Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes feared attacks from gays

Posted on Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 10:27 AM

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You might have missed this; according to a former managing editor at Fox News, the station chairman Roger Ailes had bullet proof glass installed in his midtown offices because he feared assassination attempts by gay activists.

The fascinating new article, which suggest Ailes gives Glen Beck a good run for his money in the bug-eyed paranoia stakes, recounts how Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch installed Ailes in the corner office on Fox’s second floor at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan.

But the relatively exposed location made Ailes deeply uneasy. According to the article, which ran in Rolling Stone:

'It was close to the street, and he lived in fear that gay activists would try to attack him in retaliation over his hostility to gay rights. (In 1989, Ailes had broken up a protest of a Rudy Giuliani speech by gay activists, grabbing demonstrator by the throat and shoving him out the door.)

Barricading himself behind a massive mahogany desk, Ailes insisted on having “bombproof glass” installed in the windows – even going so far as to personally inspect samples of high-tech plexiglass, as though he were picking out new carpet. Looking down on the street below, he expressed his fears to Cooper, the editor he had tasked with up-armoring his office. 'They’ll be down there protesting,' Ailes said. 'Those gays.'

Nothing's ever easy, is it? You would think that a man who has the might of one of the biggest media empires in America would feel a little less vulnerable. The gays don't own a news channel. But the Rolling Stone article seems to suggest that the source of Ailes objections to gay rights may stem from the outsized fears they create in him.

Of course history has given us many powerful mean at the head of empires (military and media) who harbored paranoiac fears about being attacked by far less powerful minorities. It usually ends the same way.

It's odd to know he has lived - or may still live - in fear of 'the gays.'

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2BorNot2B | Jul 01, 2011, 04:09 PM EDT

And no doubt you got all those credible and thorougly verified FACTS about Ailes and FOX straight from the vaults of Media Matters, from whence no biased, distorted, or otherwise manipulated facts ever originate, right McNam31? -- As for eeriemuck's comment, it would be fair to retort that the she would know... since she suffers from a similar, yet more virulent strain of whatever it is she attributes to Ailes.

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seagreen | May 30, 2011, 11:52 AM EDT

Just because you are not paranoid, does not mean that they are not out to get you...

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eiriamach | May 30, 2011, 11:19 AM EDT

Bombproof windows won't cure the disease that ails Roger Ailes!

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McNamara31 | May 29, 2011, 10:58 PM EDT

I agree with seanomelbourne on this one. Roger Ailes is the mastermind behind Fox News and a genius in the world of “negative campaigning” and smearing his opposition. Ailes creates the smoke and mirrors of mistrust and then boldly states they are “fair and balanced.” Ailes has brilliantly created and controlled the narrative coming out of Fox that the other party is somewhat un American and that President Obama is not one of us. Because of Ailes special expertise polls have continually demonstrated that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed audience with an astounding 63% not sure President Obama was born in the United States.

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jamthecat | May 29, 2011, 09:43 PM EDT

Oh,for God's sake, Phlutiephan -- par·a·noi·a –noun 1. Psychiatry . a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission. 2. baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others. Fear 1. a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. 2. a specific instance of or propensity for such a feeling: an abnormal fear of heights. 3. concern or anxiety; solicitude: a fear for someone's safety. 4. reverential awe, especially toward god. 5. that which causes a feeling of being afraid; that of which a person is afraid: Cancer is a common fear. –verb (used with object) 6. to regard with fear; be afraid of. 7. to have reverential awe of. 8. Archaic . to experience fear in (oneself). –verb (used without object) 9. to have fear; be afraid. The Marines were not "paranoid" when they went ashore on Iwo Jima, they were "scared," as anyone would be. Jesus, learn English, will you?

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seanomelbourne | May 29, 2011, 07:26 PM EDT

Ailes!be afraid,be very afraid.Your past may catch up with you. It's not gays you should fear It's freedom loving people you should cower from.

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PhlutiePhan | May 29, 2011, 12:23 PM EDT

Here's the problem with paranoia. Sometimes, it is induced by reality. When the Marines went ashore on Iwo Jima, they were very paranoid.

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jamthecat | May 29, 2011, 11:45 AM EDT

I believe the words paranoid-schizophrenic would be appropriate here...and could easily be applied to 90% of the GOP and its base.

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seagreen | May 29, 2011, 11:12 AM EDT

Ailes is straight ?????