roger says
you know, "Reel in the fucking fish, Mitch." [laughs]
Mitch didn't move without listening to Roger.
And a month later, he's a U.S. senator.
I'm here with Roger Ailes who has been called
the Ernest Hemingway of campaign advisors.
male anchor #4: The bearded veteran of many political wars
Roger Ailes, arrives early this morning
for a final day of practice.
Bo Dietl: From 1984 to 1988
Roger was the absolute number one Republican strategist.
male anchor #5: Roger Ailes, former TV man for Nixon
was seen here in South Dakota this fall.
Felycia Sugarman: We were in every state in the country
and Roger was a pivotal figure
in getting Ronald Reagan elected.
He was like a kingmaker.
And he knew that he could blow his opponents out of the water.
And that's what he did.
Stephen Rosenfield: I remember, I came into the office one day,
and he said, "You may have to take over for a few days
because I was arrested.
Um, I was carrying a gun in Central Park
so I may go to jail."
And I didn't know he had a gun.
But Roger was, you know, he was a maverick,
he was a bad boy, and, uh, he liked that.
Roger Ailes: I know you've heard people are afraid of me.
I don't remember threatening anybody.
But if somebody comes to me looking for a fight
they might get one.
My dad taught me how to fight.
He said, "Remember, son,
for them, it's a fight, for you, it's life or death."
female anchor #2: And now to tonight's Focus '88 coverage
of the race for the White House.
President Reagan is stopping in Texas
trying to help the George Bush for president campaign.
female anchor #3: An NBC News- Wall Street Journal poll
shows Dukakis beating Bush
by 15 points in a head-to-head.
- Try with the glasses. - producer: Five seconds.
Bush has already initiated damage control.
Big Rog, how are you, pal? I'm glad to see you.
Diane Donati: First thing I did was with, uh, George H.W. Bush.
Roger was running an ad for a production manager.
And when I realized what it was
which was Republican commercials
I said, "I don't think I really want this."
I was always very liberal, but, um, I needed a job.
[indistinct chatter]
What's going on?
Vice President Bush was a real gentleman.
And I don't think he understood the down and dirty,
the world Roger could relate to.
Roger always knew
the lowest common denominator in people.
He knew how to strike at that.
And I think that's why George used Roger.
He needed a bulldog, he needed somebody
who could play that game.
And that might have been the beginning of it,
of the negative, really negative ads.
male #2: Which candidate for president gave weekend passes
to first-degree murderers who were not even eligible
for parole? Michael Dukakis.
male #3: Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty
he allowed first-degree murderers
to have weekend passes from prison.
One was Willie Horton who murdered a boy in a robbery
stabbing him 19 times.
Despite a life sentence, Horton received
ten weekend passes from prison.
Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man
and repeatedly raping his girlfriend.
Weekend Prison Passes. Dukakis On Crime.
The message of the Willie Horton ad was
"If you elect Michael Dukakis,
he's going to let all these black men out of prison
to come and stab your children, rape your wives."
- It's true. - You think it's racist?
No, I don't think it's racist. I think the man I see there
is neither black nor white.
If you put a white man up there, would that be racist?
But it has that effect of scaring the dickens
- out of white people, right? - Well, the Bush campaign
had absolutely nothing to do with that ad.
In fact, I wish it'd never have aired.
Sarah Ellison: He says he didn't do the first one
the most controversial ad.
But he certainly promoted the entire storyline
of Willie Horton and scary black men.
male #4: While out, many committed other crimes.
It was revolutionary at the time, and it worked.
male announcer #5: Ladies and gentlemen,
the president of the United States.
[crow cheering]
Felycia Sugarman: There are only a handful of people
who can so critically
affect the power in this country
over decades.
And Roger's absolutely one of them.
And when you think about the people
who are running the country even now,
all these senators and congressmen,
he put them there.
Diane Donati: That's definitely Roger
because his story is about Nixon or everybody else.
It was what he did for them, how he made them, you know.
W-Without them, they would not be where they are.
Felycia Sugarman: And so everyone wanted to be in his sphere. Everybody.
You know, he, he was the big guy, right?
Um, did he take advantage of that?
I don't, I don't know. I don't know.
Diane Donati: "Everybody has an agenda."
He used to say that a lot.
And you have to see what it is that they're after.
And then you can manipulate them that way.
I think he liked to pick on the people
who needed him, who were vulnerable.
Not just women, but women were easy targets.
You know, and-and, but anybody who looked up to him
who wanted to be there, you know, who thought
"Oh, I'm at the, you know, top of my game
if I'm working with Roger."
Like, Judy, his secretary,
she worshipped him.
And I knew anything I said to her
was basically talking in his ear at the same time, so...
Alexis: Was she his mistress then?
I can't say that I saw it
specifically, but there were...
I mean, it seemed a universal acceptance
that everybody knew it and it was just a giggle.
His wife, Norma, was already staying at home a lot.
She'd do a little bit in the editing room and stuff,
but Judy was in constant contact with her.
And I think that he kind of liked that he could sort of
play the mistress off the wife and the wife off the mistress.
I think he was very insecure,
and he needed that feeling of having a harem.
You know, it's like, "Look at me. Look at me.
I got 'em both and they do what I want 'em to do."
Roger Ailes: My assistant can look at a room
and say, "Watch the fourth guy on the left.
He hates your guts."
Oh, she can read a room.
She goes in, she's very friendly
asks if they want coffee
and they think she's the secretary.
But she's reading the room before I go in.
Kellie Boyle: I was a big fan of Roger Ailes.
I had read his book, and in my industry, he was the man.
My husband was working with CNBC.
And he said, "Roger Ailes is coming in.
Would you like to meet him?"
So I thought that sounded wonderful.
We met in a restaurant at Union Station
and had a nice meeting.
And I mentioned to Roger that I was going to sign a contract
with one of the big national committees.
And this was a career-making contract.
Um, o-once you hit that level, uh, you'd made it.
But once we got into his car
we barely pulled away from Union Station
and he leaned over and said, "I can really help you,
but if you wanna play with the big boys,
you have to lay with the big boys."
[scoffs]
It just came out of nowhere and it was very transactional.
So at one point, I sort of sarcastically said,
"Well, now, would I have to be anybody else's special friend?"
And he said, "Well, you might have to give a few blowjobs
here and there, but everyone will know you're with me."
And a million thoughts are going through my head.
How do I get out of this?
Because I didn't wanna offend him
and risk some kind of struggle in the backseat.
So I just said, uh...
"I'm-I'm gonna think about it and I'll get back to you."
And he said, "Well, you know, if you don't agree now
there's a good chance you won't later on."
And I said, "Well, we're just gonna have to take that risk."
So I dropped him off and, uh,
I just remember, uh, shaking on the way back
thinking, "Oh... [scoffs] why did that happen?
What? Why do I have to put up with that?
Why? Why?" You know...
So the next morning, I thought, "That's behind me.
I'm not gonna see him again."
So I went to the national committee for my meeting,
which I had confirmed the day before.
And I got to the, uh, the front desk,
and they said, "Oh, he's busy."
I said, "That's strange."
And, um, the next day,
I got a call from Roger Ailes at home, my home,
and he said, "How did your meeting go?"
And I said, "Well, very strangely, it-it didn't happen."
