Former Fox News Head Brian Lewis's Scandals Savagely Exposed In Showtime's 'The Loudest Voice In The Room — Including The Dirt He Has On Roger Ailes
Meet the man behind the role.
LinkedIn When Brian Lewis was fired from Fox News rumors wouldn't stop circulating about why on earth Lewis, right hand man to the network's founder, Roger Ailes, got the axe. While Lewis worked for the network from the beginning and was fired back in 2013, the rumors are still circulating. Heck, in some ways they are circulating now more than ever. Why? Because Showtime is releasing a miniseries called The Loudest Voice in the Room about Ailes and his cherished conservative news network, and Lewis is going to be featured as a central character on the series. To get you ready for an epic binge watch, here's everything you need to know about Brian Lews, his connection with Ailes and the real reason Fox gave him the boot. Who is Brian Lewis?
1. Fox News
When Roger Ailes founded Fox News in 1996, he had vast ambitions for his fledgling conservative news network. To help those dreams come true, he hired Brian Lewis who eventually became the vice president of the entire network. Lewis would stay in that role until he was fired in 2013. His firing was hardly hush hush. Brian was fired after the company discovered a series of discrepancies with their financial records. His involvement was a shocker. While working for the network, Lewis was Roger Ailes' golden boy. While he only started at the company working in media relations, he was quickly promoted and by 2006 he was an executive vice president with the company and was viewed as invaluable by AIles.
2. Showtime
Lewis is back in the news, this time for less awkward reasons. Showtime is releasing a miniseries about Ailes based on (and named after) a biography of the exec by the same title: The Loudest Voice in the Room, So who did the studio think should play the role of the man close enough to Ailes to kiss the ring? Why, none other than Seth MacFarlane, who is perhaps the most well-known for creating Fox's Family Guy.
Showtime describes their own version of Lewis like this: “A brash young executive whom Roger poaches to head up PR at Fox News, Brian Lewis is an eager participant in Roger’s vision of what Fox News Channel should be. Fully embracing Roger’s dictum to 'let PR be the engine of Fox News Channel,” Brian uses the dark arts of PR to further Roger’s every demand.' Sounds compelling, no?
3. Hush Money
When Lewis was finally fired from Fox News, there were initially whispers that Ailes and company paid a pretty penny to make sure that Lewis didn't reveal any of their secrets, good or bad. Further reporting by Gawker found that the formerly high powered executive was paid about $8 million to keep quiet. I cannot think of one secret I know that is worth that much, but then again, I don't run a corrupt conservative news network, so.
According to Judd Burstein, who worked as Lewis' laywer during this time, he made it clear that it was his client in the position of power: “I have just been retained and am still plotting our course of action. But two things are very clear to me. First, Brian Lewis no longer has any confidentiality obligation to Newscorp [sic] or Roger Ailes because of the false and malicious statements made by Fox to date. Second, Roger Ailes and Newscorp [sic] have a lot more to fear from Brian Lewis telling the truth about them than Brian Lewis has to fear from Roger Ailes and his toadies telling lies about Brian Lewis.”
4. Busted By The Book
It wasn't just all the odd financial irregularities that got Lewis fired, either. The Hollywood Reporter said that there were “multiple, material and significant breaches of his employment contract.” And that wasn't all. Apparently, word was out when it came to how much Lewis was talking to Ailes' bio writer, Gabe Sherman. “He was helping Gabe Sherman a little bit too much with his upcoming, unauthorized biography of Ailes, said a source.
Fox News went hard to correct the reporting by Gawker which they claimed was erroneous. They said that he was fired entirely because of his work with Gabe Sherman, and that nothing else untoward happened. Me thinks the conservative news network doth protest too much! Addressing his firing, Lewis himself said: “There has been rampant speculation surrounding my departure from Fox that I am not addressing at this time. I will say it has been an honor and privilege to work for Roger Ailes the past 20 years and I wish nothing but the best for him and the great people at Fox News.”
5. Other Reasons?
It's clear that while no one is willing to tell the whole truth, at least no one who was directly involved, there were countless reasons to let Brian go and we've probably already covered them. But there is another rumor about what truly got Lewis the axe, and it involves Megyn Kelly. In 2012, Megyn claimed that she went to Lewis to complain about Ailes and his inappropriate behavior and that Lewis tried to take action!
In his book, Gabe Sherman shares this sentiment and takes it even further, admitting that Lewis fought for Kelly, and actually went so far as to approach Ailes directly to talk to him about his inappropriate conduct with his females employees. In the book, Sherman also asserts that it was Lewis' attempt to bring Ailes around that ultimately led to his firing! Now there's a twist I bet you didn't see coming. Only Lewis knows for sure, and he's got eight millions reasons to keep his mouth shut.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. She's an experienced generalist with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, pop culture, and true crime.