# Roger Ailes 40M Fox Severance In July 2016, [[Roger Ailes]] resigned as chairman and CEO of [[Fox News]] after two decades of building the network into the most powerful force in the [[Conservative Media Ecosystem]] — and received a $40 million severance package for doing so. The payout came after [[Gretchen Carlson]] filed a sexual harassment lawsuit that triggered an internal investigation revealing a pattern of predatory behavior spanning Ailes's entire tenure. The deal stands as one of the clearest illustrations of [[Elite Impunity]] in modern American media: a serial predator was not punished but paid — lavishly — to leave quietly. ## The Carlson Lawsuit and the Unraveling On July 6, 2016, [[Gretchen Carlson]] filed suit against [[Roger Ailes]] personally — not against [[Fox News]] — alleging sexual harassment and retaliation after she refused his advances. Carlson's attorney made a strategic choice: by suing Ailes individually, she avoided the [[Fox News]] employment contract's forced arbitration clause, ensuring the case would play out in public. The timing was deliberate — Carlson had been preparing for months, recording conversations and building a documented record. Within days, [[Megyn Kelly]] — then Fox's biggest star — privately confirmed to investigators that Ailes had harassed her early in her career. Other women came forward. [[Rupert Murdoch]] and his sons [[James Murdoch]] and [[Lachlan Murdoch]] retained the law firm Paul Weiss to conduct an internal investigation. The findings were damning: more than two dozen women described harassment by Ailes across decades, a pattern of behavior that constituted an open secret inside [[Fox News]]. The speed of Ailes's fall was remarkable. He had built [[Fox News]] from nothing into a cable juggernaut that shaped the [[Republican Party]]'s messaging, drove the [[Propaganda Feedback Loop]], and generated billions for the [[Murdoch Family]]. But once the Paul Weiss investigation confirmed the scope of the allegations, the Murdochs moved to protect the corporate asset rather than the man. Ailes resigned on July 21, 2016 — fifteen days after Carlson filed suit. ## Deal Mechanics The severance package reportedly totaled $40 million, structured to include: **Base payout**: approximately $40M, roughly equivalent to the remaining value of Ailes's employment contract, which had been renewed just the year before. The payment effectively honored the contract in full despite the termination-for-cause circumstances that the investigation had surfaced. **Non-compete and non-disparagement**: Ailes agreed not to work for a competing network and not to publicly criticize [[Fox News]] or the [[Murdoch Family]]. In return, [[Fox News]] agreed not to publicly blame Ailes, maintaining the fiction of a voluntary departure. **Advisory role continuation**: Ailes was permitted to continue advising [[Donald Trump]]'s [[2016 Presidential Election]] campaign while receiving [[Fox News]] severance money — a staggering [[Double Standard]] given the network's nominal editorial independence. Ailes helped Trump prepare for presidential debates, including the general election debates, while still on the Fox payroll. **No admission of wrongdoing**: The severance terms included no acknowledgment by Ailes or [[Fox News]] that harassment had occurred, a pattern consistent with the [[Complicit]] institutional culture that protected abusers through financial settlements and [[NDA]]-style confidentiality provisions. The $40M figure should be understood in context: [[Fox News]] was generating approximately $2.3 billion in annual revenue at the time. The severance was, for [[Rupert Murdoch]], the cost of protecting a multi-billion-dollar asset from prolonged scandal. The [[Moral Hazard]] was explicit — the deal signaled that even proven predatory behavior at the highest levels of [[Conservative Media Ecosystem]] institutions would be resolved through payouts, not accountability. ## The Trump Connection The timing of Ailes's ouster placed it squarely within the [[2016 Presidential Election]] cycle, and the overlap between his Fox severance and his Trump campaign work illuminated the porous boundary between [[Fox News]] and [[Republican Party]] politics. Ailes had been advising [[Donald Trump]] informally throughout the primary season. After his resignation, he moved seamlessly into a formal advisory role, helping Trump prepare for debates against [[Hillary Clinton]]. This created an extraordinary situation: the man who had built [[Fox News]] into the [[Republican Party]]'s de facto communications arm was simultaneously drawing a $40M payout from the network and coaching the Republican presidential nominee. The revolving door between Fox and Republican politics — always an open secret — was briefly visible in plain daylight. [[Sean Hannity]], [[Laura Ingraham]], and [[Jeanine Pirro]] all maintained relationships with both Ailes and the Trump campaign during this period, illustrating how the [[Right-Wing Media Timeline]] and Republican