A former producer with Fox News claimed in a lengthy essay gaining new traction this week that the conservative television station has a "Brain Room" in its New York headquarters, which enables employees to view private telephone records with ease.
Though published years ago, the allegations have returned to relevance in the wake of the phone hacking scandals that have rocked News Corporation to its very core, threatening to topple one of the world's largest and most powerful media conglomerates.
According to former Fox News executive Dan Cooper, whose gripes with his former employer run quite deep, Fox News chief Roger Ailes allegedly had him design the so-called "Brain Room" to facilitate counter-intelligence efforts and other "black ops."
In a lengthy 2008 diatribe said to have doubled as a book pitch, Cooper claimed his own phone records had been hacked by Fox News employees, who he says used them to pinpoint him as a source used by David Brock, who founded liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
"Ailes knew I had given Brock the interview," he wrote. "Certainly Brock didn't tell him. Of course. Fox News had gotten Brock's telephone records from the phone company, and my phone number was on the list. Deep in the bowels of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, News Corporation's New York headquarters, was what Roger called the Brain Room. Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. But unlike virtually everybody else, because I had to design and build the Brain Room, I knew it also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie."
See? I told you it would lead back to Fox News!
My fervent hope is that the FBI get themselves a search warrant and GAIN ACCESS TO THAT ROOM!
Ladies and gentlemen I would bet my house that if they could get in there THAT would be the end of Fox News, Roger Ailes, and Rupert Murdoch. There is no doubt in my mind.
You know the part that really pisses me off? That I already KNEW about this story, and even wrote about it, but it completely slipped my mind until I read this article.
Some investigative reporter I turned out to be.
The Dark Lord continues his downward spiral. Murdoch's empire is set to destruct.
ReplyDeleteOh, hell to the yeah! This tickles me more than anything. Rumor was that Ailes would thrive and survive and Fox News would not miss a beat. Guess not!! How long before Ailes has to resign?
ReplyDeleteI am overjoyed!!
You are excused, as you do so well.
ReplyDeleteThing is, this thing is so widespread that no one can be expected to keep up all the time.
Watching it unfold, minute by minute is amazing, and more than I could ever have dreamed of.
Talk of the board of directors removing Rupert, and James will not be acceptable either.
WOO FREAKING HOO! FOX NEWS FUCKED! WELL, THAT WOULD BE TOO GOOD, TOO GOOD.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I resent: Fox News ruined our country, by advocating false claims in order to go to war ( such as - "9/11 tied to Saddam," just because the Saudis, who own a huge share of Fox, wanted him gone OR that "Saddam had WMDs"). And now we find out it was all done illegally, through black ops on our own citizens. I want to sue Rupert Murdoch as a US citizen for the damage he has done to the my personal psyche, the collective American psyche & the global soul (animus mundi) by knowingly publicizing FALSE INFORMATION which is TREASONOUS.
ReplyDeleteMurdoch employed Sarah Palin to ruin our country. She is part of his treasonous, lying posse. And after her crosshairs and "blood libel," they still let her on the air.
ReplyDeleteThe plot thickens...cue sinister music/laughter.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading Joe McGinniss's blog but in the back of my mind, I keep remembering his declaration of admiration and friendship with Roger Ailes. Makes me wonder if his book is really going to be the zinger he promises or if it just more of this deepening plot.
I sincerely hope you are right and this will cue the end of Fox news..hope it takes Limbo with it.
Kind of OT, but I wonder what my cousins will do who have told me for years that they do not allow any other station on their tv..that they can't allow their children to see anything but Fox. They are both ministers who have a church together with their son and his wife. I have resisted all threats..I mean invitations to join their "fellowship". They also preach the whole "man is head of the household" theory...and a more henpecked man would be hard to find. LOL. Sure she does what he tells her to do..after he asks her what that is first. LOL
Too late. All evidence has been destroyed over the course of the last week. FOX Noise is clean as a whistle now.
ReplyDeleteThis has been going on for many years, And they have known it. This is just the corrupt wealthy protecting one another. Hush Money. This corp is no different Than the Mob.
ReplyDeleteI hope FOX crumbles and these two and everyone at FOX are put in jail.
ReplyDeleteI don't think FOX will be able to clean up all evidence of wrong doing. People will talk. People will have kept correspondence, phone records, etc to cover their own butts. It's been tainted and people will always be suspicious now.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, during her "Bus Tour/Family Vacation" when $carah was called into the NY headquarters if they showed her what they had on HER? Maybe that was the reason for ending the "vacation" so abruptly?
ReplyDeleteI want to see FOX go down more than anything in the world...but, I suspect too much time has gone on since all this started on the other side of the ocean..and, that FOX has had time to coverup. Keeping my fingers crossed that more 'people - staff' will come out in America and take them down.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 12:55 pm is so correct.
