Ailes Slams Alter's Book Allegations as False

Fox News President Roger Ailes on Friday blasted author Jonathan Alter’s new book about the 2012 presidential campaign as “patently, provably false.”

“Jonathan Alter got 3 out of 13 items within a range of being at least partially correct,” Ailes told Politico in an email regarding the book, “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies.”

Ailes is one of the Obama enemies mentioned in the book.

“The rest are patently, provably false and Alter either needs to check into a first-year journalism program at Columbia or a rage counseling center immediately,” Ailes said.

Many of the allegations in Alter’s book are from a 2011 Rolling Stone piece by Tim Dickinson, Politico reports.

Here are some of the assertions put forth in the book and Ailes’ response to Politico:

Allegation: One Monday, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., which owns Fox, “snickered to senior staff that Alies was convinced that the whole News Corp. building was bugged: ‘Roger came in over the weekend to work in the only room that he thought was secure — a supply closet.’ ”

Ailes: “He claims I once worked out of a supply closet because I was convinced the building was bugged. It’s completely false and silly. In fact, I had no idea we have a supply closet.”

Allegation: “Ailes had a television monitor on his desk that showed video of the empty hall outside his office so that he would have warning if terrorists were coming to kill him.”

Ailes: “After the last NYC blackout our chief engineer asked if I wanted a monitor in my office to see the exits of the building. We had people piled up in the stairwells and the front lobby was jammed. Since I’m part of the team that volunteered to stay behind in an emergency, that would be my responsibility to help evacuate the building safely. So yes, I can see exits and that would be helpful assisting during evacuations. Alter claims the monitor shoots the hall outside my office to see if terrorists are coming to kill me. No such monitor exists and no such fear exists.”

Allegation: “[A]fter Murdoch pushed him to moderate Fox’s coverage of Obama, Ailes threatened to quit.”

Ailes: “Rupert Murdoch never asked me to ease up on Obama and I never threatened to resign.”