08/11/16 08/11/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we conclude there is reasonable cause to believe think age in a pattern of practice of conduct that violates the constitution and federal antidiscrimination. bpd engages in pattern o or practice of making unconstitutional stop, searches, and arrest. using enforcement strategies that produce severe and unjustified disparities in the rates of stops, searches, and arrest of african-americans.

amy: the justice department issues a scathing report about the baltimore police department exposing systemic racism in the routine use of excessive force, largely targeting the city's afrirican-americican population. we will gogo to baltimore e fore latest. then inside the fox news unger. undergoing as crisis. they are without the leader that founded the organization, roger ailes, who is embroiled the largest sexual-harassment scandal we can think of and who knows where it is going to end. amy: we will speak with sarah ellison about roger ailes in the future of fox news. she recently exposed the existence of explosive audiotapes recorded by multiple women in conversation with ailes . all of that and more coming up. , welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. an official from the u.s. secret

service has confirmed the agency has spoken t to the trump cacamn about his comments at a rally in wilmington, north carolina on tuesday, which many saw as a call to assassinate his rival hillary clinton. mr. trump: hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the second amendment. either way, if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. although, the second amendment people, maybe there is. i don't know. amy: the official told cnn the secret service has had multiple conversations with the campaign. donald trump, however, is denying these conversations have taken place with the secret service tweeting -- , "no such meetiting or conversation ever happened." this comes as hillary clinton has spoken out about trump's comments, during a rally in des moines, iowa, wednesday. mrs. clinton: yesterday we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from

donald trump that crossed the line. hihis casual cruelty to a gold star family, his casual suggestion that more countries should have nuclear weapons, and now his casual inciting of violence. every single one of these incidents shows us that donald trump simply does not have the temperament to the president and commander-in-chief of the united states. amy: green party presidential nominee dr. jill stein has also addressed trump's comments, tweeting -- "gun violence is no laughing matter, we need a president who understands it's not funny to call on people to shoot opponents. disasarm trump." trump, however, has denied the comments were a call to assassinate hillary clinton. on his campaign issued a tuesday, statement saying he was referring to the second amendment supporters' "amazing spirit and great political power." meanwhile, hillary clinton has embraced her recent endorsement

by john negroponte, the former director of national intelligence. the president george w. bush official also served as u.s. ambassador to honduras, which was the staging ground for the u.s.-backed contras in nicaragua. hillary clinton has faced questions on the campaign trail about her own role in honduras as secretary of state, including legitimizing the 2009 coup in honduras. the clinton campaign is continuing to face questions following the release of 44 state department e-mails showing close ties between the clinton foundation and the state department. it was during clinton's time as secretary of state. it includes medications between top members of the clinton foundation and clinton's top state department advisers, including huma abedin and lawyer cheryl mills. one of the communications was about billionaire nigerian-based developer who had contributed between $1 million and $5 million to the clinton

foundation. the e-mail show a top clinton foundation executive writing to them asking for help putting sugary in touch with the u.s. ambassador to lebanon. talkespondent, i will refe to jeff. on wednesday saying she was something passing along his observations and insights about the dark political situation in lebanon at the time. in florida, police fatally shot a 20 -- in florida, police fatally shot a 73-year-old white woman during a police training exercise at the punta gorda public safety complex on wednesday. the officer who fired the gun thought it was loaded with blanks. mary knowlton was a retired librararian and a mother of two. she e had volunteered to participate in a "shoot/don't shoot" exercise as part of the citizen police academy. during the exercise, police officer lee coel shot the librarian in front of nearly three dozen other volunteers. punta gorda police chief tom lewis says live ammunition was

not supposed to be in any of the guns used during the exercise. this is mary knowlton's son, steve knowlton. >> it wawas surreal. at first i thought she just fefl down. and they turned her over and thatat is whenen they sold the k saw the bulullet holeles. trying to dodo cpr and k keep hr alive. amy: officicer lee c coel has bn placed on paid administrtrative leave. meanwhile, in los angeles, community members held a vigil to mourn the death of a 14-year-old mexican-american jesse romero, who was killed by police wednesday. police say they were responding to a call about teenagers writing graffiti in the l.a. neighborhood of boyle heights. police say they shot and killed romero after he ran away from police and fired a gun. but witnesses contradict the police's claim. one woman told the los angeles times she saw romero toss a handgun toward a fence while he was running away from the police. she says the gun went off when it hit the ground. she says she then heard two gun shots, saw romero fall to the ground, , and then watched t the police handcuff him. police say the officers were

