Roger Ailes, the former GOP political operative who oversaw the creation of the Fox News Channel and turned it into the leading voice of American conservatism, is in final negotiations to leave as chief executive of the network amid a budding sexual harassment scandal, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.

The agreement is expected to be completed shortly, the person said.

Ailes, 76, has been chairman and chief executive of Fox since its inception in 1996, and he is often described as one of the most powerful figures in American media and politics.

Under his guidance, Fox News grew into a pugnacious and popular news and opinion source, far surpassing the pioneering and more centrist CNN in ratings and profits.

Various reports Tuesday of Ailes’s pending ouster came just two weeks after Gretchen Carlson – one of the conservative hosts whom Ailes elevated to star status – filed a lawsuit alleging that Ailes had sexually harassed her during her 11-year career at Fox. Carlson alleged that Ailes terminated her employment in June after she spurned his advances; Ailes denied the claims and Fox maintained that Carlson’s contract wasn’t renewed because the ratings of her afternoon program had declined.

The lawsuit, which is pending, appears to have set off a chain of events that led to demands for Ailes’s resignation from his bosses, media baron Rupert Murdoch and his sons, Lachlan and James. Amid an investigation of Ailes’s conduct by an outside law firm, other Fox employees came forward with sexual-harassment allegations against Ailes. Among them was Megyn Kelly, a star Fox host, according to New York magazine.

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Such allegations provided a foundation for Lachlan, 44, and James, 43, to press for Ailes’s ouster, according to people at Fox and 21st Century Fox.

The Murdoch sons, eager to assert authority over their father’s vast media and entertainment holdings, were reportedly at odds with Ailes well before Carlson’s suit emerged, and their efforts to dump Ailes hint at the degree of their animus. Ailes was only a few months from the end of his current contract and probably could have retired if the Murdochs had not pressed for his early exit.

His expected departure leaves unanswered questions about the future of Fox News. Kelly will come to the end of her current contract next year and has indicated that she may leave. Host Bill O’Reilly has talked about retirement, meaning Fox could lose its two biggest draws, as well as its chief executive and guiding visionary.

It’s unclear who among Fox’s managers, a cadre highly loyal to Ailes, might depart, as well.

The Drudge Report on Tuesday first broke the news of Ailes’s expected departure, and it briefly posted a document that appeared to be parent company 21st Century Fox’s settlement agreement with Ailes. Shortly afterward, 21st Century Fox released a statement reading: “Roger is at work. The review is ongoing. The only agreement that is in place is his existing employment agreement.”

The Washington Post could not independently confirm the authenticity of the document posted by Drudge.

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In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, Ailes attorney Susan Estrich – a former Fox commentator – said “exit” negotiations between Ailes and 21st Century Fox were ongoing.

“Exit agreements can take all kinds of different forms, including agreements that provide for continuing roles,” she said. “So there’s a lot of negotiations going on.”

She added, “There is no term sheet, there is no agreement, there is no deal, and the review is ongoing.”

If Carlson and other female employees of the network are to be believed, Ailes was a serial harasser. Carlson, a former Miss America, claimed that Ailes suggested that they have a sexual relationship during a meeting, according to her lawsuit. Her lawsuit claims her contract was not renewed because she refused his advances.

Carlson’s lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that 20 women have contacted her law firm with allegations of harassment by Ailes.

Ailes has repeatedly denied the allegations. And a number of prominent women at Fox have issued statements supportive of Ailes. (Kelly was not among them.)

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With Fox, Ailes proved himself to be an innovator. The network was flashier than its more staid cable and broadcast competitors, with whooshing sound effects and kinetic graphics. Ailes also stocked Fox News’s ranks with attractive blond female news readers and positioned them on news sets with their bare legs exposed.

The emphasis on a conservative point of view – one similar to Ailes’s and Rupert Murdoch’s own views – also helped Fox differentiate itself from its cable competition.

Ailes hired prominent conservative politicians to serve as commentators and occasionally to host shows of their own. Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove, the former chief political strategist for George W. Bush, have been among Fox’s analysts, giving them a prominent platform between elections. It also featured Donald Trump in interviews several years before he announced his candidacy for president last year.

In Cleveland, the site of the Republican National Convention, Ailes’s fate was a ubiquitous topic of conversation.

“Fox has dominated not just conservative viewers but has shaped the modern Republican Party,” Donna Brazile, a CNN commentator and Democratic Party strategist, said outside the convention hall. “Ailes has played an outsized role in making sure conservative views and viewpoints got into the mainstream. That’s his legacy.”

Ailes had a long career as an entertainment TV producer – he was executive producer of Mike Douglas’s nationally syndicated talk-variety show in the 1960s – and used his knowledge of the medium in crossing over to Republican politics. He was a media consultant for three successful Republican presidential candidates – Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush – but retired as a political consultant after working on Richard Thornburgh’s losing Senate campaign in 1991.

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Ailes subsequently headed the fledgling NBC cable channelAmerica’s Talking, which was a TV version of political talk radio. The network, which was spun off from the business-news CNBC in 1994, was an early launching pad for hosts Steve Doocy and Chris Matthews.

Doocy later joined Fox, where he co-hosted the “Fox and Friends” morning program with Carlson. Matthews joined MSNBC when it succeeded America’s Talking in 1996 – the same year Ailes launched Fox.

With Murdoch’s backing, Ailes founded Fox as a competitor to the established CNN, often investing his creation with the same kind of partisan politics as one of his presidential campaigns. He promoted the start-up network as “fair and balanced” – a suggestion that the competition wasn’t – and in time developed a stable of talented and argumentative hosts, such as O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

While Fox’s news reporting generally tried to steer a middle course, there were no such restraints on the “opinion” shows, which harshly attacked liberals and Democrats. O’Reilly, an avowed independent who nevertheless took many conservative positions, became the network’s biggest star via his nightly program, “The O’Reilly Factor.”


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