Um, and he said, "Oh, you'll probably hear from them.
Um, what did you decide?"
And I said, um, "I'm gonna have to pass, Roger.
Uh, it's just not something I'm comfortable with."
And, uh, he said, "Okay, that's, that's fine.
Good luck with everything."
I said, "Yeah, fine. Okay, good."
So, I hung up and, um
didn't really think a whole lot more about it
except I wasn't getting any of my calls returned
to the national committee.
And after a couple of weeks, I thought
"There's something wrong here."
So I asked a friend to ask around,
and he called me back very quickly afterwards
and said, "You're on a no-hire list."
[scoffs] I thought, "A no-hire list?"
And then all of sudden, it all fit into place.
That's what Roger had done and...
[mumbles]
...that was the end of my career.
If you wanna have tremendous political influence
and still be a womanizer, drug abuser and alcoholic,
you only have one choice of career and that's journalism.
Because journalists won't attack each other.
They only attack all the rest of us.
[both laugh]
And anybody who denies it is lying.
[camera shutter clicking]
Glenn Meehan: I first met Roger Ailes in the early '90s
when he was starting an all-talk network
calledAmerica's Talking.
And I think Roger wanted to be known during this time
as an incredible TV executive, not a politician.
We congratulate Roger on his new position
- as Geraldo Rivera's boss. - [Roger laughs]
I'm politically correct now.
[laughing]
It was an image thing
and he really wanted to bury his political past.
First, I wanna ask you, why a talk network?
You know, it seems that talk shows, uh, come and go
the networks are saturated with them.
Why does this seem a good direction to go?
There is a certain segment of our society
uh, who-who really want to watch other Americans
talking about things they care about.
And, um, I think you're gonna see
a big audience develop for this kind of thing.
announcer: America's Talking, a new form of news.
America's Talking was Roger's baby.
And every single host,
every single show idea,
was from Roger's mind.
He created 12 hours of TV live.
[chuckles] That's almost insane.
E. Jean on TV: Today onAsk E. Jean...
And I would say horrible, hideous stuff
about how some women are able to ejaculate like men.
Roger didn't care.
As long as the show was juicy and interesting,
he was all for it.
Hello, I'm Terry Anzur...
Short skirts were encouraged,
and on America's Talking, I had a see-through desk.
And underneath were lights
that shined on my legs.
They didn't put the light on Chris Matthews' legs.
- Goodnight, Chris. - Goodnight, Terry.
You know, when I look back at America's Talking
I realize that there was so much
that you saw on Fox later on.
The mainstream media in America
is biased and abusive in their...
Glenn Meehan: A lot of people don't know that Sean Hannity
started onAmerica's Talking covering the O.J. trial.
Hello, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for watching...
And Bill O'Reilly was doing Inside Edition.
He would fill in for Roger every once in a while
and that's really how they got to know each other.
But I think deep down inside
Roger wanted to be in front of the camera.
In fact, at America's Talking, he gave himself a show.
announcer: Straight Forward, with Roger Ailes.
My staff told you I didn't want the drag queens.
- Did they tell you that? - It's cross-dressing.
It's been going on since the Mona Leo.
I know, I'm-I'm, for instance, a female.
You would never guess that.
- I've lived this long. - That would be okay. [laughs]
We'll be right back with the first brother
Roger Clinton. Stay with us.
♪ What's the matter with you? ♪
♪ Girls just wanna have fun
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
Glenn Meehan: I think Roger loved show business.
He just loved the spotlight.
You know, he used to take tap dancing
back in those days for exercise.
I think that's who Roger really wanted to be.
[tapping]
Roger Ailes: Right now, everybody thinks
I'm the greatest guy in the world.
I'm sure you've heard that a lot.
My doctor told me I'm old, fat and ugly.
But none of those things is gonna kill me immediately.
Everybody fears the unknown,
but I have a strong feeling
there's something bigger than us.
E. Jean Carroll: Beth Tilson was a CNBC executive
who was promoted to help runAmerica's Talking.
Glenn Meehan: Before then, it was always Roger and Judy,
Roger's assistant.
You almost said their two names in the same breath always.
Then it was Beth and Roger.
E. Jean Carroll: Beth was a cross
between Marilyn Monroe and a schoolmarm,
and had eyes for only one person
and that was Roger.
Oh, the wedding!
Beth had a white suit with fur, very elegant.
Roger was in black.
Giuliani was the officiant.
And it was just me and Barbara Walters.
And Geraldo was there.
And Roger, he was so happy.
Terry Anzur: We reached the magic number of 20 million subscribers.
And all of a sudden,
it wasn't Roger's little playground anymore.
NBC went, "Wow, this is a real channel
and we should be getting more value out of it."
Glenn Meehan: Now, the story goes
that Bill Gates wanted a news network.
So he approached NBC with his checkbook
and NBC said, "We've got this network over in Fort Lee
calledAmerica's Talking. It's yours."
female anchor #4: A new partnership between NBC and Microsoft
is heating up the media wars.
The two companies have announced a new
24-hour, worldwide cable TV news channel.
It is called MSNBC.
And NBC president Bob Wright
says he hopes to have it up and running by summer.
Felycia Sugarman: I got a phone call from a friend of mine saying,
"Your friend Roger threw a chair across the room
called the car and stormed out of the building."
So I called Roger in his car and I said,
"Hey, I heard something went down. Are you okay?"
And he said, "Felycia, I'm gonna fuck them.
I'm gonna fuck them like they have never been fucked before."
And I knew something would be born
out of this need for revenge.
[camera shutters clicking]
Rupert Murdoch: Thank you for your attendance
at such a short notice.
I'd just like to say how delighted I am
that we've now reached this moment
when we can firmly announce
uh, the starting of a Fox News Channel.
Uh, we've been very lucky in being able
to obtain the services of Mr. Roger Ailes
who has had such a fantastic success.
Uh, Mr. Ailes is here
and, uh, he might like to add a few words,
but we'll be waiting to take your questions.
Uh, it really is exciting to join what I think
is, uh, the most dynamic, uh, television company
in the world today.
Uh, and I've always admired Mr. Murdoch's ability
to get things done.
It's a tough, competitive world,
but, uh, we intend to be, uh,
when the music stops, to have a chair.
female reporter #3: The all-news game has become a serious and a nasty business
as media mogul Rupert Murdoch
enters the 24-hour news competition
with his Fox News Channel.
male #7: CNN's Ted Turner insisted
he'd squish the Australian tycoon like a bug.
Rupert had wanted to launch something
like Fox News for years.
He loved taking on taboos
in his tabloids in London
and had always wanted to puncture the establishment.
They wanted us to beat the crap out of the other cable channels
at their own game.
And about ten weeks before Fox actually went on the air,
Roger had all of us in the company come to New York.
And he gave this rip-roaring speech
about how the networks had been around for so long
that they were antiquated.
And that we were gonna be a pirate ship
that while everybody else were these sort of battleships
and aircraft carriers that would take a long time to turn around,
we were gonna be nimble, we were gonna strike hard
and we were gonna have a whale of a time doing it.
male #8 on TV: Good morning, welcome to Fox News Channel.
[Fox News theme music plays]
[indistinct chatter on TV]
So far, so good. We're on.
David Shuster: Fox News was an absolute hoot at the beginning.
Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.