wearing body cameras, but the video has not yet been released. this is romero's friend, yohana miranda. >> he did not do nothing. art you trained to do your job? he did not point a gun at them. why would you shoot? this kid was only 14 years old. amy: jesse romero was a student at hollenbnbeck middle school. he would have turned 15 on august 24. in raleigh, , north carolina, a white man who claimed he was on a neighborhood watch shot and killed a 20-year-old african american man after telling the 911 dispatcher "we got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing. i'm going outside to secure my neighborhood." police say chad copley shot and killed 20-year-old kouren-rodney bernard thomas from inside his garage as thomas was walking home from a party on sunday. copley has been charged with first-degree murder. the case recalls the killing of african american teenager

trayvon martin by neighborhood watch vigilante george zimmerman. in missouri, lawyers have sued 13 st. louis-area cities, arguing the cities are violating poor citizen's rights by locking them in jail over minor traffic violations. the lawsuit was filed on the second anniversary of the police killing of michael brown -- an unarmed 18-year-old african-american who was killed by white police officer darren wilson in the st. louis suburb of ferguson. the lawsuit argues the cities are operating a "modern day police state and debtors' prison scheme that has no place in american society today." it was filed on behalf of 13 people, one of whom was locked up in squalid conditions for days over a parking ticket. in international news, at t leat eight people were k killed in to separate bomb atattacks in southern turkey. officials hahave blamed the kurdistan workers party, known as the pkk, for the attacks. this comes as turkish authorities have arrested at least 17 people in raids in istanbul. officials say the raids are

targeting suspected terrorists, but media reports say the headquarters of the leftist, pro-kurdish peoples' democratic party, known as the hdp, was also raided by police during the operation. meanwhile, the turkish president erdogan has reiterated calls for the u.s. to extradite the whohos -- churches cleric is living in the poconos. he is been accused of masterminding the failed coup, which has been denied. newly declassified state department documents are shedding new light on the relationship between former secretary of state henry kikissinger and argentina's military dictatorship, which ruled a argentina from 1976 to 1983. the documents show how kissinger thwarted the state department's efforts to stop the mass killings by instead praising argentina's military leaders in 1978, saying "the government of argentina had done an outstanding job in wiping out terrorist forces." kissinger made the c comments while visiting argentina for the

197878 world cup, as a p personl guest of general jorge videla. he presided over the disappearances of as many as 30,000 people. in one of the newly released cables, national security council official robert pastor wrote -- "chris and -- google kissinger's praise for the argentine government in its campaign against terrorism was the music the argentine government was longing to hear." laura poitras and more than 40 other documentarians are calling on the justice department to investigate the targeting and harassment of citizen journalists who film police violence. the group includes eight oscar winners, including poitras, who won for her documentary about edward snowden, "citizen four." the letter titled "right to record" highlights that the bystanders who filmed the police killings of alton sterling, philando castile and eric garner , were all subsequently arrested. in wisconsin, an appeals court has suspended a jujuly ruling tt

struck down parts of wisconsin's voter id law. under the earlier july 19 ruling, wisconsin voters would be able to vote in november even if they don't have the id's required by the restrictive law. but this new appeal court ruling -- appeals court ruling suspends that r ruling, once again making it harder for people to vote in november's general election. in texas, a transgender woman was killed monday inside an apartment building in el paso. erika tijerina was 36 years old. police say they are investigating her death as a homicide. her family says they believe her killing may have been a hate crime. at least 16 transgender people been murdered this year, following a record of more than 20 killings in 2015. in india, human rights activist irom sharmila has ended the world's longest hunger strike. sharmila began her strike 16 years agoo after 10 people were reportedly killeled by a governmement paramilititary gron her home state of manipur. she e broke her strike tuesday

withth a lick of hononey. she says she w will now run to e chief f minister of manipur. this is sharmila speaking to the bbc after breaking her fast. amy: she is known as the iron lady. in new york city, a 20 euro virginia man scaled the side of the trump tower using industrial-grade suction cups on wednesday. the man, a trump supporter, said his goal was to reach the top of the iconic tower and ask for a personal meeting with donald trump. after an hours long standoff,

the police pulled him through a window on the 21st floor and took him to bellevue hospital. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a justice department investigation has concluded baltimore police have carried out a practice of racially discriminatory policing by systemematically stopping, searching, and arresting black residents at a disproportionate rate. deputy assistant u.s. attorney general vanita gupta outlined the findings at a news conference in baltimore on wednesday. >> we conclude there is reasonable cause to believe that bpd engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the constitution and federal antidiscrimination law. bpd engages in a pattern or practice of making unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrest. using enforcement strategies that produce severe and unjustified disparities in the rates of stops, searches, and arrest of african americans.

