Less than two weeks after New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman exposed the “Black Room” ops Roger Ailes set up at Fox News to go after his personal enemies, one of its operatives who was implicated in the report, private investigator and Fox contributor Bo Dietl, has been let go from the network. Dietl has engaged Clinton-pal Lanny Davis as an attorney and is threatening to sue Sherman.
You may recall that in his August 7 exposé, Sherman wrote:
I was also the target of an operation, a highly-placed source told me: In 2012, while I was researching a biography of Ailes, Fox operatives set up web pages to attack my reputation, and Fox funds paid for Google search ads against my name that linked to the sites. One source also said private investigators employed by Fox contributor Bo Dietl were instructed to follow me and my wife. (Dietl’s firm was used to track Andrea Mackris, the producer who accused Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment in 2004, the source said). When reached by phone, Dietl said: “I have no real comments. I love Roger Ailes. He built one of the great news channels out of nothing. He’s a very successful guy.”
It’s as blatant a non-denial as you can get. But several days later, Dietl issued a statement:
"Bo Dietl spoke with Gabriel Sherman yesterday and stated the [sic] he 'unequivocally NEVER followed Mr. Sherman or his wife'. Mr. Dietl also stated that his company was never hired By Roger Ailes, or anyone else for that matter, to perform any work in connection with Mr. Sherman."
Dietl also threatened a libel suit at that time.
Today, Sherman tweeted that Dietl has been “cut as a contributor from the channel.” This was confirmed by Mediaite.
In a Daily Beast article today, Dietl’s denials were quite a bit more ambiguous:
Dietl denied his investigations were ever “nefarious” in nature, and proceeded to tell The Daily Beast how—in light of allegations that tanked Ailes’s career—most sexual-harassment lawsuits are just “political correctness” gone awry.
[…]
“All that black-ops on the 14th floor crap… it’s all bullshit,” Dietl said. (Sherman previously emailed The Daily Beast: “I stand by my reporting.”)
But Dietl's lawsuit threat was unequivocal.
Dietl is now, apparently, considering legal action against New York magazine and its star reporter. “I’m talking to my attorneys about a defamation suit and a libel suit, [especially] if I don’t go back on Fox News,” he said. “I want a retraction… Lanny Davis, one of my attorneys, told me to ask for a retraction, and said that if they don’t give me one, we could do a suit against New York magazine and Sherman… I guarantee you, I got a really good case. I mean, his source is a liar.”
Good luck with that.
But, hey, maybe Dietl will have more time to run for mayor of New York, like he’s also been threatening. Watch him discuss it below, in December, 2014.