The Fox News Channel’s top executive, Roger Ailes, is “furious” at the National Review’s editor Rich Lowry for using foul language in an attack on GOP frontrunner billionaire Donald Trump on Wednesday evening, Breitbart News has learned.
An individual with knowledge of these matters told Breitbart News that Ailes is “furious” at Lowry for saying on Megyn Kelly’s program The Kelly File on Wednesday that former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina “cut [Trump’s] balls off with the precision of a surgeon, and he knows it, he knows it.”
Ailes is mad at Lowry because this move means, in the ongoing war between Fox News and Trump, Fox News has now “given up the moral high ground.” Essentially, Ailes understands, that means his network looks like the unfair aggressor that Trump has accused it of being—rather than a neutral arbiter of the news—all while Trump continues soaring in the 2016 GOP primary polls.
New York Magazine’s Gabe Sherman, the author of an anti-Ailes book, wrote on Thursday that the war between Trump and Fox News won’t end anytime soon.
“By now it should be clear to both sides of the Donald Trump–Fox News war that there never was — nor will there likely be — an enduring truce,” Sherman wrote.
Sherman’s piece came in response to the latest development, from Ailes, that Ailes has—after Trump decided that for now he will boycott Fox News shows in response to negative coverage of his presidential campaign—planned a meeting with Trump to discuss Fox’s coverage of him.
A Fox News spokesperson told Mediaite:
Fox News Chairman & CEO Roger Ailes and Donald Trump spoke this morning and plan to have a meeting next week to discuss their differences of opinion regarding Fox’s coverage of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Ailes will be joined by senior Fox editorial executives. Mr. Trump believes he has been treated unfairly in certain instances. FOX News has held every candidate in this race to the highest journalistic standards throughout our coverage. We believe a candid meeting about our differences is required and that any misunderstandings can be handled without compromising those standards.
But on Wednesday evening, Lowry—appearing on Kelly’s program—compromised Fox’s position in the war by veering down a vulgar path in his attack on Trump. Even Kelly—who also dislikes Trump, clearly—was shocked at what Lowry said live on air, reacting: “What did you just say? You can’t say that!”
Fox has not officially announced that they have reprimanded Lowry, and there are no media reports of that at this time. Lowry is a Fox News contributor. Neither Lowry nor Fox News Channel spokeswoman Irena Briganti have responded to a request for comment.
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