using excessive force and retaliating against people engaging in constitutionally protected expression. these violations have deeply eroded the mutual trust between bpd and the community it serves. trust that is essential to effective policing as well as to officer and public safety. the problems in baltimore did not happen overnight. or appear in a day. the pattern or practice that we found results from long-standing systemic deficiencies in the bpd. amy: the justice department lalaunched the i investigationon following the death h of freddie gray, , who died in n 2015 of sl injuries sustained in police custody. althoughgh charges were brought against six police offificers or gray's arrest and death, none has been convicted and all remaining charges have been dropped. deputy assistant u.s. attorney general vanita gupta outlined how african-americans are routinely targeted in baltimore. out of the data we surveyed,

the police department made roughly 44% of the stops in two small predominantly african-american districts that contain only 11% of the city's population. african-americans accounted for 95% of the 410 individuals that police department stopped at least 10 times. indeed, when african-american man was stopped 30 times and less than four years with none of the stopped resulting in a citation or criminal charge. we found a pattern or practice of excessive force. officers for goalie resorted to physical force when a person did not immediately respond to verbal commands, even where the person was posing note imminent threat to the officer or othehe. officers were ending up in violent congress -- confrontations with people with mental health disabilities. we have seen communities throughout the country that improvoved policies and enhanced training and de-escalation in dealing with people in crisis

connection enhanced officers safety and reduce the need for force. bpd violates the first amendment by retaliating against individuals engaged in constitutionally protected activities. officers for goalie detain embers of the public for engaging in speech that officers received to be vertical or disrespectful. bpd officers used force against members of the public who were engaged in protected speech. amy: the 163-page report said "supervisors have issued explicitly discriminatory orders, such as direrecting a shift to arrest 'all the black hoodies' in a neighborhood." the doj also found t that baltimore police use unreasasonable force against juveniles and people with mental health disabilities, unlawfully -- an. well for more we are joined by two guests. baynard woods is a freelance journalist who writes for the guardian. his recent article is titled, "two baltimores: doj investigation into police finds vast racial disparity."

he is editor at large for the "baltimore city paper." and ralikh hayes is an activist and the coordinator of baltimore bloc, a grassroots collective. we welcome you both to democracy now! can you lay out these findings that the justice department has just released in this 163-page report? >> sure. it is really striking. on the one hand, it is what everyone, especially baltimore's black residents, have been saying all step of this passes 70 of the data collected dust but the specificity of the data collected of the targeting of african-american neighborhoods that goes back to the city by targeting- certain neighborhoods come also targeting certain populations, specifically the city's black population and you have these vast, as we were hearing, these vast discrepepancies of more thn

80% of all pededestriaian stopse of of can americans, 95% of all of the stops of all of the people stopped more than 10 times, while driving, so you see these -- the judge -- the department of justice is clear and linking it back to the city zero-tolerance policy, which was set out to clear corners and many of the mid-level supervisors were trained and that time are still directing their officers to behave in such a way. that single decision or series of decisions of these wide-ranging consequences that you were just talking about. amy: can you explain what a terry stop is? >> it is the terry versus ohio supreme court case. when you are legally justified to do if you are wanting to pass someone down, if you have reasonable suspicion that someone has engaged in, nor activity, you can to tame them for a very brief period of time in order to make sure they're

not armed and to investigate. this came up a lot in the freddie gray case of the trials of the officers that it was an argument of whether he was arrested and that long period of detention or whether he was a terry stop. the prosececution contininued to argugue that and t the departmef justicice report b backs that it exceeded the norms of a terry stop which would normally -- which should be brief and then the person is free to go. why this is sol, significant right now, the significance of these findings, among them talking about one individual who was stopped how many dozens of times over just a few years? of course, african-american. >> there was a guy stopped 30 times over the course of the period of the investigation. none of the stopped resulted in any charges, criminal charges or

even traffic citations. you see this in the report over and over again. even after excessive force is ord, someone will be tased beaten or punched in the face and no charges are brought against the individual. amy: ralikh hayes, your group baltimore bloc released thihis, leaked this document. how did you get a hold of it? you're the first to put it out. >> i cannot actually answer that. we have to protect those who support us in the movement for liberation. what yourlk about first reaction is in reading it. do you believe you were the first to see it? >> i do not think we were the first. maybe the first on the grassroots level. i think we were probably not the first to actually have it. my first reaction upon reading it was, well, water is wet, right?

