After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie to federal investigators two years before.
The investigators had been vetting Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who had been nominated to become homeland security secretary and who had had an affair with Ms. Regan...
The goal ... was to keep the affair quiet and protect the then-nascent presidential aspirations of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani...
Who was this person?
Why it was none other than Roger Ailes!
What is more, the documents say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes discusses her relationship with Mr. Kerik.
It is unclear whether the existence of the tape played a role in News Corporation’s decision to move quickly to settle Ms. Regan’s lawsuit, paying her $10.75 million in a confidential settlement reached two months after she filed it in 2007.
Well time for the Howard Kurtzs of the world to quietly shuffle this story off the stage.
So paying out more than $10 million on hush money? No wonder Ailes and Bill O'Reilly get along so well.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]