electoral politics operated as a single integrated system. [[Donald Trump]] publicly defended Ailes throughout the scandal, telling [[New York Times]] interviewer Charlie Rose that Ailes had helped "those women" and was being treated unfairly. Trump's own [[Donald Trump - grab them]] tape would surface just months later, in October 2016. The mutual support between Trump and Ailes reflected a shared understanding: powerful men in the conservative ecosystem protected each other against accountability, a dynamic rooted in the [[Patriarchy]] that both men embodied and exploited. ## Death and Legacy [[Roger Ailes]] died on May 18, 2017 — less than a year after his ouster — from complications of a fall at his Palm Beach home. He was 77. His death foreclosed any possibility of civil trial testimony and ensured that the full scope of his predatory behavior would never be subject to legal discovery. His legacy at [[Fox News]] proved durable in ways both structural and cultural. The network he built continued to dominate cable news, the [[Propaganda Feedback Loop]] he engineered continued to shape [[Republican Party]] messaging, and the culture of harassment he fostered continued to generate settlements — most notably the [[Bill O'Reilly Sexual Harassment Settlements]] that would erupt into public view less than a year after Ailes's departure. The [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]] of 2023, while about defamation rather than harassment, would further demonstrate the pattern: [[Fox News]] paying to make problems disappear rather than accepting accountability. ## Why It Matters for the RWKB The Ailes severance is a keystone deal for understanding how [[Elite Impunity]] operates within the [[Conservative Media Ecosystem]]. Several structural patterns converge: The deal demonstrated that [[Fox News]] under the [[Murdoch Family]] operated on a [[Principal-Agent Problem]] calculus: Ailes was too valuable to fire for cause (which would have meant no payout) but too dangerous to keep. The $40M was not a reward for service but a purchase of silence — the cost of preventing Ailes from retaliating with insider knowledge about the network, the Murdochs, and the broader conservative media infrastructure. The advisory-role provision revealed the [[Incentive-Caused Bias]] at the heart of conservative media: [[Fox News]] was nominally a news organization but functionally an arm of [[Republican Party]] politics. Paying Ailes to advise Trump while still on the Fox payroll collapsed any pretense of editorial independence. The pattern of predatory behavior that the investigation revealed was not incidental to Fox's culture — it was foundational. Ailes built the network around a vision of [[Misogyny on the Right]] that valorized attractive female presenters while subjecting them to systematic exploitation. The harassment was the management philosophy, not a deviation from it. The [[Antifeminism]] embedded in Fox's programming reflected the power dynamics inside the building. ## Open Questions - What proportion of the $40M came from [[Fox News]] operating funds versus [[Rupert Murdoch]]'s personal resources, and did the structure create any tax or shareholder liability issues? - How many additional women were bound by confidentiality agreements that prevented them from participating in the Paul Weiss investigation? - Did Ailes's advisory work for [[Donald Trump]]'s campaign constitute a violation of any campaign finance regulations given the concurrent Fox severance payments? - What institutional reforms, if any, did [[Fox News]] implement after Ailes's departure, and were they substantive or cosmetic? ## Connections The Ailes severance connects to the broader constellation of [[Fox News]] harassment settlements: [[Gretchen Carlson 20M Fox Settlement]], [[Bill O'Reilly Sexual Harassment Settlements]], and [[Megyn Kelly NBC Contract and Exit]]. Together these deals represent over $100M in payouts flowing from the [[Misogyny]] that was structural to the network Ailes built. The deal also connects to the [[Murdoch Family]]'s pattern of paying to protect corporate value — from the Ailes severance through the [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]] and the [[Newsmax-Smartmatic Settlement]], the playbook is consistent: write the check, enforce silence, preserve the brand. Ailes's career arc from [[Richard Nixon]] media advisor to Fox News founder to Trump debate coach traces the entire history of the [[Right-Wing Media Timeline]] and its integration with [[Republican Party]] electoral strategy, the [[Propaganda Feedback Loop]], and the [[Disinformation]] infrastructure that defines modern conservative politics. ## See Also - [[Roger Ailes]] - [[Fox News]] - [[Gretchen Carlson]] - [[Megyn Kelly]] - [[Rupert Murdoch]] - [[Murdoch Family]] - [[Donald Trump]] - [[Fox News Founding Investment]] - [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]] - [[Elite Impunity]] - [[Misogyny on the Right]] - [[Right-Wing Media Timeline]] - [[Propaganda Feedback Loop]]