More Reason to Despise Him: Fired Fox Exec Roger Ailes Loved the F Word

The disgraced media executive was not only a serial harasser of women, he regularly dropped antigay slurs and denigrated other minorities, according to reports.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

July 29 2016 12:48 PM EST

July 29 2016 4:09 PM EST

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The reputation of Fox News founding CEO Roger Ailes continues its downward trajectory with new revelations that the once-powerful news executive regularly demeaned minorities publicly and once called Media Matters for America founder David Brock a "f****t."

Sources told CNNMoney that the Brock incident happened five years ago when Politico CEO Fred Ryan met with Ailes to ease friction between the two news organizations. Ailes warned Ryan that his website shouldn't run commentary or quotes from "that f****t David Brock."

When informed of the account, Brock told CNNMoney, "Why am I not surprised?" Ryan wouldn't comment on the matter.

Brock wrote a book about the right-wing network called The Fox Effect, in which he detailed an encounter where Ailes told former President George H.W. Bush to avoid short-sleeved shirts because he'd "look like a fucking f****t."

Ailes's seething resentment of minorities may have cost him his first job -- he abruptly left NBC in 1996, shortly before establishing Fox News. Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman said Ailes's departure was set into motion after he called NBC executive David Zaslav "a little fucking Jew prick." Zaslav's boss at the time told Sherman that Ailes "probably said it."

The CNNMoney report claims Ailes directed horrible comments toward numerous groups, including racial minorities and women, as well. His most recent downfall occurred after longtime Fox journalist Gretchen Carlson sued him for sexual harassment, saying specifically that he ignored earlier complaints of sexist conduct on the part of other male employees and then slowly pushed Carlson out after she rebuffed his sexual advances. The Carlson lawsuit led to an internal investigation, in which Fox's superstar female journalist, Megyn Kelly, also detailed inappropriate and demeaning behavior from Ailes. The executive was fired shortly after.