these are things we have been saying for a long time the city. not even talking about the covers,eriod is report but the entire history of the city from when it first began and was doing protective covenants black people could not even to certain neighborhoods. this is the history, the coulter of the baltimore police department. this did not just start from zero-tolerance under o'malley. this was bred into the city over decades and decades. that comes with zero-tolerance, which pretty much gave the officers the ability to act on this culture of racism inside the baltimore police department. amy: during wednesday's news conference, the deputy assistant u.s. attorney general also criticized baltimore's zero tolerance policing policy. >> these systemic failures alone did not cause the problem. this zero tolerance street enforcement strategy became a quest to produce large timbers of enforcement actions,

pedestrian stops in particularr, often without enough consideration of the limited impact on solving crime and the damage to commodity relationships. today, -- while today's cities leaders have recognized this, many in the bpd continue to follow the strategy. only 3.7% of the police departmentnt's more than 300,000 pedestrians tops from january 2010 to may 2015 resulted in officers issuing a citation or making an arrest. many of these stops in the resulting frisks lack constitutional justification and many of the discretionary arrest were just street clearing activities. supervisors at epd central booking and local prosecutors rejected over 11,000 charges made by bpd officers because they lacked probable cause or otherwise did not merit prosecution. , can youkh hayes respond to what she said? >> i think that is extremely

accurate. i ain't the baltimore police are a gang. -- i think the baltimore police are a gang. i know the state's attorney was on news one now trying to say, just a few bad cops. that is not the case. there is a literal coulter within the baltimore police department. firing a few officers is not going to fix these issues. changing a few policies is not going to fix these issues. you cannot put a band-aid on a cancer one and expect the cancer to magically disappear. you have to remove it. we have to these issues out by the root. there is systemic racism and people's minds and the officers of baltimore police department and we have to deal with it. amy: i want to ask you about the doj report finding that baltimore police, as we know,

disproportionately stopped african-americans whether they are standing, walking, or driving. one chart shows the bpd officers made 520 stops for every 1000 black residents in baltimore, but only 180 stops for every 1000 caucasian residents. the report also shows that african americans are far more likely to be stopped multiple timemes within relatively short periods of time. it reads -- "african-americans accounted for 95% of the 410 individuals stopped at least ten times by bpd officers from 2010-2015. during this period, bpd stopped 34 african americans at least 20 times and seven other african americans at least 30 times." so, what is baltimore bloc calling for? oure will be releasing

statement later today, but one of the main things we want to mention about the report is that while the report verifies things that we have -- we and others and black citizens in general have been saying for decades, it stops short of describing each from a that this has placed on communities and the resulting dust the result of that. also indicts the mayor's leadership. this is over her term. electedership of our officials because we were saying -- they say, it is not that bad. this is not an issue. amy: let me go to baltimore mayor stephanie rawlings blake spoke wednesday about the doj's findings. >> reports assessment and its follow-up to it will help us to heal the relationship between the police and our communities. i also want to be clear that we have not in standing still while

this inquiry was under way. indeed, some of these reforms then before i asked department of justice to investigate the department. the city has taken first steps in a long path to reform and we have begun to see real benefits. police department is already making significant changes, the community is providing valuable insight, and officers and citizens are working together to improve our communities and the policing that is happening within them. amy: ralikh hayes, your response to what the mayor said? >> i think she is a liar. i think she has no spine when it comes to listening to citizens and representing them. i firmly believe that, one, she is a lame-duck mayor and will be out of office relatively soon so any commitment on her part is extremely false. i think the reforms are band-aid solutions that are not going to fix the issues, which is why bloc is calling for the release

of all of the officers dance mention in the doj report of committing the violations in the firing of those officers and crews of their firing because we do not trust the commissioner, either. amy: in one telling anecdote in the "new york times," they talk about a shift commander provided officers with boilerplate languaua on how to write up trespassing arrest reports of people found near housing projects. the template contained in automatic description of the arrestee -- a blackmail. think that is the indicator of the fact that the war on drugs and zero tolerance policing is a war on black people. it is specifically a war on black people and occupying black communities. as a report shows, that is not ,ven a legal way to stop you which for all of the things in all but the legal system, i did not know they could not cut

