The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple has a memo from Roger Ailes to his staff about the James Rosen investigation controversy…
Fox News chief Roger Ailes has sent a memo to his subordinates at the leading cable news network. He sent this memo to his staff today in connection with the federal investigation into an alleged leak to Fox News reporter James Rosen, a story that the Washington Post’s Ann E. Marimow broke earlier this week.
The memo’s a masterpiece, too. For all those who wonder what it is about Ailes that endears his people to him — and that makes him such a good interviewee for any media reporter lucky enough to get an audience with him — just read this.
Read the memo here…
The only question I have, which has been banging around in my head for the past couple of days, is about the subject of whether this was reporter intimidation or not.
Sure the optics of this reek of reporter intimidation. But the key sticking point in such a theory is this is a tree falls in a forest scenario wrapped up in a chicken or egg scenario. All this took place a few years ago in secret and Rosen and FNC, apparently, were totally unaware it took place. So how can you intimidate someone if they don’t even know they’re being intimidated? Sure, now that the news is out it’s intimidation because Rosen now knows that his movements were being tracked. But at the time the investigation was taking place…if Rosen didn’t know, how was he being intimidated? Don’t you have to know what you are doing is being monitored in order to be threatened? If the news never got out would Rosen and FNC be looking over their shoulders now?
This is just an interesting thought exercise for me. I deplore what took place. It shouldn’t have happened. And now everyone will be looking over their shoulder when they meet with any government source.
