Frederick M. Brown
Maybe this is why Glenn Beck was so paranoid. Several staffers from a small-town paper in Putnam County, New York, allege that Fox News Chief Roger Ailes had them followed, read their emails, and bugged their offices. Ailes bought The Putnam County News and Recorder in 2008 in the hopes of setting up a project for him to manage after he retired from Fox News. But in the last 10 months, 10 full-time and freelance staffers have quit, sources tell Gawker. The defections started when Ailes confronted 27-year-old editor Joe Lindsley and two other staffers for speaking ill of him and his wife during their lunch breaks. Ailes was a little too specific about their lunch habits, and the staffers began to suspect Ailes had tailed them to the restaurant where they ate. Their suspicions were confirmed after Lindsley quit, when the former editor noticed he was being tailed by a black Chevrolet Navigator, identified the driver as a News Corp. security staffer, and confirmed with the staffer that Ailes had assigned the staffer to follow him. Other employees say they suspect Ailes had their offices bugged and read their emails.