Thank you for watching on our very first day.
There were people who had worked with Roger
atAmerica's Talking and CNBC,
and some people who worked with him in a political sphere.
Welcome to Washington, I'm Brit Hume...
And to all of us who started, it was like
"Yes! This is great!"
Well, we're going to try to be different
stimulating and a bit daring.
Loyalty was a theme that came up every day
because all the people around Roger would tell us
"You know, Roger really likes loyalty.
Loyalty is really important to Roger."
And people who would do something nice for Roger
would often pop up on the air.
We did all sorts of segments
that didn't make any sense to me.
They would say F-O-R, Friend of Roger.
Joe Muto: It was imparted to me right from the very beginning
that it wasn't about journalism
it was about drawing the biggest audience possible.
Uh, what do you got?
A library board in Helena, Montana
voted unanimously to keep the book
The Joy Of Gay Sex on the library shelves.
Alright, that's good. Book that for the D-block on, uh, Tuesday.
We used to call it riling up the crazies.
That's what we were there to do.
We were there to stir up outrage
because that's what kept them watching.
[intense music]
female reporter #4: Whitewater Independent Counsel Ken Starr
is reported to have a number of audio tapes
on which a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky
told fellow staff that she was sexually involved
with the president.
They must have fallen on their knees at Fox
when the Lewinsky thing hit
and never stopped thanking God
for that blue dress
because Roger and Beth, they despised the Clintons
and everything they stood for.
Roger Ailes: Bill Clinton is very slick, very glib.
He has 15,000 press secretaries,
and it's clear she's not gonna get the Betty Crocker Award.
I wouldn't stand too close to her.
Could President Clinton have had an affair
with an intern and then try to cover it up?
Fox News correspondent David Shuster has the story.
David Shuster: Yesterday the White House released a response
to Kenneth Starr's detailed report to Congress.
David Shuster: The Clinton scandal was the rocket fuel
that got Fox News into the stratosphere.
We were kicking the networks' ass
on this story day in and day out.
male reporter #2: Fox News has learned it was Linda Tripp who befriended...
And within two or three months, it was
"Wow! Fox News has something going."
Attorney General has now started a 90-day preliminary...
...President of the United States to testify under oath
that he did, in fact, have sex...
male reporter #3: Mr. Clinton is also accused
of obstruction of justice.
David Shuster: I remember it was a huge celebration at Fox News
in New York, and I was asked to come up
and meet with Roger Ailes in his office.
This was after we got the information about the cigars
and he says, "What is this sex stuff?
What was really going on?"
And so I said, "Well, there are some rumors about cigars
or something that was involved in their sexual play."
And Roger loved it!
He was scintillated by it.
But the idea that Bill Clinton would be sloppy,
allow an intern to blab to her friend,
that's where that contempt came
because Roger Ailes did not respect people who got caught.
[chuckles] "There's someone in the room today
whose wings are much bigger than mine.
His wings have a wide span of generosity
that every day lifts up so many people.
The one and only Roger Ailes."
[applause]
I was beyond flattered
that Roger Ailes was talking to me like this.
They feel a sense of relief...
Since 11 years old, I wanted to be a news reporter.
I was working at this little local TV station
and I got a meeting with Roger Ailes.
So I went in there and sat at the seat across from his desk.
He said, "No, no, come over here."
And then he sat down on a couch
and he patted right next to him, and he said,
"Come sit right next to me."
He said to me, "You know, here at Fox News
in order to be beautiful, it's not just waist up
it is the entire package.
People wanna see a woman from, you know, head to toe."
And he looked me up and down admiringly and said,
"You definitely are beautiful enough to be here."
And I said, "Thank you." And then he said,
"But I'm not a 100% sure."
He said, "Stand up and twirl for me.
I-I wanna see everything."
And I-I just looked at him and laughed.
And then a week later, a friend of mine had dinner
with Roger Ailes at this Italian restaurant, midtown,
and he said to me, "Lidia, he's...
"I talked to him about you. He... I said...
He-He wasn't, he's not serious about bringing you on."
I said, "Well, what do you mean?"
He said, "He, he asked about you sexually.
He asked what kind of girl you were."
And I said you were a good girl.
But I think that it was, in a way, a test.
I think I failed because I didn't hear back.
An axis of evil standoff as Fox reports tonight.
Hello, everyone, I'm Alisyn Camerota.
If you wanted something... I wanted more opportunity,
I wanted to try to anchor.
I think that he saw that
as "What do I get out of that?"
And so when I went to him to ask him for more opportunity
he said,
"Well, I would have to work with you more closely,
if that were to happen.
I would have to train you
give you sort of tutorials
and, you know, people might be jealous.
And so we would have to...
It would be best if we did it away from here.
Um, perhaps at a hotel sometime.
Do you know what I'm saying?"
And I said, "Yeah, I think I do know what you're saying."
I mean, I knew I was never going to go meet Roger at a hotel.
That was unthinkable to me, that was never going to happen.
But I didn't know what was gonna happen next,
if I was gonna be fired if I didn't do it.
I didn't know how he was gonna make that happen.
I mean, Roger was the king.
His assistant was the head of HR.
And so it didn't occur to me that there was somebody
higher than Roger who could have done something. There wasn't.
Alexis: And weren't people at Fox News'
putting out salacious online material?
There were many websites.
Um, I think one was called The Hot Women Of Fox.
There were different websites about different body parts.
There were websites dedicated to feet.
Sarah Ellison: They wanted people to think of the network in that way.
They were using the women who worked there
for a very specific purpose.
Um, and it was to be sexualized for their viewers,
and, we learned later, for the people in the building.
Alisyn Camerota: And so that was the culture of the time
and there was nobody who was willing to challenge it.
If Fox News is the house that Roger built
with some help from Rupert Murdoch,
look at this group here on this stage with you.
Uh, w-why? Why'd you pick 'em?
Somebody, uh, once asked me how I hire talent.
And there were... I've made a list and it was...
There were 27 things on the list, a secret list,
uh, which one day will come out
in a book I'm writing about all you people.
[laughing]
This is the deal. Um, all of us are veterans
uh, that we've worked for other companies,
and most of those companies are horror shows.
This company is a little bit different
because they let you... They don't micromanage.
And-And Roger Ailes hires people
with whom he has confidence, and then he lets them go.
Chris: Alright, we have to take a break here,
and we're gonna be back and talk about the milestones
that changed Fox News and changed our country.
Joe Muto: It was October, 2004.
I came into work one evening, I was working the evening shift
and I look around the newsroom
and every computer in the newsroom
was on this website thesmokinggun.com.
And my buddy is, he's like, "Dude, you gotta,
you gotta read this shit."
male reporter #4: It is an absolute bombshell of an allegation.
female reporter #5: The sexual harassment case against popular
cable TV host, Bill O'Reilly.
male reporter #5: One of his associate producers, Andrea Mackris
alleges that in one phone conversation
O'Reilly fantasized, "You would basically be in the shower.
I would take that little loofa thing
and kinda soap up your back."
I like the part about you wanting to rub falafel
on that lady's boobs,
and, uh, the part about how you love vibrators,
and the part about how you believed it
when a prostitute told you you had a big penis. [laughs]
You said yesterday this is one of the most
evil things you've ever experienced.
Why so evil? Why do you think she's doing this?