corners. that was a legal practice. what does that say about the baltimore police department? >> one really telling thing on that is that the trespassing charges are so often just when someone is standing in front of a property on the sidewalk and not actually on the property at all. outhse case, two black y were arrrrested for loloiteringn their own porch. it comes across as the baltimore police department has criminalized blackness a criminalize in public space for black people so that being black in a public space were being, especially them being black and transgender or black and a woman in a public space, becomes criminalized in itself. >> they further criminalize those that dissent and speak out against the, particularly organizers and activists in the communities. tires slashed, car when is

broken. and one woman, they been fighting for justice for him for 159 weeks. she still gets arrest. to this day. we're talking over three years, and people are still arresting her. amy: i caught up with elijah cummings. i asked him about policing in baltimore. talk to police officers in baltimore, they tell me they know of people that should not be on the force. we have to acknowledge black men are dying, that black mothers are afraid for their sons and husbandsd for their and nephews. if the fact is, we have to talk together. we have to due do what we did tonight. at the same time, have those people who are simply asking for accountability and respect from

the police to be able to voice their concerns and hopefully, we have a mutual thing going on there. the police did not do their job without the cooperation of the community and the community serving me police, ok? amy: have you ever been stopped by the police? >> many times. many times. , as he young man i got stopped a lot. iwill never forget one time went to get an acura automobile and i was stopped honest every week. i was about 32. i i was being stopped every wee. amy: that is congressmember elijah cummingngs speaking about his own experiences. ralikh hayes, as you listen to him, your comments on what is happening at the f federal level -- is a congressman, if you are satisfied with what he is doing in your committed in baltimore? >> at this moment i am not

satisfied with any black elected official that has not signed onto our platform, a united front platform from the movement over 30 black lives, organizations. as far as his story about getting stopped in baltimore, that is my story, the story of every black man and person in baltimore city, particularly the trans- folk and black men. amy: how many times have you been stopped? this has to be over 20 at point. amy: on what grounds? >> various times i would just be walking around my neighborhood -- i would guess. get stopped. they would ask, do you live around here? in the last three years or so, because i temporarily served on the baltimore city youth commission and that is like, oh,

you're one of the good blacks, we can let you go. >> and by comparison, i have been stopped zero times. those i can honestly say probabably never exist on paper. i never got a citation. citizenve gotten two citations and if you traffic citations in my life, but the rest of them were directly informal intnteractions. amy: baynard woods, you have looked at particularly gender bias and transpires on the part of the police. explain >> there are some horrible allegations in the report. they don't go as far as saying gender bias violates federal law, but then they point out a number of areas that they find very troubling in terms of gender bias. in one case, the report cites a police officer who is regularly having sex with a sex worker for u.s. currency and for immunity

from prosecution. there are cases where they are not investigated sexual assault claims. a member of the state attorney's office calls a woman who had made a sexual assault report a conniving whore and the police officer right back , lmao, i agree. in another police officer says, who is joan with sexual assault crimes, we don't have -- all of our cases are any uses an un-radio-friendly expletive. they don't look at race and gender together. many of those cases, they are black women and that trans women being in an area like a bus stop, just being there can be suspicion of soliciting or prostitution. so it takes that loitering aspect and pushes it another step further and really criminalizing being in public as

an african-american in baltimore. >> you said something -- amy: go ahead. >> you said something key, like the collusion between the state's attorney office and the fob however they provide amnesty for these officers. amy: the fraternal order of police. >> they don't allow the transparency necessary for the count ability. we wanted investigation into the state's attorney's office and divested from be immediately. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. we will continue to follow this story. baynard woods is a freelance journalist who writes for the guardian. we will link to your cases. and ralikh hayes is an activist and the coordinator of baltimore bloc. when we come back, we look at roger ailes and what will happen to fox news and a new investigation into the nra. we will be speaking with "vanity fair" sarah ellison.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "blues for freddie gray" by lafayette gilchrist. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn to the crisis engulfing fox news as further revelations about former chief roger ailes have raised questions about how much the company was aware of his transgressions. ailes has now been accused of sexual harassment by more than 20 women, including fox news anchor megyn kelly and former anchor gretchen carlson. earlier this week, another former fox news host also accused ailes of sexual harassment. andrea tantaros says she repeatedly reported ailes's harassment to senior fox executives last year. she says she was demoted and then taken off the air. the former head of booking at fox news has said ailes sexually harassed her for two decades.

