Roger Ailes Dismisses Rumors, Says Relationship with Murdoch ‘Never Been Better’

Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes has dismissed rumors that he has feuded with 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch over the network’s Trump coverage, saying their relationship “has never been better.”

“My relationship with Rupert has never been better — I talked to him three times today, and none of the conversations involved Donald Trump or the New York Times,” Ailes told The Hollywood Reporter Thursday.

Ailes’ comments come the day after a New York Magazine story alleging that Ailes and Murdoch had a contentious conversation where Murdoch said he wanted Fox News to tone down its positive coverage of Trump’s controversial presidential run. Reporter Gabriel Sherman wrote that Ailes responded that he would cover Trump “the way he wanted to.”

The Hollywood Reporter points out that Fox News has actually covered Trump less than rivals CNN and MSNBC in recent weeks, gives him about equal airtime compared with other candidates, and that conservative hosts like Bill O’Reilly, Greg Gutfeld, and Sean Hannity have been openly critical of Trump.

In a statement to The New York Times, a Fox spokeswoman “called any implication that the channel’s coverage of Mr. Trump was a ploy to help the eventual Republican nominee ‘absolute nonsense, 100 percent untrue and said by someone who clearly doesn’t know Roger.’”

[Image via Fox News]
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