I have no clue, but my career could be ruined
and I'm very well aware of that.
But I can't let people do this.
Sarah Ellison: What was interesting about that case with Andrea Mackris
is she was somebody who had evidence.
Multiple recordings of what was obviously sexual harassment
and also threats and intimidation.
"If any woman ever breathed a word
I'll make her pay so dearly
that she'll wish she'd never been born.
I'll rake her through the mud, bring up things in her life
and make her so miserable that she'll be destroyed.
If you cross Fox News Channel, it's not just me,
it's Roger Ailes who will go after you.
Ailes operates behind the scenes,
strategizes and makes things happen
so that one day, bam!
The person gets what's coming to them,
but never sees it coming."
Joe Muto: It was apparent to everyone that he was guilty.
But Bill O'Reilly had the highest ratings.
He brought in the most money.
You know, he was kind of the face of the network.
So Roger protected Bill.
You know, just like Roger was Rupert Murdoch's cash cow,
Bill O'Reilly was Roger Ailes' cash cow.
So he helped smooth everything over.
You want the truth, you hire Bo Dietl.
You want something else, go hire Slime-O PI.
Find the truth. That's all I do is find the truth.
John Cook: Bo Dietl is a former NYPD cop
who became a regular on Fox News.
He was the go-to guy to defend stop-and-frisk
or argue that Trayvon Martin deserved to die or whatever.
Where was he, where was he when two officers
got killed in New York?
And he also had this private eye business
where he worked for Roger
doing security and investigations for Fox News.
Well, I'll say it right now, I respected Roger Ailes
because the man did so much for America
and for the people of Fox.
[indistinct chatter]
Bo Dietl: On the Mackris case, we were assigned to follow her
and to gain any kind of information we could
where it was detrimental to the case.
Sarah Ellison: They took the information that Bo Dietl was digging up
and leaked it to The New York Post,
which was owned also by Rupert Murdoch.
Joe Muto: They said Andrea Mackris is a slut. She's a drunk.
She's trying to entrap Bill O'Reilly.
Bo Dietl: This is gonna be a message to people.
When you file these frivolous lawsuits
and you think you're gonna get people who are well-known
to give you money for garbage like this
we're gonna investigate you. We're gonna u-uncover things
that we've already about your life
so you're wide open right now. So beware, people.
That was the tactic, like, smear her, put pressure on her.
And as it turns out, it worked.
They settled it. She can't talk.
And he skated. His ratings went up from there.
His salary went up from there.
Fox News was making so much money, no one cared.
♪ Fox and Friends
Good morning, everyone, today is Thursday
September 20th, I'm Gretchen Carlson.
Thanks so much for sharing part of your day with us today.
Uh, so, Rupert, what made you think
that this whole thing would work?
I just had a hunch that, you know
there was, uh, room for another point of view
and, and another service.
Rupert Murdoch is a genius in terms of media,
but, more importantly, what he does is, he bets on people...
I don't think we ever had a written business plan.
I think we talked through what we were gonna do
and he backed it, but really let me run it.
Now, if I'd screwed it up, I'd be dead.
[laughing]
[indistinct chatter]
E. Jean Carroll: Roger and Beth were extremely impressed
with Rupert Murdoch.
I remember one time Beth called me after spending...
had dinner at Rupert's house with Wendi.
She couldn't believe the table and the table setting.
They were pulled into a class
and circle of people who were way above them.
So they had a lot of catching up to do...
[alarm blaring]
...because Rupert was really doing
what Roger had pictured himself doing:
Conquering a new world.
So Rupert bought The Wall Street Journal.
What's the name of Roger's little newspaper?
Alexis: The Putnam County News And Recorder.
Yeah, The Putnam County News And Recorder.
There you go. That says everything.
I was actually told about the sale the night before.
And I... [scoffs] I think the first thing I said was
"Has he seen this?"
Because it was a one-room
antiquated equipment, little dinky thing.
At that time, it was a very typical
sleepy, small-town weekly newspaper
that reported on the school board and the town board.
And Cold Spring itself is 1900 people.
Alison Rooney: There is definitely an air of Americana about it.
It has that main street that's leading down to the river
right across from West Point.
And the whole Cold Spring area
is steeped in Revolutionary War history.
Michael Turton: The community was shocked that this media mogul
this, uh, political kingpin
would have any interest in coming to Cold Spring
and buying this little weekly newspaper.
And we thought, you know, "Is he going to do
with this local paper what he does at Fox News?"
Alison Rooney: I think Roger and Beth wanted to become
lord and lady of the manor
almost worshipped in the town.
[indistinct chatter]
Those institutional landholders are the ones who we are trying
to support, keep that property in those hands
and out of the hands of developers.
Richard Shea: The first time I met him was in the, uh,
Haldane School cafeteria after a meeting.
And the first impression I had was
this guy is, you know, a bully.
[applauding]
He was convinced we were gonna tell him
he couldn't cut trees down, he couldn't keep his view.
So he got people riled up...
because he was sort of a master at that.
[audience applauds]
It was surreal.
Ailes showed up with his attorney.
And he was locked and loaded and, you know,
ready to go out there and do battle.
female #2: What are you doing to the chair, sir?
And after we had the debate,
Ailes walks up to me, let me know he owned the newspaper
let me know he owns the courier across the county
and essentially said, "Look, if I'm not happy
you're not gonna be happy."
It wasn't a big threat. It was like, "Yeah, okay, fine.
You know, you own a newspaper. Great."
In hindsight, that was a little naive. [chuckles]
Michael Turton: When Roger took over the paper,
it definitely became a political tool.
We have a full plate for you tonight
so we're gonna get right to it. My name is Beth Ailes.
Alison Rooney: They put forth candidates for the village office,
the town office, who had no background
in anything to do with local government.
Richard Shea: They got a guy to run against me
who was just, you know, a regular working guy like me.
And they put a lot of money into billboards
and prepping him for debates.
And Roger, he told me
he had never lost any election campaign
he'd gotten involved with. He'd...
You know, and he was gonna see me out of office.
You know, he came here with a mission
to change this town from blue to red.
Listen to this one.
"Roger Ailes needs enemies
like a tank, like a tank needs fuel."
[snickers]
How come? Why are you.. Why the, why the, why the pugnacity?
Well, I would argue with that. I don't need enemies.
I have plenty.
But if somebody, uh, gets over the line
or challenges in, uh, some incorrect way, I will respond.
E. Jean Carroll: Roger saw himself as a general
and nothing brought more joy to Roger than a battle.
Two minutes. Pass the word.
He was like John Wayne
leading the Green Berets through Vietnam.
And if there was no battle,
he would create the battle,
which is what he did with Fox News.
Dividing us...
between the conservatives and the liberals.
- Come on! - Let's go!
Alisyn Camerota: Roger thought that we were in a war
against our way of life, against evil.
And he was very moved by stories of patriotism
and stories of heroes.
How is he?
Pretty bad, sir, but still alive!
Alisyn Camerota: He had hemophilia.
And he said, "I couldn't serve in the military
and that's a big regret of mine.
But I consider this
my... payment to the country.
And I consider this my battle station.
And I'm not leaving my battle station."
[applauding]
I'm afraid for our country and for our children's futures.
It's just really a scary time in history.