laurie luhn told "new york magazine" that fox news knew about the harassment and helped cover it up. she said the harassment amounted to psychological torture and ruined her life. luhn called ailes a predator and said her duties included luring young female fox employees into one-on-one situations with ailes that she knew could result in harassment. "new york magazine" has also reported ailes ran his own black graham corporation -- black room operation out of fox news, in which he used fox money to hire private detectives and political operatives who carried out ailes's personal campaigns, including targeting journalists. the magazine reports ailes sent private detectives to follow around multiple journalists who had been reporting on him. ailes has denied all the allegations against him. he resigned in july, receivingna $40 million severance package. rupert murdoch has stepped in as interim chief of fox news. to talk more about these revelations, we're joined now by sarah ellison, "vanity fair" contributing editor. her most recent piece is an exclusive headlined, "inside the

fox news bunker." it exposed the existence of explosive audio tapes by multiple women in conversation with ailes. sarah ellison is also the author of "war at the wall street , journal: inside the struggle to control an american business empire." she worked for 10 years at the "wall street journal" in paris, london, and new york. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. >> thank you for having me. amy: take us inside the fox bunker. >> right now, the organization is without longtime leader roger ailes and d that divides the newsroom. they used to be ailes loyalists who are unhappy to see him go a new professed a lot of professional leave that he was gone. the pro-ailes camp is shrinking as more and more people come forward. i think a lot of what they're wondering now is, what are they going to learn from the internal investigation that has been launched to look into these

allegations? amy: for people who are not following a very much, layout all of these revelations that have come out and also what you have found, explosive audiotapes. >> i think you gave a next list summary of the various women who have come forward. roger ailes was forced to resign in july and received a very large settlement payout from the company. what i found in my reporting is that gretchen carlson, who was the woman who initially brought the first lawsuit against roger ailes, is in discussions to with company, toys for century fox, that owns fox news, about an eight figure settlement. in the settlement discussions, that is where the tapes came out, the idea that there are these explosive tapes that have recorded conversations between roger ailes s and multiple wome, including gretchen carlson. what is ironic, roger ailes was known for taping other people,

that he was very worried about secrecy, that he always felt -- he always did feel that other people were spying on him. he was worried about that. there was a wooden door outside his office in order to be able to get in, you could not cnn's you would normal executive's office. , walkingapproaching down the hallway to his office was caught on camera. the question of what is in these tapes and whether not to become public and how they would become public is at the center now at this settlement discussion which is very tense. amy: explain who is investigating all of this. asked paultury fox weiss, a large new york powerful law firm, to do an internal investigation into the claims that were brought by gretchen carlson. they have brought a number of women i in to speak to them abot what they experienced and that is how the megegyn kelly

revelalations came out, how many of the -- we talked about 20 women, that is where we are getting that number from, the number of women who have either contacted the investigation or been heard by them. that investigation is a very powerful tool for the company. and mainly, the sons of rupert murdoch, who are professing to want to really clean up the culture of fox news and make it a trusting workplace, a 21st century workplace where women and everybody else can feel safe. the company now is dealing with this very strange conundrum where the man who made this fox news organization, a huge powerhouse, whether you liked it or not, you have to admit it is an incredibly powerful news organization. the shareholders want to keep it exactly the way it was. the human beings who work there would like it to change. this is somethingng they're sort of grappling with right now. amy: so he is getting $40

million in a settlement. we learned that because for a brief moment -- well, explain what happened, how matt drudge aderholt of the settlement as they were working it out. roger ailes was not even kicked out of the place. >> this is several weeks ago in the course of a very tense lasat two before roger ailes had officially resigned. there was a report about megyn the internal to investigation abobout how she hd been sexually harassed by roger ailes. in response to that report, roger ailes' attorney wanted to put out a statement the bonking what megyn kelly had said, saying she thanked me, thanked me many times, we have a wonderful relationship. that of sending a statement to the drudge report, they sent a draft agreement that had the e 0 million figure in it. so everyone who has been reporting on this was whiplashed gazette.com a why is drudge

getting an early report because he was in contact by people begging them to take it down that it was a mistake. in the midst of all of this headline, it is a funny moment because you have someone trying to spin against someone's sexual harassment claims and instetead they endnd up putting their own settlement package out there for the rest of us to see. amy: earlier this week, cnn's brian stelter said he was spied on by a fox news staffer. >> about 10 years ago there was a woman who was a low-level staffer, i was in college at the time, so i was going out on what i thought were dogs stop -- were dates. she was actually reporting what i thought of her and cnn and fox. me. were actually spying on i did not think that was a big deal at the time. i thought it was the way fox operates. now we know they were sending out private investigators.

