Three Revelations From the New Yorker's Explosive Fox News Story
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Roger Ailes may have fed Trump debate questions
Mayer has three sources who say in 2016 Roger Ailes, the former Fox CEO who died a year later, warned Trump in advance that anchor Megyn Kelly was going to ask him a question about his treatment of women during a Fox debate. A fourth source indicated that someone at Fox warned Trump that the candidates would each be asked whether they would support the eventual Republican nominee, whomever that might be. (Trump, Mayer writes, “was the only candidate who said that he wouldn’t automatically support the Party’s nominee — a position that burnished his image as an outsider.”)
Trump allegedly pressured the DOJ to sue to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger
Mayer reports on three otherwise odd moves the administration has made that benefit Fox. First, the administration approved Fox’s proposal to sell its entertainment portfolio to Disney, “The Justice Department expressed no serious antitrust concerns,” Mayer writes. “Even though the combined company will reportedly account for half the box-office revenue in America.” According to Mayer, the Murdoch family could make $2 billion from the deal. In contrast, the administration seemed to have no qualms about quashing a proposed merger between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media Company — a marriage that could have posed a serious competitive threat to Fox.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department mounted a full-court press to prevent AT&T from acquiring CNN’s parent company, Time Warner. “Although Presidents have traditionally avoided expressing opinions about legal matters pending before the judicial branch, Trump has bluntly criticized the plan,” Mayer writes. “The day after the Justice Department filed suit to stop it, he declared the proposed merger ‘not good for the country.’” She reports that in 2017 Trump pressured Gary Cohn, then the director of the National Economic Council, to make his position known to Justice Department. “According to a well-informed source, Trump called Cohn into the Oval Office along with John Kelly, who had just become the chief of staff, and said in exasperation to Kelly, “I’ve been telling Cohn to get this lawsuit filed and nothing’s happened! I’ve mentioned it fifty times. And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!” Cohn reportedly refused to act on the orders. A federal court has since ruled against the Justice Department in the matter.
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