This is about the systematic dismantling of this country.
People are fired up. They're upset with the government.
Have I got that right?
[cheering]
Roger Ailes: Americans love their families.
They love their flag.
They think schools have gone off the edge
and killed American history.
I built Fox understanding the pressures, worries
and aspirations of average Americans.
♪ ...home of the brave ♪
Roger Ailes: I love these people.
Vivian: This is Vivian in Cincinnati
and, uh, Roger Ailes, we love you here.
Keep up the good work.
female TV viewer: I want to thank Fox News for bringing to light
issues that, uh, don't get covered by the other networks.
male TV viewer: Mr. Ailes, I'm missingFox And Friends
to see you this morning.
- Don't do that. [chuckles] - [male TV viewer laughs]
We need all the viewers we can get on Fox And Friends.
Turn me off immediately and go to Fox And Friends.
[laughs]
E. Jean Carroll: Lots of people are smarter than Roger Ailes.
Lots and lots. But nobody was as canny as Roger.
He could read a person very fast.
He could read a room very fast.
And, boy, did he get the temperature of the country
uh, when nobody else did.
- That's nice, you see it? - Oh, wow, that's great.
And his numbers have been fantastic.
Felycia Sugarman: Roger absolutely understood
from all the time in politics that frightening people
pouring, you know, gasoline on that fire,
that gets people glued to their television.
Glenn Beck: That was the genius of Roger
knowing how to speak
the language of America.
More blood. More red meat.
"I gotta get you outraged, so you watch more."
- Caution. - Listen up, America.
It is happening, America.
I am telling you, America as we know it,
freedom of speech, as we know it, is over.
The left has been preparing and indoctrinating.
They're gonna take away your constitutional rights.
They sneer at you. They have contempt for you.
Who's gonna stop this madness? You?
Are you paying attention now?
When you're watching Fox News, you think
these people are just kind of peddling these theories
because they want more viewers
and they're catering to their base.
But based on my conversation
with Roger Ailes, he truly believed in it.
Barack Obama has deep, emotional ties to Islam.
Lidia Curanaj: He said to me, "Barack Obama, he's really not a Christian.
He's a Muslim. His father is Muslim.
Well, he could deny it all he wants, but he has an agenda."
Alexis: What do you think that was?
To ruin, to ruin America. To bring it down.
I mean, that's... He-He felt like
the president at the time was a threat.
And it was almost like his duty
as the head of Fox News to get the truth out.
Bill O'Reilly: Barack Obama's father who abandoned his family
was a Muslim who eventually turned atheist.
male reporter: Barack Obama has dozens of unelected
and unaccountable czars working to execute his radical plan.
Let's give his new green jobs czar.
The guy is, again, black liberation theology,
a black nationalist.
This is part of the movement that is trying to get Islam
and specifically, Sharia law
infused into the American legal court system.
This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy
over and over and over again
who has a deep-seeded hatred for white people
or the white culture, I don't know what it is.
David Shuster: Roger Ailes paved the way
for conspiracy theories to go mainstream.
The idea that Barack Obama's not American
Pizzagate, whatever it is
there's no shame now in promoting this stuff.
And in fact, the benefit is you get airtime.
And if you get airtime, you become more famous.
Donald Trump is back here with us.
- Thank you. - Great to have you.
You are a man of action.
Trump is such a Foxy character that if he hadn't been real,
Roger Ailes would've created him... [laughs] in a lab.
Trump: He can say what he wants, but the fact is
that this guy has not revealed his birth certificate.
He just signs executive orders all over the place,
then he'll be sued on that.
He'll be out on a golf course
in about three years when it comes up.
Everything he touches turns to trouble.
And I was gonna use a worse word,
but I refuse to use that word.
Joe Muto: You know, Trump had a personal relationship
with a lot of the people at the network.
He was on every Fox show, he was onO'Reilly,
Hannity, Fox And Friends. He was everywhere.
Uh, Donald Trump, welcome back. It's Monday, it's time for you.
Trump [on phone]: Good morning.
So Trump was a familiar voice
to the Fox News audience,
which I think is what made him so palatable
you know, during the Republican primary.
That was Roger's power and influence.
[overlapping chatter on TV]
John Cook: Roger Ailes is one of the most consequential figures
in our cultural history.
And at a time when the news business as a whole
was, like, dying and flailing,
he created one of the most profitable
news ventures ever.
Alisyn Camerota: He figured out that there was this right-leaning market
that hadn't been cornered.
It aligned with his own world view.
And in a short order, Fox News
became the number one cable network.
Our cable news competition has been destroyed.
Ratings for liberal TV news are dismal.
male reporter #6: Fox News Channel remained the top cable news channel...
Alisyn Camerota: And then all of his assumptions have been proven right.
female anchor #5: Ailes has signed a new multi-year contract
with the company.
I mean, he was winning. He was winning.
[train horn blaring]
I think when you look at Roger Ailes in this community,
he tried to take it over,
but never really became part of it.
And he may have been a genius on the national scene,
but I think he really did not get
what the local community was.
Roger Ailes: I moved up to that quiet village,
but I had no idea there was any intrigue up there.
I thought this was a normal, nice community.
All of a sudden, we find out, holy shit!
Reminds me of the La Drang Valley in Vietnam.
Alison Rooney: Working at the newspaper with Roger and Beth,
it was always thinking the worst of people,
always thinking that someone was out to get them.
They relished rousing and dividing.
And I just decided I just can't take it anymore.
Got to get out.
A great number of people in their staff left.
You know, it was sizable. It was, you know, at least 50%.
And we all knew that they would perceive it as an attack.
About three days after I left there,
I began hearing from people
whom I had sent Facebook messages to,
private Facebook messages from my own account,
um, that... that they knew
that Roger Ailes had looked at them.
And in one instance, the person received a phone call
from Roger Ailes.
He picked up he said, "This is Roger Ailes.
I hear that you've been making, uh, threats about me."
And he quoted whatever innocuous throwaway line.
He quoted verbatim from my personal accounts.
All password protected, signed into by me.
And it was absolutely terrifying.
This feeling that there are really powerful people
who live five minutes from my door
who are out to destroy me and my little life.
But I was just the copy editor.
Like, why does he care?
Richard Shea: You know, during the election, it got so ugly.
I remember at one point, he said,
"I'll park a goddamn Fox News truck
at the end of your driveway and have them follow you
as long as I want."
And that's not the kind of thing
that you're expecting in small-town politics.
You know, they put our house on the front page
ofThe Putnam County News.
And, you know, I was getting letters about abortion.
Then one guy told me point-blank one time,
"If I ever see you cross the street, I'll run you over."
And I was like, "Man, this is nuts."
But in the end, the election wasn't close.
Not within 50%.
[chuckles] We're here at Makaria Gallagher's house
celebrating a Democratic sweep.
The opposition's here. We've all shook hands and made up.
So we're looking forward to working for the town
and, you know, getting things back to normal.
After winning the election,
we spent many, many hours together.
He'd call me on a lot of Fridays.
"Come on down. I wanna talk to you."
You know, Friday afternoon.
It would be about local issues and then it would
just morph into him telling me about himself.
Trying to impress me.
He would always tell me how much money he made.
You know, he just made a billion dollars last year for Fox.
