JOHN HEILEMANN (HOST): After a week of swirling accusations of sexual harassment against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, 20th [sic] Century Fox today announced that Roger Ailes is officially out, a day we thought would never come. Rupert Murdoch will take over as the acting CEO of the network. Here to give us a fair and balance assessment of the story is Jim Rutenberg the media columnist for The New York Times. Jim, just a gargantuan story. What does it mean for Fox News that Roger Ailes is out?
JIM RUTENBERG: It just will never be the same. It can't be the same network, Roger Ailes is the network and I don't think that is ever overstated. The whole way it is is because of Roger Ailes.
[...]
HEILEMANN: It has now been widely reported and it is widely assumed that what was really the dagger in his heart in some was that notion that Megyn Kelly was among his accusers in this internal investigation that's been going on. Is that right? Both the dagger in the heart part, and the Megyn Kelly part.
RUTENBERG: I mean, symbolically, it is a huge deal. However, out reporting this morning was you have at least six women who have given statements to a serious legal team that they were harassed. If you are 21st Century Fox, and you're a modern company, what do you do about that, right? That investigation will continue, and so I don't -- Megyn Kelly, symbolically was major, she held out when other female stars came forward to support Roger Ailes. Megyn stuck to her guns and then comes forward as, hey, I was involved in this, too, at least to investigators so far. It's a big deal, but there is a lot there.
