In September 2008, Sarah Palin secretly met with Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes during her campaign tour through New York, a stop which included a friendly chit-chat with Henry Kissinger and a not-so-friendly chit-chat with Katie Couric. The private sit-down was a chance for Ailes and Palin to get to know each other. Ailes, who has said, "I never did focus groups on any talent I put on the air. It was all done out of my gut," spotted something early in the former Alaska Governor. "Say what you will, she hit a home run," he told Fox News executives after her electrifying convention speech at the Xcel Energy Center. It was in those early days that he was protective enough of Palin that he had Shushannah Walshe, a young Fox News reporter who was covering Palin's campaign banished from on-air interviews after she criticized Palin on Fox News. "It's not fair-and-balanced coverage," the reporter was told by a senior Fox executive. Walshe left the network soon after.
A little over a year later, Palin was working for Ailes as the highest paid contributor at the network, earning $1 million a year. But her time in Ailes's army proved almost as tumultuous as her stormy run as John McCain's VP pick. And this afternoon both sides decided to walk away.
Most Popular Stories
Nymag.com
Vulture.com