It was sad in a way. I'm thinking
"Here's a guy, all the money in the world,
could be anywhere, be doing anything,
and we're sitting in the offices
of The Putnam County News having a chat.
I always wondered, "Does this guy have actual friends?"
You know, "Don't you have somewhere you'd rather be?"
He would come right out and say,
"Why do people hate me so much here?"
Roger Ailes:
Keep your eyes on other people. Watch what's going on.
Are they agreeing with you or disagreeing?
I was told, my first week on the job,
"Roger has this place bugged.
He's got the newsroom bugged. He's got the elevators bugged.
He's got all the talent offices bugged.
Don't talk shit about Roger.
Don't talk about, you know,
how much you love Hillary Clinton
because they'll fire you if they hear you talking like that."
Glenn Beck: At one point, he called me into his office and he said,
"You know, a lot of people doing their homework on you."
I said, "I know."
And he said, "So you have to be careful."
And I said, "Hmm, I know."
And he said,
"Look, there's a lot of stuff out there."
And he reaches down and he pulls up a stack of file folders
about this tall, literally.
He sits it right in front of him
and he just puts his hand on there.
And he said... He sits there and he looks at me for a while
and he said,
"It's always a shame
when a man has a wife as wonderful as yours."
I was like, Oh, my gosh.
And I leaned up out of my chair towards his desk
and I said, "Yes?"
And he said, "It's always a shame
when a man does something to hurt that woman."
And I said, "It is,
and that's why I'm happy to say nothing like that has happened."
And he stared at me for about 30 seconds
and he put the files down, and he said,
"But I just want you to be careful."
He was fishing for something.
He was bluffing.
I think there was nothing in those files.
That was Roger's way of having control of people.
First thing I tell people at Fox is, if you're not happy here
and you're not havin' fun here, you need to get out of here
because we don't wanna be around downers.
Negative people make positive people physically ill.
All progress depends on positive people.
Get away from the other ones. They're gonna drag you down.
I was offered, um, on three occasions
to go and work at Fox
and I turned them all down.
I think Roger was a different person then.
And it wasn't a place that I wanted to work.
And it's sad to me that he went on to do what he did.
I think he probably would have been happier
if America's Talkingcontinued.
Felycia Sugarman: When I went up to visit him at Fox, he seemed happy to see me.
I mean, he was married. He had a son.
He talked a lot about his son, Zach, when I saw him.
But I remember thinking it was a little bit odd
because he had the bulletproof glass,
the cameras that were feeding into his office.
There was a steel or some kind of reinforced door.
And he said that he's, you know, had to protect himself
against the Libyans or something.
Adasa Blanco: Mr. Ailes wasn't favorable
towards people of Middle-Eastern descent.
He kinda had these preconceived ideas of them.
And there was one incident, a horrible incident
that a coworker of mine, Musfik
he had to bring something to the second floor
and wound up in Mr. Ailes area,
and all hell broke loose.
Next thing you know, there was a wall built
so you had to go through a door to get into his area.
And Musfik was upset. He was in tears.
They revoked his access, not to Mr. Ailes' area,
but to the second floor entirely.
John Cook: Roger Ailes was a profoundly paranoid person.
He carried a gun at all times.
He was convinced that Al-Qaeda was trying to kill him,
that gay terrorists would come attack him.
Um, Roger Ailes thought that like
Osama Bin Laden was sitting in his cave
and he had, like, the list of people.
And it was like, George W. Bush,
and then Roger Ailes.
He thought that he was a world historical figure
worthy of an assassination attempt.
[piano music plays]
Alisyn Camerota: At the White House Christmas party
I was directly behind Roger
in line to have our photos taken with the president.
So I peeked around the curtain
and I watched as Roger Ailes approached
and Barack Obama turned around and held his arms out,
and saw Roger for the first time and said,
"Roger Ailes, the most powerful man in media,
step right up."
And Roger went up and shook his hand
and they stood and smiled for the camera
and took the shot.
I didn't know if they were gonna insult each other
or, like, come to blows
because it had been so tense for so long.
And so when we got back the next day, I was back at Fox
and I ran into one of the senior vice presidents who said,
"Did you have fun at the Christmas party?"
I said, "I had a great time. It was fascinating
because I was right behind Roger for the photo taking,"
He said, "Oh, then you heard the big moment?"
And I said, "Yes, I did." And he said, "Wasn't it crazy
to hear President Obama say,
'Roger Ailes, the most powerful man in the world'?"
And I said, "That's not what he said."
And he said, "Yes, it is." And I said, "Uh-uh."
He said, "Roger Ailes, the most powerful man in media."
But there was no point in me going to, like, burst
Roger's bubble or call bullshit on it with him
you know, one-on-one, because I saw that
that was already the new narrative.
Sarah Ellison: Roger was definitely invested in creating a myth
about who he was and what he had come from.
And it was a myth about overcoming adversity.
It was a myth about success. It was a myth about power.
For example, the story of Roger jumping to his father
and then being allowed to fall flat on the ground
is such a well-known literary trope.
The story of how a father teaches his son
the hard lessons of life.
It's been used in literature many, many times.
And the story happens in the bedroom
he shares with his brother.
His brother denies that that story is true.
But I think it's Roger's effort to create
a kind of trust-no-one victim narrative
that really fueled him,
and Roger really knew how to manipulate that.
Glenn Beck: It's hard when you actually believe in something
and you, you don't want to do harm,
but somehow or another, you just keep doing harm.
announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, Glenn Beck!
Hello, America!
I remember when I was in Washington D.C.
It was after the big thing on the mall.
And I remember praying and hearing
"You're standing in the wrong place."
We are truly humbled..
How am I now in this position
where I am the most polarizing
divisive figure in the country?
And it was the beginning of give it all up.
Get out, get out, get out, get out.
So I went into Roger's office and I said, "I'm leaving."
And he said, "No, you're not. Nobody leaves."
And I said, "Yeah, you know what, before you say anything...
can I just say something
'cause I know how this is gonna end here?
So just let me say this to you.
No matter what, thank you."
I said, "Thank you for giving the conservatives
a chance to have a voice."
And I... And he looked at me and his eyes welled up.
And that meant something to him
that somebody actually saw it that way.
I said to Roger,
"So what are you, what's next for you?"
I said, "Why are you still here?"
And he said, "Still have a, still have a president to pick."
"I still have a president to pick."
Wow.
Roger Ailes: We're in a storm.
Our mast is broken, our compass is off
and there's a big damn hole in the boat.
We've allowed ourselves to be manipulated by others.
Is everything fair game today?
Is everything personal?
A sexual harassment scandal is rocking the world of cable news.
Gretchen Carlson, who until recently
was an anchor for Fox News
is suing the channel's powerful CEO, Roger Ailes.
She accuses him of firing her
for refusing his sexual advances.
Gretchen Carlson was a former Miss America.
female announcer: She's crying, that's obligatory.
Sarah Ellison: She was a violin prodigy and had used those talents
to get her a Miss America crown.
But she also had a kind of hard edge
and she was sophisticated
even though when she was on air onFox And Friends,
she sort of played dumb.
We're not supposed to wear the same color and I'm just..
- Just one of those mornings. - [laughs] No kiddin'.
But she certainly went into this prepared.
