August 2, 2016, - 4:17 pm
Kirsten Powers Harassed By Roger Ailes? She Seems to Say So; My Own Ailes “Experience”
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
Was Kirsten Powers one of the FOX News employees who reported she was harassed by Roger Ailes? It sure looks like it–like she was one of those who quietly told investigators she was one of Ailes’, um, “targets.” I had my own “experience” with Ailes I’ll tell you about later in this post.
For years, I heard about the sexually-charged atmosphere at FOX News, the network that pretends to stand for family values and suckers its many Christian conservative viewers. There is a host still on the network, whose syndicated radio show producer allegedly quit because he repeatedly propositioned her (and I believe that happened, as I know both the host and the producer in question). (I had my own experiences with this host in which I felt he was harassing me, too, and it wasn’t subtle.) And I wasn’t surprised by the claims of Gretchen Carlson and others who reportedly “narced” on Ailes to the law firm hired by FOX News to investigate him. My own experience with Ailes made me wonder, and now I think I know what was going on.
While many FOX News female personalities came out in support of Roger Ailes, most of them were not in his apparent “target demo”: attractive blonde females. He clearly has a type. Among those in that “type” AND among those who very noticeably did NOT come forward to defend Ailes is Kirsten Powers, a chick who would be a nobody and a nothing were it not for Ailes. He plucked her from Clintonista anonymity and made her famous. She gets by, by pretending to be a “moderate liberal”–whatever that is (like White Hispanic?)–while actually being very liberal and never having had an insight or bright observation in her life. (She said, for example, that illegal aliens are “loyal, law-abiding citizens.”) But she is attractive and blonde, and FOX New is strictly showbiz, so that’s why she’s there.
In addition to not defending Ailes, Powers has a column in today’s USA Today purportedly meant to attack Donald Trump, but clearly written to make a not-so-veiled revelation. In it, she all but declares that she was harassed by Ailes. You only need to read between the lines. In the column–in which she basically declared that she believes all the accusations against Ailes–Powers also states:
It’s not a “theory” that sexual harassers are found in any work place. It’s a fact. I’ve been harassed or on the receiving end of sexist and inappropriate behavior almost every place I’ve ever worked.
Powers doesn’t exclude FOX News from that statement, when she could have. She did that for a reason. And she goes on to say:
Without passing judgment about the specific allegations, which are currently under investigation by 21st Century Fox, one should be able to accept that a woman could both have been promoted by a boss and harassed by him. Women are often forced to maintain good relations with men who abuse them precisely because those men have power. . . .
[M]ost women don’t have the financial resources. . . . They can’t afford to quit their job without another in hand, something that is impossible to do when you are under contract and forbidden to speak to competitors. Most importantly, why should a woman be expected to upend her career just because she ended up in the crosshairs of some harasser?
Sounds very clearly like Powers is speaking for herself and her circumstances at FOX News, which pays her in the six figures–I’m told in the mid-six figures.
Then, there’s the devastating quote she gave the New York Times on July 21st, just after FOX News announced Ailes was “leaving” the network. The quote, again, sure sounds like it is Powers speaking for herself:
On Thursday night, Kirsten Powers, a Fox contributor for 11 years, said: “While I understand loyalty, I was disappointed that so many senior members of Fox’s on-air team rushed to defend Roger in a way that seemed to prejudge an investigation into sexual harassment. I would hope that in 2016 people would know that just because you weren’t harassed, or didn’t witness harassment by a certain man, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
The bottom of the column makes sure to point out that Powers is a paid FOX News contributor (for now, at least). And the column also sounds like an insurance policy: if FOX News doesn’t renew her contract, she’s set the stage for her own sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit. Maybe her lawyers told her to write it. Ya never know.
