After Gabriel Sherman’s May profile of Roger Ailes in New York reported that the Fox News boss had prevailed upon New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to enter the presidential race, Gawker investigative reporter John Cook began looking into the records of communication between the two. When the Christie administration rebuffed his requests to see the logs under the state’s open public records rules, citing “executive privilege and well-settled case law,” Cook and Gawker decided to take the matter to court. They plan to file a suit today — the first they’ve ever launched — in order to obtain information. “A strong public interest exists in knowing whether the executive in charge of the nation’s most-watched cable news channel is acting as a political consultant to a prospective Republican presidential candidate,” the case — backed by the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union — states. The next thing that I would like to be publicly acknowledged is not just that they’re ideological,” Cook told the Times. “They’re not just the TV equivalent of The Weekly Standard or something. They are actually a power base within the Republican Party.”
Gawker Will Go to Court in Fox Investigation [NYT]
Related: The Elephant in the Green Room: New York on Roger Ailes [NYM]