She had been recording conversations with Roger
long before her contract wasn't renewed.
female anchor: She accused him of ogling her in his office
and asking her to turn around so he could view her posterior
claiming Ailes told her:
Sarah Ellison: There is a way to operate in a crisis.
And there are a group of professionals
who know how to do that.
When Roger is being accused of sexual harassment
and needs to know who he should hire
and who he should go to for advice
who does he call but Donald Trump?
Let me check your mic.
We operate in a very small space called Crisis Communications,
but with clients that find themselves, we always say
in difficult or delicate situations.
So we get a lot of our work through attorneys.
Karen Kessler: The day after Gretchen's lawsuit was filed
I was on my way home from the gym,
and it was about 7:30 in the morning,
and the phone rang,
and it was an attorney that is a well-known litigator.
He said, "I work with Donald Trump a great deal.
"Donald Trump is looking to find someone
who can help his friend, Roger Ailes."
And at that point, we did not know
much about Roger's history with women,
and we walked in with the belief that this was a legal case
and that they were gonna be fighting it on the legal merits.
We pulled in and we were greeted by a woman
who introduced herself as Beth Ailes' sister.
And she took us into the living room,
which was very heavy chintz: florals, sofas.
And seated against the windows in this huge armchair
was Roger himself, larger than life
hooked up to an intravenous... bag
uh, attached to one of those long, those high metal stands.
And Beth said, "Roger is getting his vitamins."
There was this whirlwind going on around him and about him.
It was just this frenetic kind of energy war room-like,
of phones ringing people walking in and out.
You know, "I just heard from Alan Dershowitz."
"Oh, that's so-and-so's weighing in."
"I need to get on the phone. Rudy Giuliani just called me."
Everybody was a guardian at the gate
to protect Roger.
And I... He really responded
I think, very well to that.
Which is one of the reasons why it offended him
that Gretchen Carlson had, uh, had sued him.
"This no-good, just sort of a talentless reporter."
He said that really the lawsuit
wasn't about the money.
It was about getting attention.
And that she was desperate to be on television.
And without being on television, she had no reason to live.
And I said, "You know, in the end, all these cases
usually settle because it's not worth the negative publicity
and it's not worth the career impact."
And when I said that, Beth Ailes jumped out of her chair
furious, and she said, with this look in her eyes,
"We will never ever settle this case."
And she looked at us and said,
"You need to understand something.
Roger is more important than America."
I looked at Warren and I looked at his pad
'cause Warren was taking notes, and Warren said,
"I'm writing it down. Roger is more important than America."
Shepard Smith: Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes,
is responding to a lawsuit filed by lawyers
for Gretchen Carlson
calling her accusations or allegations false and offensive.
They said all statements will be run through Irena Briganti,
the head of public relations for Fox,
who he told us was a stone killer.
And she was intensely focused
on getting as many of the highest profile
and frankly, best-looking women on Fox
to say that indeed he was not a harasser.
And Irena was really proud that in one day
she had been able to enlist 22 people to say--
- "We're up to 22." - Right.
"We're up to 22, Roger."
female ABC anchor: Several female Fox anchors are coming to his defense
including Maria Bartiromo who says:
Donald Trump: It's very sad because he's a very good person.
And I can tell you that some of the women complaining
I-I know how much he's helped them.
Sarah Ellison: Beth called Kimberly Guilfoyle who was one of the anchors
at something like 6:30 in the morning
the day after the suit was filed.
The idea was to get Kimberly
to read a statement of support on air
while a group of Fox News women
walked in behind her and formed a sort of semi-circle behind her
as a show of support for him.
Karen Kessler: They had a whole strategy, and the more we pushed back
Irena would say things like, "Stand down!"
So here's the deal. If somebody is paying you a wage,
you owe that person or company allegiance.
If you don't like what's happening in the workplace,
go to Human Resources or leave.
But don't run down the concern that supports you
by trying to undermine it.
Factor tip of the day, loyalty is good.
reporter: Mr. Ailes...
[indistinct chatter]
male CNN anchor: Fox is Ailes' fiefdom.
But even he has a boss, three bosses actually.
Rupert Murdoch and his two sons.
And the Murdochs are now involved.
Sarah Ellison: Rupert had always protected Roger.
But this time it was different because Rupert's sons
James and Lachlan Murdoch, who had never liked Roger,
Roger never liked them,
had decided to hire an outside law firm
to investigate the claims against Roger.
Karen Kessler: He was so dismissive.
He really believed that as annoying as these two kids were
you know, he could flick them off.
And that's really why he had to defend this lawsuit
so that they didn't use this as the weapon
that they were looking for.
He told us that most of the talent at Fox
had in their contract that they had the right to walk
if anything were to happen to him
and he were to have to leave.
And so he was really intent on showing
that almost every notable name on Fox was gonna leave with him.
Who with any kind of fiduciary responsibility
allows that to happen?
That if the CEO leaves, everyone else can leave?
All the key players can leave and destroy the network?
Wow. That's... Wow!
I think that there was a part of Roger
that wanted to be remembered as the guy who built Fox
and as soon as he left, the whole thing fell apart.
"Bill O'Reilly's gonna leave if I leave.
Greta Van Susteren's gonna leave if I leave.
Jeanine.." He went through the whole list.
But when are we gonna get Megyn?
When are we... Right. What's with Megyn?
And Irena said, "We'll have to discuss that offline."
- Right. - And Beth was livid.
Livid that the answer wasn't an immediate yes.
female NBC anchor: Now, another Fox News anchor
Megyn Kelly, has entered the controversy.
female anchor #7: Kelly told investigators Ailes harassed her
when she was a young correspondent in Washington.
It was explicit, quid pro quo sexual harassment
which was, you know, "Basically, you sleep with me
and I'll give you a promotion."
Uh, but I had to shove him off of me.
And he came back and I shoved him again.
And he came back a third time.
When I shoved him off the third time,
he asked me when my contract was up.
Congratulations, Roger, you've finally achieved
your ultimate fantasy.
Getting fucked by two gorgeous employees
at the same time.
[audience cheering]
Sarah Ellison: Gretchen had started a hashtag Stand With Gretchen.
And more accusations kept coming out.
female anchor #8: Half a dozen additional women
claiming the Fox News chairman
sexually harassed them years ago.
Sarah Ellison: And the dam broke.
People who had been afraid of him for decades
finally felt a little bit more emboldened
to actually talk about him.
Marsha Callahan: When Gretchen came forward
I said, "I have to support this woman.
I have to let her know...
that this has happened for 50 years with this man.
And I'm a little nobody, but I... it happened to me
and I want you to know that."
I was just beginning to model
and I got a call fromThe Mike Douglas Show
that they wanted me to come down and audition.
And then I had a call from Roger Ailes himself
telling me that he wanted me to wear a garter belt
and stockings and high heels.
And I thought it was a little odd,
but I was new in this career
so I put them on and went to the audition.
And when I got there, he took me in his office
closed the door and he said,
"I want you to show me your legs."
And I said, "Well, w-why would you want me to...
why would you want me to do that?"
And he said, "No, no, no. If your legs look good
in the stockings and a garter belt
I know you have great legs."
[camera clicking]
Then he asked me to sit on the sofa, pull my skirt up,
stand in different poses, pull my skirt up,
while he was taking Polaroids of me.
And then he said that he would put me on the show,
but I had to go to bed with him.
