Roger Ailes Won't Let His Critics Subscribe to His Newspaper

Let it never be said that Roger Ailes isn't petty. It turns out that if you write too critically about the tiny newspaper the Fox News president owns in Putnam County, or even about Ailes and Fox, the paper will cancel your subscription.

Let it never be said that Roger Ailes isn't petty. It turns out that if you write too critically about the tiny newspaper the Fox News president owns in Putnam County, or even about Ailes and Fox, the paper will cancel your subscription.

At least, that's what happened to two different writers who've covered Ailes' adventures in owning The Putnam County News and Recorder. New York's Gabriel Sherman mentioned it in a Thursday night Daily Intel post about the launch of the paper's new competitor, The Philipstown Paper. "This week, I learned that my PCN&R subscription had been canceled. When I called the paper to ask about it, Cunningham told me that because of my pending book on Roger Ailes and Fox News, 'we don't desire to have a relationship with you.'" When The Huffington Post's Michael Calderone pointed out that detail on Twitter, Gawker's John Cook replied that the paper had done the same thing to him, too. Cook has done some pretty unflattering coverage of the PCN&R, including a story about how Ailes himself spied on reporters there. Cook mentioned as much in his coverage last year, so it seems this isn't a new move for Ailes and his newspaper. We're wondering if the same thing happened to Peter J. Boyer, whose lengthy New Yorker report on Ailes' takeover of the publication first got us and many others interested in it. We've sent a tweet asking about it, so we'll let you know what he says.