During the Bush administration former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik was being considered to head the newly-created Department of Homeland Security. While the background check was being done on Kerik, Ailes told one of his employees (Judith Regan) to lie about the affair she had with Kerik. Kerik was close to Rudy Giuliani (a close friend of Ailes) and Ailes was afraid if the affair became public knowledge, it could damage Giuliani.
The problem with that is that asking someone, especially someone you have power over, to lie to a federal law enforcement official is against the law. It is called suborning perjury and its a serious crime. And Ailes is caught red-handed. The employee he asked to lie has a tape of the phone call with Ailes.
Now it looks like Ailes may actually be charged with the crime. Barry Ritholtz is reporting that Ailes has cancelled a speaking engagement scheduled for March for legal reasons. It seems that he expects to be charged with the crime, possible as early as this week.
He should be charged. I don't expect him to actually do any jail time. We don't do that in this country to people as rich and powerful as Ailes. He'll probably get off with a slap on the wrist, which is a shame since an ordinary American would very likely get jail time for a crime like suborning perjury. But it should be interesting watching him waste millions of dollars fighting the charge (because you know he'll hire the most expensive lawyers -- and they'll get as much as they can of his money).
Who should be surprised Fox and News Corp commit perjury as common practice, its sold and obvious right from the get go with the in your face, "Fair and Balanced", moniker plastered under every Fox News head line.They sell an obvious lie.The real question is whether they should have a broadcast license because they only serve the right wing and force everyone in their global oligarchy to support the right wing nut oligarchy.
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteRoger Ailes is the granddaddy of the conservative talking head plague, isn’t he? He was involved with Limbaugh way back before FoxNews existed…
I’ve never quite understood why Regan – a writer/host – would be having an affair with the NYC police chief, but apparently it happened in that strange parallel world where everyone famous knows each other.
But hell yes… This could be pretty big. If nothing else, it shows how folks like Ailes will lie, cheat, and steal in order to convince others that they’re the ones who don’t lie, cheat, and steal…