And I just said kind of off-hand
"Yeah, right, you and who else?"
And he just said, "Just me
and a few of my preferred friends."
He was treating me like I was a whore.
That's how I felt.
And at that point, I just said
"No. No. I-I-I can't do that."
And he said, "No, pretty girls like you are a dime a dozen."
And that's when I ended the interview and left.
And it never entered my head to tell anybody
until I h-heard about Gretchen.
My son said to me, "Mom...
be brave.
Thank you for standing up for all the women...
that go through this."
That just really touched me that...
that he was proud that I was doing it.
I think the twist in the knife for Roger
is when he realizes that Rupert isn't behind him
and that he is gonna have to go.
But there's still muscle memory for Roger
so he's still showing up for work.
So he's on his way to the office
and his driver gets a call from the head of security.
He says, "Please drive him around the block a few times."
So there's this absurd scene
where his driver drives him around
and then gets word that he's been locked out of the building.
It's such as ignominious end
to not even be able to come in and collect your things
from the place that you've created.
They took him out like a drone strike.
They just wanted to remove him from the equation.
Richard Shea: Once there was that cascade of allegations
and once Rupert Murdoch
obviously made the decision to fire him, that was it.
You didn't see him anymore. They were gone. They were done.
I don't think he wanted to show his face around town which is...
He must have cared about his reputation, obviously
and it was..
That sort of thing is not good for your reputation.
I will admit, too, as woman after woman came forward,
although I felt sorry for the women,
at the same time, I was like, "He's done."
It finally happened, he's done.
And I was happy that it happened while he was alive.
female anchor #9: Fox settled with Carlson
agreeing to pay her a staggering 20 million...
Karen Kessler: Three weeks later,
Gretchen got her settlement, and 14 more women came forward
and said, "What about me?
I've got a story that's not very different."
And it wasn't just confined to Roger Ailes.
"A sex-fueled Playboy Mansion-like cult."
That's how former hosts describe the Fox News Channel.
We were abused. We were...
Our careers w-were destroyed and our lives were destroyed.
female anchor #10: The case gets uglier and uglier by the day.
female anchor #11: Six more women now claim Ailes sexually harassed them.
female anchor #12: In shocking accounts reported byNew York Magazine,
half a dozen additional women claiming the...
Laura Luhn: I didn't realize the extent to which
Roger really was..
a predator.
He would have me get down on my knees
and tell me, "You know what you are, Laura?
You're my whore, you're my sex slave."
On Fox News, Megyn Kelly has a new book coming out.
- Have you read it? - No. Have not read it, though--
- You're in it. - Um..
[all laughing]
Yeah, I'm not that interested in this, okay?
I'm not interested in making my network look bad at all.
That doesn't interest me one bit.
Nobody could have predicted how fast the house of cards fell.
all: Fire Bill O'Reilly. Fire Bill O'Reilly.
female anchor #13: Bill O'Reilly settled
a sexual harassment claim to the tune of 32 million dollars.
Thirty-two million dollars, which is around the same amount
O.J. Simpson had to pay the Goldman family
in a civil lawsuit for murdering two people.
Alisyn Camerota: Little did we know
it'd have this cascading effect,
and that in the space of one year,
Roger would be ousted,
that Bill O'Reilly would be ousted.
This was a hit job, a political and financial hit job
to bring down Fox News and me.
Alexis: So does that mean things have changed at Fox?
I don't know.
How harmful has the whole raft of allegations
about sexual harassment at Fox News been for the business?
Tamara Holder: I think Rupert Murdoch is a disgusting human being.
He allowed so many abuses to take place.
And when Rupert went on television and said
that what was going on at Fox News
was flirting, nonsense,
only Roger Ailes,
I knew that I had to respond.
Hundreds of millions of dollars has gone to settling cases
with women over and over and over again,
and we've been told that we have to shut up.
- True. - We just wanted to work.
That's all we've ever wanted to do was work.
That is not nonsense.
This is people's lives.
There have been plenty of settlements
that none of us know about
and women who've disappeared from there
because they're afraid to say anything publicly.
That's how big this was.
As more and more stories have come forth since Roger Ailes
you begin to realize that people like Roger Ailes
can't get away with all this stuff,
if there aren't a circle of people around them
that make them look better than they are,
that protect them legally, that schedule those meetings,
that get rid of people that are problems, and that's not us.
And that's why this is the first time publicly
we've really spoken about it at all.
We really don't talk about our clients,
and our clients expect us not to.
But in this case, not only did we not have a contract,
not only did we not have an NDA,
not only did we not have any legal reasons why we couldn't--
- Or get paid. - Or get paid,
but it's wrong. It's so wrong.
And I can't be part of that.
Not only am I not gonna be a part of that,
I'm gonna expose it so that these men one day
can get some of what they really deserve,
which is that there's justice for their victims.
David Shuster: Roger died within a year of leaving Fox News.
Because Fox News was such a big part of Roger Ailes
that when it all fell apart
there was nothing left for Roger.
That's who he was.
He was...
chairman of Fox.
Our former CEO and chairman,
husband to Beth, father of Zach
fell at his home in Florida and did not survive.
Roger Ailes was a patriot.
He was the biggest personality and the most influential
and powerful man I ever personally encountered.
I loved him.
Roger gave every single one of us
on this couch an opportunity.
He put food on our table, and, you know,
he went out in such a sad way. But who doesn't have sins?
He will be missed on this channel. He will be missed.
[sniffles]
[firecrackers crackling]
Alisyn Camerota: There's no denying, he was a powerful
influential person who changed the country.
Glenn Meehan: Roger knew what fear could do.
Roger knew what paranoia could do
uh, to the audience.
You know, they kept comin' back.
[firecrackers crackling]
Felycia Sugarman: The big disappointment was that
he used his talent and his media savvy
to build something that drove a wedge.
That's, to me, that's pretty devastating.
Alisyn Camerota: I thought that things would be more different
after he was gone.
But he casts such a long shadow
that his vision can actually go on without him.
[crowd cheering]
Brian Kilmeade: Now, there is a report out there, guys
that the president of the United States
watches us at 7 a.m. Eastern Time.
So let's take a look at the White House right now.
If-if the president of the United States is actually
watching, blink the lights on and off, okay?
[all laughing]
- Oh, my goodness! - That's awesome.
♪ Where
♪ Do we go from here?
♪ Where
♪ Do we go from here?
♪ Baby
♪ I know you love me
♪ Make me stronger
♪ Don't make me weaker ♪
♪ Give me that candy
♪ Play with my mind
♪ You're bringin' me down
♪ And not makin' me strong ♪
♪ I know that you want ♪
♪ Baby
♪ And I won't be too long
♪ Where
♪ Do we go from here?
♪ Oh
♪ Where
♪ Do we go from here?
♪ Oh
♪ Gotta make that change
♪ We gotta all make that change ♪
♪ My brothers and my sisters
♪ It's time to make this world
♪ A brighter place ♪
♪ For the generation to come ♪
♪ Can find love and peace
♪ What we left them
♪ So I'm gonna tell you over and over again ♪
♪ Brothers, sisters
♪ Listen to me
♪ From the heart
♪ Come on
♪ Oh
♪ Come on
♪ Ah
♪ Ooh
♪ Oh where? ♪