Ailes used Fox News budget to finance campaigns against enemies: report

Former Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes used portions of the Fox News budget to finance negative campaigns against his enemies, New York Magazine reported.

{mosads}Ailes, who resigned from his position at the network last month amid allegations of sexual harassment, reportedly used money from the Fox News budget to hire consultants, political operatives and private detectives who would report only to him and would gather negative information on his enemies.

The magazine reported that the network dismissed five consultants hired by Ailes last week.

Bert Solivan, one of the consultants, ran negative PR campaigns against Ailes’s personal and political enemies out of the Fox News headquarters, according to the report. A fox News spokesperson confirmed to the publication that Solivan was “recently informed his services were no longer needed.” 

Solivan worked out of what some Fox insiders interviewed by New York Magazine call “the Black Room,” which was established by Ailes in 2011 to run PR and surveillance campaigns.

People targeted by the campaign reportedly included John Cook and Hamilton Nolan, who covered Ailes for Gawker. New York Magazine said a private detective followed Cook around his neighborhood and Fox operatives were preparing a report on the journalist with information to give to blogs.

The magazine reported that few checks existed on the Fox News budget, allowing Ailes to use to the money to advance his own agenda.

“It was the culture,” one Fox executive told New York Magazine. “You didn’t ask questions, and Roger wouldn’t entertain questions.”

Fox News CFO Mark Kranz and general counsel Dianne Brandi both told the magazine they didn’t know about the expenditures.

Ailes, through attorney Susan Estrich, called the allegations “totally false,” New York Magazine reported.