wow. that is cnn's brent stetler. >> other journalists have come out with similar stories. gabriel sherman is probably t the person n has recd ththe most attention in this wa. he worked on a biography of roger ailes for years and ailes made a, --ailes there's a report this week thatailes commented that i could send some and over to his house and get him beaten up. he gave sherman and his wife had their apartment swept for bugs. the question about what ailes did, there are the sexual harassment claims, but then there is the question at what point does any of this kind of alleged behavior become illegal and criminal as opposed to something that can be brought up in a civil lawsuit? i think the overall intimidation -- fox news was always an

intimidating place to cover and write about. journalists knew that. they knew there were other reporters who had negative anonymous stories leaked about them and smear. there was a story many years ago of a reporter who had gone into drug rehehab and that was leaked by fox news pr department. it is unthinkable in terms of the way they allegededly operat. and now what we have -- what is interesting, gretchen carlson lawsuit has broken the dam. everyone is able to come forward with their stories. it is sort of what the colter of your looks like when it finally breaks down. amy: and it implicates so many. explain who it implicates like andrew to taras s who said she would to hire up. she named those higher-ups. >> obviously, roger ailes is out of the building and everyone is

aiming most of their attacks at roger ailes, videos or had a lot of people under him and there a lot of questions about how willingness people were to follow his orders, how active they were in enforcing what it was that he wanted them to do, what they exactly new. that is the one level. the other lelevel is above him, with the people at the parent company, what did they know? just speaking with someone who said, this lori lynn settlement for this $3.15 million -- amy: she was the so-called booker. >> she is the person who told "new york magazine" over 20 years, she was essentially roger ailes' sex slave. she reported other executives inside fox news that knew of, would call her to new york -- bills china she mentions specifically. amy: fox news -- >> roger ailes's number two.

those people -- and others. "friends" of rogers that were on the payroll or were on sort of monthly retainers that no one in the building knew exactly what they did, but ailes had them -- there's an allegation now, and other story that came up that he was using those people to run these kinds of campaigns, whether they were smearing journalists are going after other enemies. amy: peoplple like bo dietl? >> yes. and those people are being dismissed now. that is part of the effort that rupert murdoch is engaged in at this moment to kind of get rid of those people -- the point i want to make about this settlement is that when you ask people at 21st century y fox and fox news why that was not reported and why that did not raise eyebrows they say, well,

at a division like fox news come up which brings in $1 billion of profit, that is a rounding -- amy: and how many of these are there? >> there are two questions. one, how many $3 million settlements do you need in order for it to register? how many are out there? that cannot be the only settlement that is in existence. but companies decide e all the time what is material and what is not. material is a term that public companies like to use in that they get to decide what they think is important. much larger companies and fox news disclose much smaller settlements than three point $1 million. a certain point, people above ailes and others have to answer for that. amy: lori lynn, a broken woman, for 20 years as you described it him his sex slave and then told to herein young women from fox, to bring them into a one-on-one situation with roger ailes. >> we still do not know the

extent to which and the way in peopleoger ailes enticed to do the things that they are accusing him of. i have heard stories about how he could also be very -- at times very charming. this is the case with any kind of charismatic leader. they have a site to them that can be very compelling and charismatic but what we have heard -- what we heard in the past six weeks or so, a very different story. it is one where he was largely terrifying people and they were either too scared to speak out or they were -- or they were actually doing what it was he was telling them to do and also too scared to speak o out. amy: we're going to get a break and i want to ask about his lawyer -- very unusual -- they were foes many years ago when she was the campaign manager for michael dukakis and roger ailes worked for his opponent george h.w. bush will stuff we are

talking to sasarah ellison comig vanity fair contributing editor. she was recently wrote a piece about the nra the civil war that could doom the nra. we will continue on what ailes fox, is it more than roger? stay with us. ♪ [music c break]

amy: "these storie this is demo, democracynow.org, the war and peace reportrt. i'm amy goodman. want to turn to the documentary "above the fray" about the 1980 presidential race where roger ailes lady key role. this begins with the willie horton ad george e w. bush ran agagainst michael to caucucus. >> to caucus that only opposeses the death h penalty y come hered murderers s to have weakened passes from prison.

one was s willie h horton, despa lifefe sentence,e r received 10 weakened p passes from prison. horton fled, k kidnapped a young couple, stabbing t the man and repeatedly raped his girlfriend. we can prison passes. dukakis. >> so-cacalled independent committees started running these ads. talked roger ailes had to the guy or the people producing the willie horton many, many times. so the notion it was no collaboration between the two is nonsense. amy: that was the former governor massachusetts michael to caucus speaking in "above the fray." 1988,mpaign manager in susan estrich, is now roger ailes personal attororney. the development that has shocked many in part because she is also a prominent fememinist legal caller.

