Ailes ran surveillance on his weekly newspaper's editor and reporters, who quit, Gawker reports

Three months ago we passed along The New Yorker magazine's take on Fox News boss Roger Ailes, his wife Beth (right) and their weekly newspapers in Putnam County, New York, saying that local news coverage had improved because of them and a competitor that started after they arrived in the market. This month, their editor and two reporters quit "after Ailes told them he'd had them followed, and their private conversations surveilled, to catch them saying mean things about him," John Cook and Hamilton Nolan reported April 18 for Gawker. (Photo from Gawker)

Editor Joe Lindsley, 27, served notice even before The New Yorker's article, in which he praised the Aileses, Gawker reports. "At some point during the first week of April, Lindsley abruptly cut his transition short and quit outright, as did two of his young reporters, T.J. Haley and Carli-Rae Panny. The reason, multiple former employees say, is that in late March, Ailes confronted the three staffers and accused them of badmouthing him and Elizabeth during their lunch breaks." The story also reports, apparently with Lindsley as its source, that after he left, a security staffer for News Corp., parent of Fox, followed him.

Beth Ailes told Gawker, "These rambling allegations are untrue and in fact not even reality based. The paper hoped for Joe's success in spite of his personal habits and lack of performance, which included getting the weekly editions out late and over budget for three months. There's a sad disconnect between his claims of undying gratitude and his current state of agitation." There's a lot more in the story.