Full disclosure: the very weak Powers blocked me on Twitter after she attacked me unsolicited and unprovoked and, then, couldn’t handle my responses. Tip for Kirsten: if you can’t take the heat, stay outta (or maybe stay in) the kitchen. The topic of her attack and my response: my truth-telling on Lara Logan, Muslims, and historically anti-Semitic Copts in Egypt. Powers was mired in the false belief that the protests in Tahrir Square and Lara Logan’s gang-rape were the preamble to years of peace, prosperity, and democracy in Egypt and the rest of the Muslim Middle East. And we know how that all turned out. Yet again, I was right, and Powers was (and remains) delusional. Powers was briefly married to an Egyptian Arab Copt who dumped her, and she is hopelessly stuck on her 1,001 Arabian Nights sexual fantasies.
Sorry, Roger, you need a tan to make the attraction mutual with Kirsten. Just sayin’.
***
Then, there’s my own experience with Roger Ailes. Back in 1999 and 2000, I made several appearances on FOX News and was repeatedly asked by FOX News producers if I could make regular appearances. When I said yes, they told me I’d have to move to New York or Washington (back in those days, FOX News was cheap and balked at paying for satellite time and studios for my appearances from Detroit). When I told them I’d do it if I were made a paid FOX News contributor, I got an inquiry from Roger Ailes’ then-assistant/glorified secretary Suzanne Scott. She told me that Roger wanted to meet with me about becoming a paid FOX News contributor on my next trip to New York and I should make an appointment.
When I called the following week to make that appointment, I was rudely told by the assistant, Ms. Scott, that Roger changed his mind and there would be no meeting, no paid contributor position. She wouldn’t give me a reason why and abruptly ended the call.
**** UPDATE: Ailes’ then-assistant/glorifed secretary, Suzanne Scott, is now THIRD-IN-COMMAND at FOX News. She is the deputy to Bill Shine (close friend of Sean Hannity), who is Executive VP of FOX News and in line to replace Ailes. BOTH Shine and Scott are identified in this extensive, tawdry story as wranglers of and troubleshooters for Roger Ailes’ paid harem at FOX News. Read how sleazy those two are here. They are basically pimps. END OF UPDATE ****
Later that year, Rush Limbaugh had lunch with Ailes in New York and asked him about me and why this happened. Rush told me that before he could even get my name out of his mouth, Ailes finished my name and began laying into me (fortunately, not laying on me. Rush said, “if we are to believe what Roger told me [he sounded a slightly doubtful], Roger said he heard from someone who worked at FOX News who knows you, that you are relentless, and when you want something, you won’t let go.” I’m not sure what that means, how that’s a bad thing, or why he wouldn’t want someone at FOX News who was a go-getter. I felt it was a sexist response (and the only people I knew at FOX News at the time were the philandering Brit Hume–who was rumored to have had an affair with Megyn Kelly and whose son basically killed himself over his father’s serial cheating–and the late Tony Snow, a complete mensch with whom I was friendly for years, since his days as a newspaper columnist in Detroit). But now, given what we know about the parade of women who’ve come forth about Ailes–plus the stories, including that about a woman who was on FOX News’ paid staff and had a no-show job (other than being an Ailes concubine)–I have a different take.
At the time, I was in my very early ’30s and I was blonde (still am–and like most at FOX News, from a bottle). Perhaps, Ailes only wanted to sign me for the same reason as all the other blonde women. Maybe I’m too outspoken, and he thought I am not the type to give in to him (that would be correct), and I’d speak out (correct again).
I’ll never know. And I’m glad I didn’t get to find out. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And (while I’m usually skeptical of sexual harassment claims without much evidence) I believe that’s the case with Roger Ailes.
Kirsten Powers knows on which side her bread is buttered. And she wouldn’t have made these not-so-veiled statements for nothing.
BTW, who knows what plagiarist thief and admitted pot-buyer Michelle Fraudkin did for Ailes to get and stay on FOX News (until they dumped her), on top of her completely fabricating a story about a Congressman.
Just because Roger Ailes is into blondes, doesn’t mean he doesn’t also believe in “diversity.”
Tags: FOX News, Kirsten Powers, Roger Ailes
That last sentence…what a zinger!
🙂
ebayer on August 2, 2016 at 4:43 pm