Fox Boss Roger Ailes To Meet With Trump About ‘Differences Of Opinion’

Roger Ailes attending the 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' New York premiere at SVA Theater on February 9, 2015 in New York City/picture alliance Photo by: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
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Fox News chairman Roger Ailes plans to meet with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump next week to iron out their “differences of opinion” about the network’s coverage of the real estate mogul’s campaign.

A Fox News spokesperson said Thursday in a statement to TPM:

“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.”

The meeting could lead to what would be a third truce between the bombastic candidate and Fox News, which he has criticized as being unfair to his campaign. For that reason, Trump said Wednesday that he decided to boycott the network; Fox News maintains that it canceled the billionaire’s planned appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” before he announced that boycott.

The treatment Trump considers unfair dates back to the first Republican presidential debate in August, when moderator and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly asked him about his history of making derogatory statements about women. Trump and Ailes since have cleared the air publiclytwice—in disagreements about Kelly and the network’s treatment of Trump’s campaign.

This post has been updated.

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Notable Replies

  1. I’m gettin’ whiplash, here.

  2. Avatar for sjk sjk says:

    Tail wags dog. Film at 11.

  3. Avatar for mantan mantan says:

    I need organ music during this soap opera…

  4. “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.”

    Huh? A ‘candid meeting’ between a national media outlet and a presidential candidate to discuss ‘misunderstandings’ is pretty much the definition of ‘compromising those standards.’

    Also, FOX says they are holding the candidates to ‘the highest journalistic standards’? Shouldn’t FOX be holding themselves, and not the candidates, to high journalistic standards? Huh?

  5. “How’d ya like the coverage we give the President, Donald ?” should be Ailes’ Point 1 at the meeting.

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