骚扰女员工，私蓄“锦衣卫”：艾尔斯成福克斯土皇帝

自福克斯新闻接连爆出性骚扰丑闻以来，21世纪福克斯的幕后大佬，也就是公司的创始人、亿万富翁鲁伯特·默多克和他的两个儿子詹姆斯和拉克兰或许以为，只要让福克斯新闻的董事长兼CEO罗杰·艾尔斯卷铺盖走人，他们就能遏止住铺天盖地而来的负面新闻。然而艾尔斯辞职之后，关于福克斯的负面报道不减反增，甚至还爆出了一些更诡异的猛料

据《名利场》（Vanity Fair）杂志报道，21世纪福克斯公司目前正在与律师商讨如何与福克斯新闻的前主播格雷琴·卡尔森就性骚扰一案达成和解。据消息人士透露，这笔和解费可能将高达8位数。

更不同寻常的是，据称21世纪福克斯公司还要求艾尔斯本人至少要拿出部分和解费。该杂志还称，此次21世纪福克斯在与律师讨论过程中还谈到了一个问题，那就是据说有多名女性持有与艾尔斯发生口角的录音。如果卡尔森提起的性骚扰诉讼进入庭审程序，这些录音就可能会被公开，因此无论是艾尔斯还是福克斯公司都想尽力避免这种情况发生。

这些录音带并不是艾尔斯性骚扰丑闻里的唯一一枚“定时炸弹”。有五六名匿名人士曾对CNN记者迪兰·拜尔斯和NPR记者大卫·弗肯弗里克透露，多名福克斯新闻的员工曾表示，他们担心艾尔斯也在对他们的电话进行秘密录音，或是用跟踪等方法监控他们的行踪。

一位之前的同事告诉我，艾尔斯用摄像头监控了福克斯的新闻编辑室。还有一人称，他的私人邮件曾被人阅读过。详见https://t.co/G9VyFImFHF

——大卫·弗肯弗里克（Twitter账号：@davidfolkenflik），2016年8月9日

这样的报道乍听起来相当匪夷所思，然而事实上，曾担任过美国前总统尼克松的顾问的艾尔斯是个相当偏执的人，他经常公开谈及恐怖分子怎样把他当成了目标，欲将他除之而后快。他的办公室简直像个防空洞一样，监视摄像头记录了所有来客的情况，办公室还专门安装了一扇巨大的防弹玻璃窗。

不仅如此，《纽约》杂志的加布里埃尔·谢尔曼近日还报道称，艾尔斯手底下有一支“特工团队”，专门负责用阴谋诡计把和他不对付的记者以及其他人等搞倒搞臭。艾尔斯的“黑名单”上就有谢尔曼本人，以及Gawker网的编辑约翰·库克等，后者还曾被跟踪过。

谢尔曼表示，他的消息人士告诉他，艾尔斯还利用福克斯新闻的预算雇佣了一批顾问、政治探子和私家侦探，这帮人只向艾尔斯一人报告工作，他们平时就在福克斯总部大楼的专门一个楼层的一间所谓“小黑屋”里工作。其中一名顾问在被解聘之前，主要负责为艾尔斯的敌人制造负面的公关危机。

格雷琴·卡尔森就福克斯新闻CEP罗杰·艾尔斯对其性骚扰一事提起诉讼。

这些地下行动并非只瞄准了知名记者。CNN记者布莱恩·斯泰尔特十年前还在上大学时，曾经办过一个叫“新闻人”（Newser）的博客。当时他和一个在福克斯新闻工作的女孩谈过一阵恋爱，结果却发现，这个女孩竟然是艾尔斯和他的情报网络派人来监视他的。

一名福克斯的高管对《纽约》杂志表示：“（我们的）文化就是那样，你不能问问题，罗杰也不欢迎你问问题。”另一名消息人士指出，福克斯公司每年为默多克家族带来的利润超过了10亿美元，因此不管公司要为艾尔斯的性骚扰案掏多少和解费，也不管公司每年要花多少钱养几个私家侦探，对默多克家族来说都只是九牛一毛，没什么可担心的。

随着艾尔森性骚扰案的受害人数不断增加，影响持续发酵，有些观察人士表示，这或许说明默多克家族对公司的管理出了问题。在艾尔斯的任期内，福克斯公司养成了这种性骚扰文化以及弥漫公司上下的恐惧气氛，对此，默多克家族恐怕难辞其咎。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

The powers that be at 21st Century Fox—that is, billionaire founder Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan—may have hoped that by cutting former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes loose after a string of sexual harassment allegations, they could stem the flow of negative news. Instead, it has only intensified, and in some cases become even more bizarre.

According to Vanity Fair, 21st Century Fox  FOX -0.19%  is currently in discussions with lawyers for former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson about a settlement of her sexual harassment case—a settlement that sources say could be in the eight-figure range.

Even more unusual, the company is reportedly asking Ailes to fund at least part of the settlement. And one of the issues in the discussion, the magazine says, is the existence of a number of audio tapes that were recorded by multiple women who had run-ins with Ailes. If the Carlson lawsuit goes to trial, those tapes become public, something Ailes and Fox would likely want to avoid.

Those tapes aren’t the only potential time-bomb ticking inside the Ailes story. A significant number of Fox News employees said they were afraid that Ailes was also secretly tape-recording their phone calls or monitoring their behavior in other ways, including having them followed, according to half a dozen anonymous sources who spoke with CNN’s Dylan Byers and NPR’s David Folkenflik.

One ex-associate told me Ailes monitored Fox newsrooms with video cameras. Another said his private emails were readhttps://t.co/G9VyFImFHF

— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) August 9, 2016

Such reports might seem outlandish, except for the fact that Ailes—a former advisor to President Richard Nixon—was notoriously paranoid, talking often about how he was being targeted by terrorists. His office was bunker-like, with a camera that recorded all of those coming and going, and a huge bomb-proof window that had to specially installed.

Not only that, but New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported recently that the chairman had a team of operatives who ran a series of dirty-tricks campaigns against journalists and others who crossed him. The list included Sherman himself and Gawker editor John Cook, who was followed.

Sherman said his sources told him that Ailes used the Fox News budget to hire consultants, political operatives, and private investigators who reported only to him and worked in a so-called “Black Room” on a special floor of Fox headquarters. One consultant, who has since been dismissed, was hired to cook up negative PR campaigns against enemies of Ailes.

Gretchen Carlson is suing Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.

And these campaigns weren’t only targeted at established journalists. While CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter was a university student running the Newser blog a decade ago, he dated a woman who worked at Fox News and turned out to be spying on him for Ailes and the network.

“It was the culture,” one Fox executive told New York. “You didn’t ask questions, and Roger wouldn’t entertain questions.” Another source said that since Fox made more than $1 billion in annual profit for the Murdoch family, any money used to settle sexual harassment claims or pay off investigators was seen as “a rounding error” and therefore not worth worrying about.

As the range and number of Ailes’ alleged transgressions have continued to grow, some observers say it raises questions about the Murdoch family’s oversight of the company, and whether they are partially to blame for the culture of harassment and fear he unleashed on the company during his tenure.