Police ID Ex-Fox Employee Who Killed HImself Outside Fox News HQ

19 July 2011 - New York - Exterior images of "News Corp" Corporation office tower at 1211Avenue of the Americas on July 19, 2011, in New York, NY. Photo Credit: Anthony Behar/Sipa Press/ncsipatb.009/1107192039
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A man, apparently enraged over being fired from a Fox affiliate, shot and killed himself on Monday outside the Manhattan offices of the multinational media giant News Corporation.

A spokesperson for NYPD told TPM in an email that the man had died.

“An unidentified male sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest and was transported to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” the spokesperson said. Police said the man had shot himself in the chest outside of 1211 Avenue of the Americas shortly after 9 a.m.

The spokesperson, in an email to TPM, later identified the man as Phillip Perea, 41, of Irving, Texas.

In a memo to staff on Monday obtained by TPM, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy confirmed that the man was a former employee of Fox affiliate KTBC.

“This morning, a former employee at FOX 7-KTBC (Austin) committed suicide outside FOX Television Stations’ (FTS) headquarters in New York City,” the memo read. “He was employed at our Austin television station for ten months and has not been with the station or FTS since June 2014. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy.”

Perea had been handing out fliers, which said News Corp. “ended my career,” moments before he killed himself, according to the Wall Street Journal. Perea also tweeted complaints about his employer an hour before the shooting, listing his grievances in a YouTube video, the paper reported.

Police reportedly found a suicide note and a gun at the scene.

News Corp and the Fox affiliate KTBC did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.

The Austin Chronicle reported last year that Perea, then a promotion producer, was fired from KTBC and subsequently gave the newspaper recordings of conversations with his superiors.

A Twitter account that appeared to belong to Perea included messages criticizing Fox using the hashtag #theAmericanWorkplaceBully. The account sent tweets directly to several Fox anchors and contributors. One tweet posted on Thursday showed a photo of a wallet and said “this is all the money I have left to my name, $104”

The account also linked to a series Youtube videos, 35 in total, all titled “The American Workplace Bully: How FOX News Ended My Career.”

In the videos, a man identifying himself as Phillip Perea can be heard narrating several recordings that he said were made during meetings with superiors at KTBC.

In the first of many recordings, a man can be heard telling Perea he was suspending him with pay, telling him, “You make some people uncomfortable in this building. They’re afraid of you.”

“Your coworkers, and there’s several, they’re starting to fear you,” the man in the video could be heard saying. “They’re concerned about your behavior, your aggressiveness.”

The man was heard protesting Fox outside of the News Corp building on Monday, crying that it had ruined his life.

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. So, who was his employer? Was it Fox News or not? And are the WSJ and the New York Post the best possible source to look to get straight, factual reporting about News Corp and Fox News? Is the sourcing perhaps the reason for the seemingly willful obfuscation?

  2. Avatar for mantan mantan says:

    the man was heard protesting Fox News, crying that that the news channel had ruined his life

    Gregg Jarrett???

  3. “shot and killed himself in the chest”

    huh? sure, it gets the point across but are you guys just now learning to Engrish?

  4. the right-wing hate and propaganda machine has certainly damaged and ruined many family relations. For instance, I absolutely refuse to discuss politics with my parents, in part because of the fucking bullshit they hear on Fox News and repeat, in part because my stepfather actually believes those stupid fucking chain emails his idiot moron shitheel asshole sociopath teabagger buddy sends him. I cannot even say “I’d rather not talk about that, can we talk about something else?” because that leads to a hostile interrogation about why I don’t want to talk about politics with them, which leads right back to the very subject I wanted to avoid.

  5. Uh oh…anyone know where Glenn Beck is?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

51 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for oldengoldendecoy Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for avattoir Avatar for cessnadriver Avatar for chammy Avatar for manhattan123 Avatar for sconosciuto Avatar for skippykaos Avatar for mantan Avatar for sniffit Avatar for sherlock1 Avatar for DIANAPRINCE Avatar for candirue Avatar for 538liberal Avatar for captaincommonsense Avatar for barblzz Avatar for sj Avatar for dnl Avatar for darrtown Avatar for poindexter Avatar for 2q2q4q

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: