London, July 22 (ANI): The Fox News channel has denied allegations of having a secret 'black operations' department to illegally hack phone records of September 11, 2001 terror strike victims.
Reacting to the allegation made by Dan Cooper, a former channel executive, and to other allegations that the channel has been running a spying network on their staff, besides reading their e-mails and making them feel as if they were being watched, Fox News said in a statement that:: "Each of these allegations is completely false. Dan Cooper was terminated six weeks after the launch of Fox News Channel and has peddled these lies for the past 15 years."
Earlier, Cooper, a former producer, was quoted as erroneously saying in a report that Fox News had a 'brain room' that carried out 'counter intelligence' on the channel's enemies from its New York headquarters.
Another former senior executive was quoted, as saying that the channel ran a spying network on staff, reading their emails and making them 'feel they were being watched', The Telegraph reports. The FBI is investigating allegations that journalists on a British newspaper may have tried to have September 11 victims' phones hacked. Both former Fox News executives said they thought Mr Ailes would never have let his reporters do likewise," The Telegraph reportsMost people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. I knew it also housed a counter intelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie," Cooper was quoted, as saying by the paper.
Another former Fox News senior executive said staff was forced to operate under conditions reminiscent of 'Russia at the height of the Soviet era'.
Fox News has denied all the allegations terming them as 'baseless'.
Protecting News Corp.'s U.S. franchise is crucial because it includes the company's crown jewels, the 20th Century Fox movie studio and television holdings that include highly profitable cable networks and 27 broadcast stations. (ANI)
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