ReplyDeleteI simply can't keep up with all the walking dead in this scandal.
I just hope those investigating can keep up with how corrupt journalism has become in some quarters; it makes me suspect them all, which is why I come to the internet instead.
Don't forget - over one million civilian casualties in Iraq (conservative estimate), a decimated ecosystem due to depleted uranium, increased birth defects in babies due to uranium, and millions of refugees other countries can barely take care of --- we can thank Murdoch and Faux News for that, too. Starting an illegal war is never a good thing.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't advertisers pull out? Are they also blackmailed somehow?
ReplyDeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteNone of this is beyond belief -- I've believed many of them capable of great evil for a while.
But what is a bit breathtaking to me at this point is that we may be getting the first glimpses -- as if through mist -- of the complete organized, coordinated enterprise that is the Republican party and its many evil arms. The propaganda arm (Murdoch & Ailes), the Dominionists, of course the mega-corporations.
Could this possibly begin a time when Americans finally see just how badly they've been manipulated?
Wow.
Would some kind soul please re-post the good Twitter account to follow on this? Thanks. (Was it ExNOTW?)
ReplyDeleteslipped your mind till you read this article?
ReplyDeletei mentioned it in my last comment!
Murdoch has probably been black mailing people of position and power to do what he wants them to, if they don't take his money first.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope some of them have the moxy to take this opportunity to get even.
Don't get too carried away with the idea that FOX will disappear. Some other media outlet, probably CNN with stoop low enough to try to gather in FOX's viewers.
ReplyDeleteIt will mean big advertising bucks.
Let's see which media go slumming, and make sure we don't give them our support.
http://twitter.com/#!/ExNOTWjourno2
ReplyDeleteIf Roger Ailes has any sense, everything in that room would have been removed as soon as the hacking scandal broke in the UK.
ReplyDeleteLooks like there are "surveyors marks" over Faux snooz.
ReplyDeleteYou know....if this was 1985 or 1974 they might be able to hide and supress any information...
ReplyDeleteBut in this day and age...no way they can get rid off it all without so sort of paper trail. It won't take much...there are plenty of employees at Fox News that just saw every employee at News Corp get fired with no warning...
I agree with a previous commenter that this story is gonna get REALLY big and nasty...this is the first time I've commented on it because I don't want to get too excited...
But gotta say that up to this point...I'm fucking elated about the major players going down, I do feel tremendous sorrow for the victims and I believe most Americans do...
Truly disgusting to hack into a dead teenagers phone and erasing messages giving the parents false hope she is still alive....
This goes beyond my hatred for Murdoch....this is truly vile.
Fox News has a "brain room" ?? It must be dark and empty in there . . .
ReplyDeleteI almost want to watch Fox to see if there are glimmers of terror in those idiots eyes who spew the horrible rhetoric they spew. Is it even possible that right(meaning good(not the right)) will win? I have enormous hope.
ReplyDeleteInteresting tweet:
ReplyDeleteExNOTWjourno2 Marie X
This week the toxic Blair/Bush Relationship will unfold... M
17 Jul
Let's hope advertisers start pulling away from Faux like rats from a sinking ship. Of course, since Fox and its audience, through their false propaganda, astro-turfed tea party 'movement', and the resulting tea party pressure on Congress will be responsible for sinking the economy with their 'no taxes-for-the-rich' (while fighting as-yet un-paid for $4 trillion wars) and refusals to deal with the debt ceiling anyway, it would not be at all unforeseeable if their own advertisers, within the next 30 days or so, could no longer afford to pay for ads there anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd now the Sun has been hacked...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.neowin.net/news/the-sun-website-hacked-by-lulzsec-rupert-murdoch-claimed-dead?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
It won't do any good.
ReplyDeleteBy the time they get the warrant and access to the room they will have dumped and purged everything. There will be no evidence left to prosecute.
ExNOTWjourno2 Marie X
ReplyDelete@GILLYSPOT Piers won't return my calls... Maybe because I told about his affair with RB.. M
16 Jul
This tweet makes reference to Piers Morgan - the Brit idiot that took over for Larry King and is one of the judges on America's Got Talent. He too worked at NOTW - as Editor
"In 1994, aged 28, he was appointed editor of News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, becoming the youngest national newspaper editor in more than half a century.[7] He quickly gained notoriety for his invasive, thrusting style and lack of concern for celebrities' right to privacy, claiming that they could not manipulate the media to further their own ends without accepting the consequences of a two way deal"
Morgan worked for Murdoch at a few of the tabloids.
Sen DeMint: Congress shouldn’t investigate Murdoch
ReplyDeletehttp://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1515783
We already know he's in Murdoch's pocket!!
