Fox News chief Roger Ailes has sent a memo to employees in response to the federal investigation of one of its own, reporter James Rosen, allegedly related to possible leaks of classified information.
Rosen was shamefully identified as a “flight risk” and criminal “co-conspirator” in a search warrant application authorized by U.S. Attorny General Eric Holder, resulting in his phone records and personal emails being seized, along with his parent’s telephone records.
Such a brazen move by the federal government is certain to have an adverse effect on the morale of the staff at Fox News and Ailes makes it clear that he has their back.
As he questions “whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional obligation to preserve and protect a free press,” Ailes says the administration’s attempt to intimidate “will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time.”
The letter in its entirety:
Dear colleagues,
The recent news about the FBI’s seizure of the phone and email records of Fox News employees, including James Rosen, calls into question whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional obligation to preserve and protect a free press in the United States. We reject the government’s efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a Federal judge as a “co-conspirator” in a crime. I know how concerned you are because so many of you have asked me: why should the government make me afraid to use a work phone or email account to gather news or even call a friend or family member? Well, they shouldn’t have done it. The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.
I am proud of your tireless effort to report the news over the last 17 years. I stand with you, I support you and I thank you for your reporting with courageous optimism. Too many Americans fought and died to protect our unique American right of press freedom. We can’t and we won’t forget that. To be an American journalist is not only a great responsibility, but also a great honor. To be a Fox journalist is a high honor, not a high crime. Even this memo of support will cause some to demonize us and try to find irrelevant things to cause us to waver. We will not waver.
As Fox News employees, we sometimes are forced to stand alone, but even then when we know we are reporting what is true and what is right, we stand proud and fearless. Thank you for your hard work and all your efforts.
Sincerely,
Roger Ailes
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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