1991, she wrote in a stanford law review "it should be obvious the system contains serious -- those the words oford susan estrich. ,ur guest is sarah ellison writes for "vanity fair" and before that "wall street journal" and rupert murdoch -- you worked there for 10 years. >> for 10 years before he took over the paper. amy: your response. quite a choice for a lawyer and quite as choice for susan estrich to make, to represent roger ailes. fox newsve become a

contributor. i don't know exactly how they became so close after having been opponents, but it is obviously a genius choice for ailes for his attorney, given that he knew -- i mean, here to know he was going to be facing additional women and additional allegations and complaints. susan has done nothing but defend him the whole way. you said earlier, he has denied all of the allegations. we do have to keep that in mind, he a set all of this -- all of these women are lying and that he proclaims his innocence and all of these cases. amy: i want to correct, i said he worked with george w. bush. it was george h.w. bush who ran against michael dukakis. sarah, you have been looking at all of these issues, looking at what is going to happen right now. roger ailes is out, but what happens to the newsroom? what happens to the fox bunker

and the role he will play? >> the question the people inside the company have is, what will happen now that this genius news man is out? obviously, the women who are bringing complaints against him are quite happy that he is going. i think a lot of the people who were intimidated and frightened by him are also happy thahat hes gogone. e t two younger murdoch sons who haveow running the company talked about wanting to modernize the culture inside fox news and the entiree company, make it a much more trusting and open workplace. as investorsrs, do, do not really care about human beings. they just want the profits to continue to come in. they're walking a very fine line of how to manage this s crisis. they want to get it behind them. they want to not continue to have these women continuing to come out, which is why they are trying to launch these

settlement discussions with gretchen carlson, sort of get everything behinind them. amy: you wrote a book "war at the wall street journal inside : the struggle to control an american business empire." what do you project of how robert murdoch operates? >> this will continue on for some time. they tried to do that quickly. they dealt with it much more quickly than the last time you and i were talking about a murdoch scandal, which was the phone hacking scandal in london where the comedy was systemically listening to phone --versations for information not amy: explained that briefly for those who do not remember the scandal of news world. >> it was a scandal abouout five years ago and is centered on murdoch possibly to newspapers, british newspapers, and what the reporters were doing. they were listening in to voicemails of people they wanted to write about, and using those private voicemails to either

print stories about those people based on those voicemails, or use that information -- take that information to those people and say, we have this piece of information. we're going to print it unless you cacan give us a better stor. that created an enormous environment of fear. the question i think this -- part of the way roger ailes operated, whether or not he was spying on you or whether or not he was going to retaliate against you, people were very convinced he could and that he would do that. that created -- it was an entire environment of fear. amy: wasn't james murdoch implicated in news of the world, that whole story? the sons of murdoch running fox? >> james was running -- he was overseeing the british newspapers at that point. yet a bigger job than that, but he was in the center of that scandal. they dealt with that schedule

very differently. they kept having internal investigations that would clear everyone except a few bad apples, a few bad apple employees and there would be new headlines largely in the guardian newspaper that would come up with a new example of phone hacking. james was dragged for parliament with his father to testify about this. he was largely seen as some implicated -- although saved in the end by, you know, -- we still don't know exactly what that situation -- how far it went up, but he was cleared and rebekah brooks, the other top executive who was running the british newspapers, was also cleared. what rupert mumurdoch did that s masterful about that scandal was sort of sacrificed his lower-level employees to save his son and himself and his favorite executive. amy: we have to leave it there but we will continue the conversation and also look at in piece you just wrote "vanity fair" and we will post it online at democracynow.org. sarah ellison is "vanity fair"

contributing editor. her most recent piece is an exclusive headlined, "inside the fox news bunker." she also wrote "war at the wall , street journal: inside the struggle to control an american business empire." democracy now! is looking for