With the potential investigation & downfall of Faux (NewsCorp) ....
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Glen Beck'ers would spin this if his show was still alive. Maybe his crazy paranoia was based on 'being watched or spied on', not from the lefties - but by his own employer taunting him. Picture Ailes or Rupert in the upper offices giggling like a couple 6th graders picking out who they will gaslight today.
More proof that anything that insufferable bitch touches will turn to shit. Or she just goes for the shit every time.
ReplyDeleteGoL
Can you just imagine this election season without Fox?? Its just sooooooo wonderful to think what the sheep will be doing without the 24/7 relentless flow of crap. The GOP will have no where to spread their lies....lol, this is gonna be great.
ReplyDeleteBut - yes - you are a good investigative journalist!! Thank God we have you and others to do this work.
ReplyDeleteThis news is sooo exciting to me!! I have such a repulsion to FOX news it is terrible. Sometimes when I am flipping through the channels, I stop there to see what is being talked about. About all I can take is a minute or two and then I have to move on.
They have produced, enabled, encouraged and abetted the most disgusting situation I have ever seen in journalism, commentary. I will have a party if they go down.
Pat Padrnos
Its going to get so bad for Murdoch that soon he'll be begging the screechy wretch to whip up some industrial strength "reloading with reality" and save ol' Rupe's boney ass. (kinda makes ya wonder if she has any earthly idea what that gibberish was supposed to mean when she said it...)
ReplyDeleteWell, you just keep getting better all the time Gryphen. Nice work as always !
ReplyDeleteWhen was Tri-g "born"?
ReplyDeletehttp://m.npr.org/news/front/138473097
Palin Mafia, meet the Murdoch Mafia:
http://m.npr.org/news/front/138484222
Cameron may be resigning soon and another top law enforcement official has resigned. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/world/europe/19hacking.html?_r=1&hp
ReplyDeleteMSM is not discussing this story about "the Brain Room" at all, very interesting.
Dear Invisible Guy in the Sky:
ReplyDeletePLEASE bring down these mofos and bring back the Fairness Doctrine.
I'll throw in $5 bucks that G.W. Bush's Homeland Security acted in collusion and collaboration with Fox New's Brain Room.
ReplyDeleteAiles most likely provided aid to conservative candidates and causes, gathering intelligence (opposition research) to use against Democrats or RINO's. How could Sarah use her sharp elbows so effectively? Seriously. The woman is calculating but it's mostly assbackwards luck, or is it?
ReplyDeleteConnect the dots, I'm positive it leads to Koch and Homeland Security.
This had to happen, this chink in the dyke - Sarah, call on those Dutch would ya? To bail out your BFF's at the Murdoch Empire.
ReplyDeleteFox sold the message for Shrub & Co. - neither could've pulled it off alone.
ReplyDeleteDrudge would have to go back to asking, "Want fries with that?"
ReplyDeleteBreitbart could go back to lurking.
This "brain room" sounds like an oxymoron, but my fervent hope is whatever Fox has tried to remove or destroy, can be found by good forensic analyists the FBI/CIA has at their disoposal.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if the info scrubbed from Mecede's computer during the campaign was handled by these folks. Anything's possible.
I watched bbc america these past few days, and what we've seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.
You know Gryphen: the Tea Party and the right-wing Republicans keep talking about "taking their country back" when in fact we are the ones who have lost their country ... the true ideals of the founding fathers ... liberty and justice for all ... the rights of the people ... and just maybe if we can take down not only FOX, Murdoch, the guilty parties in England and beyond, if we can address the problems of the press, not a free press, but one who has abused that freedom to a point of power and propaganda, WE CAN TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY!
ReplyDeleteIf this proves true, FauxNews is dead. They would be off the air shortly after the FBI raids their lair.
ReplyDeleteI will dance a jig a sing loud hosannas if they haul that fat bastard Roger Ailes out in handcuffs. Ailes is one of Nixon's rat fuckers and it would be nice to think of him getting some of that kind of action for real in a federal prison - only he'd be the rat.
It would be a bonus if Murdoch goes away as well. However, I think that Murdoch is going to be so emasculated by this whole affair that the stress and humiliation might just send him to his grave a disgraced shell of his former bombastic, asshole self.
I am SOOOO enjoying this.
Please do a story showing the extent to which Sarah Palin is in bed with Rupert Murdoch's empire. Not only is she on his payroll as a commentator on Fox News (a subsidiary of News Corp), but her books were published by HarperCollins (a subsidiary of NewsCorp) and she was promoted to be picked as McCain's running mate following Bill Krystol's meeting her during a Weekly Standard (subsidiary of News Corp) cruise to Alaska in 2007!! There may be more connections, but those three speaks volumes! Thanks.
ReplyDelete