Gawker Pries Into Roger Ailes’ Personal Life To Prove He’s ‘Paranoid’…About Prying Into His Personal Life

by Jon Bershad | 3:49 pm, April 29th, 2011

» 17 comments

In a big article on the front page, Gawker has found information that they claim proves that Fox News chief Roger Ailes is a “paranoid maniac.” And all they had to do to get it was use the New York Freedom of Information Law to go through the police records in the small town where he lives, root around for all the times he’s mentioned, and then find out why police went to his house! Easy! In fact, it reminds me of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s seminal month-long investigation to prove that March had somehow transformed into April.

So, what is the proof that they found? From Gawker:

“Fox News chief Roger Ailes and his wife Elizabeth must get spooked a lot in their weekend home in rural Putnam Valley, N.Y., because they call 911 a lot. During one 30-day period last summer, police cars were dispatched to their address six times.

All told, according to police records we obtained from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department via New York’s Freedom of Information Law, cops have been called to the Ailes’ home 10 times since 2009. In eight of those calls, units were actually sent to the house. None of the calls resulted in an investigation, arrest, or determination that any criminal activity had taken place.”

Uh huh.

Look, I’m not saying that Ailes isn’t paranoid. There’s been plenty of information that’s come straight from the man’s mouth to show that he is, at the very least, idiosyncratic. And, the day Gawker stops breaking stories about the dirt underneath the finger nails of the rich and powerful is the day Gawker stops being Gawker, something that we certainly don’t want. That being said, isn’t there a very thin line between exposing someone’s paranoia and helping rationalize it?

More importantly though, is the information here really that exciting? So, the police are sent to check the security of Ailes house a lot. I guess that’s kind of interesting. It would be more interesting if the article didn’t also have to point out that many of the calls “seem to have been automated calls generated by their alarm system.”

So in summation, by all means, Gawker should do everything they can to check up on public figures. That’s just good journalism. However, if they don’t find anything significant, as the same writer John Cook did earlier this month about Ailes, perhaps they should turn down the hyberbolic headlines. Unless, of course, this is their plan; to make Roger Ailes so paranoid that he freaks out and does something huge and newsworthy.

Hmmm…making the news by reporting the news. It’s kind of brilliant.

fox news, Gawker, John Cook, Roger Ailes

Who is Salacious Crumb

Kind of brilliant? What’s next, “make your conspiracy media kits?” “How to guides for manufacturing stories” sold on Amazon?

And seriously, what kind of loser obsesses about Roger Ailes’ private life?
MrTPar_taY

Heard Gawker records every visiting IP address to its’ site-paranoid? Bunch of Gawking hypocrites.
Barack Must Go

I’ve heard of someone from Gawker hiding in influential conservatives toilets then opening their mouths wide when they shit, sneaking out, going back to this office and the next day reporting on what they had eaten…….butt this is going entirely to far over the line now.
errxn

Gawker: Who Needs Standards When You Have Snark?
tgk

Given the far left’s history of vitriol and actions, I would probably be paranoid if I were Roger Ailes as well. It’s not like the lunatic left would show up at anyone’s personal residence or anything though. Oh wait…………
THE REAL ROYAL KING

I can never remember if Gawker is Tucker Carlson or not. Carlson is “Hurler”, isn’t it?
THE REAL ROYAL KING

tgk said:
Given the far left’s history of vitriol and actions, I would probably be paranoid if I were Roger Ailes as well. It’s not like the lunatic left would show up at anyone’s personal residence or anything though. Oh wait…………

I have to admit that in our Vitriol Rallies we seldom speak of anything other than Roger Ailes. A few other bloated rightist reactionary gasbags in the media, but rarely.
Upper Plateau

Mr. Bershad,

Thanks for reporting how the media is working overtime to villify Mr. Ailes. Just a question? Why did you feel it necessary to give an apology to your readers that you could see the hypocracy in the Gawker Piece. Thanks for calling them ouy, however.
Upper Plateau

Make that, “out”.
Moderate

After two false alarms by my ADT system, I told ADT to take their system and shove it, I would have assumed the police would eventually stop responding to false alarms.
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

Barack Must Go said:
I’ve heard of someone from Gawker hiding in influential conservatives toilets then opening their mouths wide when they shit, sneaking out, going back to this office and the next day reporting on what they had eaten…….butt this is going entirely to far over the line now.

HahahahahahAHAHahahAHAHAHAHAHahahahAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!111 The WIT of Right-Thinking Americans puts you PATHETIC LIBS to shame!!!!!!!111 Somebody replace Jon SPEWart with THIS GUY!!!!!!!!111 LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!111
Cubby

Jon, dude, seriously. Read the whole article next time. I know Gawker isn’t known for having the highest levels of journalistic integrity, but there is a lot more to their reasoning that just what you quoted.
gottosay

it nice to know that this man and wife understand that their assault on american media is not taken kindly and knows that some person is willing to irriate them because of their views…report about what was said on the 911 calls let us detemine whether the calls are a coolio calling or not
tatboy

THE REAL ROYAL KING said:
I have to admit that in our Vitriol Rallies we seldom speak of anything other than Roger Ailes. A few other bloated rightist reactionary gasbags in the media, but rarely.

Hay RRK… Did you catch the news that one of the Gitmo officers is running for office down your way…. as a Dem. What’s up with that?
scalleywag

This place bends over backwards to coddle conservatives.
JJ Vachon

There’s the old saying, “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you”.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

Bershad wrote, “And, the day Gawker stops breaking stories about the dirt underneath the finger nails of the rich and powerful is the day Gawker stops being Gawker, something that we certainly don’t want.”

Right, because that is what “reporting” is all about, the dirt underneath fingernails. Once again Bershad demonstrates his utter lack of depth as a “reporter.” No wonder he ended up as a “Worst Person” earlier this year.

KNOCK KNOCK: HEY. MEDIAITE. IS ANYBODY THERE? Probably not.