The headline in TVNewser about Roger Ailes saving the life of one of his reporters didn't surprise me a bit. Don't get me wrong: I was delighted to know the details of Roger's extensive, and expensive, efforts to help Greg Jarrett, but I wasn't surprised.
And yet it's funny: In my travels around the world, I have learned that just about everyone has heard of Fox News – but that most people don't truly know it. For example, a few weeks ago I was in Juba, South Sudan, the capital of that lovely but troubled country that declared its independence from Sudan in 2011. At dinner at a hotel, I found myself next to a group of British foreign aid workers. They asked what I did, and I said I was mostly a journalist. And one of them said, "We don't mind that you're a reporter, so long as you don't work for that awful Fox News."
Well, that got me going! I wasn't about to let a casual dig like that go unanswered. "Actually," I said, "I have been there for 17 years, and I would crawl though broken glass for Roger Ailes. He runs the best company, with the best corporate culture I had ever witnessed." The Brits at the dinner table looked at me as if I were mad. I told them, "And there's more! I am a liberal and would never work for anyone else!"
I could tell they were having thoughts about me going on a long swim in the crocodile-infested nearby Nile River, never to return. So then I changed the subject, and we had a pleasant chat about how best to help the people of South Sudan.
When I arrived back in the U.S. in mid-March, I naturally wanted to catch up on all the news stateside. And so, of course, I went to one of my favorite sites for industry info, TV Newser. And there, on March 26, I saw Mark Joyella's interview with Fox News' longtime reporter and anchor, Greg Jarrett, headlined, "Gregg Jarrett: 'I Might Not Have Survived' Without Roger Ailes." In stark and candid terms, Gregg described his descent into alcoholism, and then the successful effort of his boss Roget Ailes, to get him to a place where he could get help.
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I know full well that, to a lot of companies, a troubled employee is seen as a costly burden and nothing more. Indeed, corporate America is getting quite creative at finding ways to lay off and otherwise get rid of employees, even healthy ones. Indeed, as a political liberal, I think we should have stronger workplace protections, so that the livelihood, and the dignity, of workers is not jeopardized by hard-hearted employers. But at Fox under Roger, such rules aren't needed, because Fox has a human resources policy that would make a Swede envious.
As Gregg said, he knew that he was "family" at Fox – like any loyal Fox employee. And as in a family, when a family member hits a rough patch, the family digs deep to help out. At Fox, to borrow the lyric of that recent Bruce Springsteen song, "We take care of our own."
Perhaps those British aid workers I met in South Sudan will never read this piece, but if they do, they should know that Fox has a genuinely benevolent corporate culture. I have seen it, up close and personal, for nearly two decades: Everyone is respected for what he or she does. It can be the security guard who opens the door, or the make-up artist on weekend shift, but everyone gets respect. People are the friendliest of any small or large corporate structure, and there is no tolerance for anyone not giving concern or equal treatment to all.
Fox News Channel is also welcoming to all. A friend of mine, an African-American working at a more liberal news venue who was looking to make a change, interviewed at Fox, counted the number of African-Americans in the newsroom and saw, to her surprise, that there were more at Fox. So much for the perception of intolerant conservatism! The channel has gay folk, as well as many liberals and single parents and all kinds of ethnic and racial minorities. What Roger cares about is what the viewers see at home: Everyone's personal choices are their business – not his. But, as the Greg Jarrett case demonstrates, once you become part of the Fox family, that's what you are – family.
So yes, I am often asked, "How can you work for such a conservative venue?" And for the reasons I have stated, I am incredulous at such a question, as if someone's political viewpoints reflect the way people are treated! From the people who work on the Capitol Hill, the stories are legendary of certain members of Congress and how they treat their staff. Oftentimes, these people engaging in poor treatment of staff are not conservatives, but Democrats, and liberal ones at that.
So the real variable, I have learned, isn't ideology; it's humanity. And Roger Ailes is, well, a mensch. He has created a corporate culture based on mutual respect, and that everyone from the biggest anchor to the staff who clean are an important member of the team, and in the "family." This positive family atmosphere is why I would crawl though glass for Roger Ailes, and why, even in faraway Africa, I will risk a fight at the dinner table to defend his good name.
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