A new piece out at The Daily Beast suggests that Roger Ailes, head of Fox News, may be on the outs with his boss Rupert Murdoch who runs Fox’s parent company News Corp.:
That, at least, is the conspiratorial view of several highly placed News Corp. veterans who believe Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch isn’t likely to be happy with Sunday’s celebratory front-page New York Times profile of the Fox News chief.
Ailes didn’t return my phone call, and a Fox News insider scoffed that this interpretation of events is foolish. “It’s just not true,” this insider said, noting that Ailes and Murdoch “have a great relationship” and that Murdoch’s corporate spokesman quickly issued a statement of support…
It will be interesting to see if there is any fallout for Ailes from the profile, but given the highly profitable Fox News’ domination of the other cable networks, that outcome seems farfetched. Additionally, Ailes has recently overseen the launch of the Fox Business network and leaving the fledgling organization without a proven leader at the helm would be an interesting move.
That hasn’t stopped many in the media from furiously speculating about a Murdoch-Ailes split after Murdoch’s son-in-law blasted Ailes in that same New York Times profile. The lede at The Indepedent for their take of the controversy is:
Rupert Murdoch’s news channel has brought a new venom to US political life. Even his own family is unhappy. But that’s unlikely to bother Roger Ailes, its pugnacious boss.
Clearly, as The Independent notes, many on the left of American political life have an ax to grind with Fox and its chief. However, it will probably take more than one New York Times profile and some anonymous insiders to break up one of the most successful duos in media history.