Did Fox News chief Ailes try to protect Rudy Giuliani?

In her suit against News Corp., publisher Judith Regan never names the man she claims told her to lie for Giuliani, but he sounds a lot like Giuliani pal Roger Ailes.

By Alex Koppelman

Read more: Republican Party, Rudy Giuliani, Politics, News, Keith Olbermann, Alex Koppelman

Reuters images

Left, Roger Ailes; right, Rudy Giuliani

Nov. 16, 2007 | In two recent televised interviews, investigative reporter Wayne Barrett ventured an educated guess about the identity of the unnamed heavy in former ReganBooks publisher Judith Regan's lawsuit -- the suit in which Regan claims that her former bosses at News Corp., the parent firm of Fox News, want Rudy Giuliani to be president. A longtime observer of Giuliani from his perch at New York alternative weekly the Village Voice and the author of "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11," Barrett takes as a given what many observers suspect, that the executive whom Regan claims urged her to lie to protect Giuliani is none other than Fox News chief Roger Ailes.

"The funny thing about Judith Regan's complaint is that she doesn't refer to Roger Ailes by name for the first 16 pages, right?" Barrett told Keith Olbermann of MSNBC on Wednesday. "But Roger Ailes is ... clearly the person she is referring to as this senior executive who made all these suggestions to her."

The next day, on "Democracy Now," host Amy Goodman opened her segment with Barrett by stating as fact that "Regan ... was talking about Roger Ailes." Barrett responded, "I'm sure you're correct."

Ailes was a veteran GOP political operative before he launched Fox News in 1996, and is also a personal friend and former employee of Giuliani's. (Read more here.) But is he really the unnamed "senior executive" in Regan's 70-page complaint?

A spokeswoman for Regan, Kelly Mullens, declined to comment. "The complaint speaks for itself," said Mullens. Terri Everett, a News Corp. spokeswoman, would say only, "We think the entire lawsuit is preposterous. I'm not going to dignify any aspect of it for you." But whether or not Regan's claims are true, and regardless of the merits of the suit, the behavior alleged and the incidents described in the complaint do seem to correspond with the known history of relations between Judith Regan and Roger Ailes, former friends who apparently became enemies. In particular, Regan's allegations about an incident involving a cellphone seem to point directly at Ailes.

Back in the early '90s, Regan became a publishing hotshot by signing celebrities to write million-selling books. One of her best-known scores was the first book by right-wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh, which became a runaway bestseller. Even before "The Way Things Ought to Be" was published, the rising radio star signed on with Ailes to do a syndicated TV show. Ailes was a Republican media consultant who had worked in the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush, and also in the first, failed mayoral bid of Giuliani in 1989. Ailes became the executive producer of "Rush Limbaugh." During the four years the show lasted, Limbaugh gave repeated on-air shout-outs to "my editor," Regan, for whom he wrote a second bestseller, called "See, I Told You So," in 1993.

In 1994, Rupert Murdoch lured Regan away from Simon & Schuster to start her own line of books as part of HarperCollins, the publishing house owned by Murdoch's News Corp. Reportedly key to Murdoch's successful pursuit of Regan was his promise to give her a TV talk show of her own. Regan taped pilots for both FX and Fox's broadcast network, but neither was picked up.

Ailes, meanwhile, went to work for Murdoch in 1996 to start a new cable news channel. Now Ailes and Regan had both Limbaugh and Murdoch in common -- and Ailes, as head honcho at Fox News, was able to make Regan's on-air dreams come true. On the schedule when Ailes launched Fox News on Oct. 7, 1996, was, at last, a real Judith Regan talk show. Called "That Regan Woman," it anchored the network's weekend prime-time lineup. Regan told a reporter that Ailes had named the show. "People were always asking him what 'that Regan woman' was like ... It had a nice ring to it, so we went with it." Regan would host a talk show for Ailes at Fox News, off and on, for six years. In its final incarnation, the program was known as "Tonight With Judith Regan."

In the spring of 2001, Regan signed Bernie Kerik, commissioner of the NYPD, to write an autobiography about his rise from son of a prostitute to head of the nation's largest municipal police force. The book, "The Lost Son," was published on Nov. 14 of that year. Around that time, the publisher and author also became embroiled in a romance, despite the fact that Kerik was juggling a wife and another girlfriend.

On Nov. 28, 2001, while at Fox's studios in Manhattan doing a photo shoot, Regan discovered that her cellphone was missing from her purse. Returning to her office, she was also unable to find a credit card and a necklace that had been in the bag. Soon, police officers were searching the studios and questioning individuals who had been at the photo shoot. The New York Times described homicide detectives going to the homes of Fox staffers after midnight to ask questions and take fingerprints. Regan's cellphone was found in a garbage can outside the studios; she later discovered the necklace in the bottom of her bag. The credit card turned up at a pharmacy.

Subsequently, there has been disagreement over what action Regan took in response to the theft. "Several sources" told the New York Daily News that Regan called the police chief, Kerik. Regan insisted to both the Daily News and Newsday that she had only contacted a chief of detectives named Thomas Fahey. In a March 2002 story, the New York Times quotes Kerik as saying he didn't know what his subordinates had done till later.

In her complaint, Regan now says that only Kerik had the authority to send detectives to Fox staffers' homes to investigate a possible petit larceny, but that the unnamed senior executive, who knew of her affair with Kerik, tried to pin the blame on her. The language the complaint uses to describe the executive's characterization of Regan's actions -- "out of control" -- is very similar to phrases attributed to Roger Ailes in press accounts at the time.

According to a December 2001 Daily News story, "Fox News Chief Roger Ailes [told] Regan that she overreacted." In Newsday's version, a Fox spokesman said Ailes had "told [Regan] she was out of line." The next day, a Newsday follow-up reported that Ailes had assured a group of makeup artists who were questioned by detectives, and who were considering a lawsuit against Regan, that they no longer had to work with Regan if that was their preference.

In her complaint, Regan describes introducing Kerik to the unnamed senior executive, "who was also a close ally of Rupert Murdoch," and "confid[ing] in this executive regarding the details and nature of her relationship with Kerik."

"At the end of 2001," continues the complaint, "this senior News Corp. executive knew full well that Kerik and Giuliani -- fresh from carrying the heroic halo of September 11th -- were well-positioned for greater political power. So when Regan became the victim of a theft at the Fox News Channel, and Kerik -- not Regan -- used his authority as NYC Police Commissioner to send NYPD detectives out to investigate, this executive spun the story that it was Regan -- not Kerik -- who caused the detectives to knock on the doors of Fox News employees, and that it was Regan -- not Kerik -- who was out of control."

"Inside the company, this senior News Corp. executive openly blamed Regan for the incident, even though he absolutely knew that it was not the case. He convinced others (including Rupert Murdoch) that somehow Regan was out-of-control."

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