Roger Ailes’ Teenage Son Is Already Following in His Dad’s Footsteps

A funeral eulogy delivered by a teenager isn’t usually something that makes the news—unless that teenager is Roger Ailes’ son.

At a Saturday funeral service for the former Fox News chairman in Palm Beach, FL, Ailes’ 17-year-old son Zachary promised to fight his father’s legacy of sexual harassment presumably by going after its victims or others.

That legacy ultimately forced Ailes, who died Thursday at 77, out of the monstrous right-wing network he founded. But it didn’t seem to stop funeral attendees from appearing to rewrite history.

In front of 65 attendees including many of the big names in right-wing media from Sean Hannity to Rush Limbaugh, Zachary Ailes delivered an eyebrow-raising threat. His comments were reported by LifeZette, an online lifestyle magazine run by Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham.

The report stated:

“I want all the people who betrayed my father to know that I’m coming after them,” Zachary Ailes said during a speech at the ceremony, “and hell is coming with me.”

Who or what that “hell” is in this particular context is unclear, but it appears the poisonous apple didn’t fall far from the toxic tree in the Ailes family.

Also sticking with a motif of denial, Kimberly Guilfoyle, co-host of Fox News’ “The Five,” described Ailes as a “champion of women,” emphasis mine.

Maybe “champion” is a moniker for “sexual predator” in Fox New-speak—who knows. But I suppose it was a fitting funeral for a man who built an empire on bullying, deceit, and sexually harassing female colleagues for decades.