REUTERS/Fred Prouser
Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Television Stations, answers questions during a panel discussion at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, California July 24, 2006.
Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said the "brutal hatred" Roger Ailes experienced killed the late former Fox News chief.Both O'Reilly and Ailes were ousted from the network amid allegations of sexual harassment. Ailes, who resigned as the CEO and chairman of Fox News last July after 20 years at the network, died this week at age 77.
Ailes' resignation from the network came after former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against him. Later that year, Megyn Kelly, then still an anchor at the network, released a memoir in which she accused him of making unwanted sexual advances on her.
O'Reilly, who was ousted from the network last month in light of a barrage of sexual-harassment allegations against him, attributed the "hatred" Ailes faced to his "bluntness."
"The list of legendary Americans that Roger helped is long and impressive," O'Reilly wrote in a column posted to his website. "From Ronald Reagan to George Bush, the elder, to Rush Limbaugh, Ailes gave them all blunt advice that led them to success. And it was that bluntness that made his life difficult, as enemies accumulated - some armed with a brutal hatred."
O'Reilly wrote that we are "living in a rough age" that is "turning us into a nation where hatred is almost celebrated in some quarters."
"Roger Ailes experienced that hatred and it killed him," O'Reilly wrote. "That is the truth. But he would not want to be remembered that way. He did both good and bad in his life and in that, he has something in common with every human being."
O'Reilly wrote that he'll choose to remember Ailes "holding court with his top anchors, jazzing them with wit, verbally crushing any and all pretensions."
"He was truly a force, an unforgettable person," O'Reilly wrote. "It was a privilege to know him."