Fox News on Thursday said that there was “no credence” to a report alleging the network’s chairman, Roger Ailes, has given up hope on the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) because of his disappointing early primary returns.
One day after New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman published a story citing several anonymous Fox sources who claimed Ailes was “finished with Rubio,” the network released a statement calling the piece a “fiction.”
“Consistent with the golden standard of Shermanonymous’ ‘reporting’ on FOX News and Roger Ailes, there is no credence to this narrative or the many other works of fiction he’s repeatedly been proven wrong on,” Fox’s Executive Vice President Michael Clemente said in a statement emailed to TPM. “Lacking any on-the-record sources, and desperate for attention, his stories are full of made-up quotes, but New York Magazine doesn’t seem to care about his overwhelming lack of credibility, journalistic integrity and deeply partisan agenda.”
The statement links to a Mediaite column by Joe Concha that claims Sherman’s reporting on Fox News is based on “a cadre of invisible friends inside the walls of News Corporation.” Concha himself has frequently appeared on the network.
Sherman is a veteran politics and media reporter for New York Magazine who often chronicles the goings-on at Fox News. After GOP frontrunner Donald Trump disparaged Fox anchor Megyn Kelly last fall, Sherman detailed the ensuing power struggle between Trump and network executives.
