IF YOU ADMIRE WEINSTEIN'S ENABLERS, YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Fox News addict plans to appoint former Fox News executive:

Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who was close to Roger E. Ailes, the network’s ousted chairman, is expected to be offered the job of White House communications director, according to two people familiar with the decision....

The move has not been finalized, but two people familiar with the decision said it was likely to be announced and that the president had offered him the job.

You'll read this about Shine:

Shine left Fox News in May of 2017 after women at the network reportedly circulated a petition demanding he be fired.

Shine reportedly told a female executive that the network’s pattern of sexual harassment was a “necessary evil.”

And this:

Shine left Fox News in May last year amid accusations that he helped cover up a number of sexual harassment allegations at the company.

In a 2016 lawsuit, former Fox News anchor Andrea Tantaros accused former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly and Ailes of sexual harassment, and Shine and others of looking the other way and pressuring her to drop her complaints. A judge ruled that the suit was covered by the arbitration clause in Tantaros’ contract.

In a subsequent suit, which was dismissed after a year, Tantaros accused Shine and others of using sophisticated hacking and surveillance techniques, in addition to “sock puppet” social media accounts, to monitor and harass her.

In April of last year, Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky accused Ailes of sexual harassment in a lawsuit, and accused Shine of retaliating against her when she refused or complained about Ailes’ harassment.

“Shine aided and abetted Ailes’ acts of retaliation and harassment,” Roginsky claimed in her suit, which was eventually settled.

All of which is bad enough -- but the details of another case are barely distinguishable from some Harvey Weinstein stories, with a bit of Eric Greitens thrown in for good measure. Here's what happened to Laurie Luhn, from the 2017 edition of Gabriel Sherman's Ailes biography, The Loudest Voice in the Room:

The story of Laurie Luhn, which New York reported in July 2016, is an example of how Ailes used Fox’s public relations, legal, and finance departments to facilitate his behavior. Ailes met Luhn on the 1988 George H.W. Bush campaign, and soon thereafter he put her on a five-hundred-dollar monthly retainer with his political consulting firm to be his “spy” in Washington, though really her job was to meet him in hotel rooms. (During their first encounter, Luhn says, Ailes videotaped her in a garter belt and told her: “I am going to put [the tape] in a safe-deposit box just so we understand each other.”) Ailes recruited Luhn to Fox in 1996, before the network even launched. Chet Collier, then his deputy, offered her a job in guest relations in the Washington bureau.

[Ailes's assistant Judy] Laterza, [Bill] Shine, and Shine’s deputy, Suzanne Scott, would take turns summoning Luhn for “meetings” in New York. (A Fox spokesperson said executives were not aware Ailes was sexually involved with Luhn.) Ailes and Luhn would meet in the afternoons, Luhn said, at hotels near Times Square, and Ailes paid her cash for sexual favors. She was also on the payroll at Fox—at her peak, she earned $250,000 a year as an event planner for the channel. But the arrangement required her to do many things that now cause her anguish, including luring young female Fox employees into one-on-one meetings with Ailes that Luhn knew would likely result in harassment. “You’re going to find me ‘Roger’s Angels,’” he reportedly told her. One of Luhn’s employees received a six-figure settlement after filing a harassment claim against Ailes.

By the fall of 2006, Luhn said, Ailes was worried that she might go public with her story or cause a scene of some kind. That’s when the Fox machine really kicked into gear. According to Luhn, Fox PR tried to spread a rumor to the New York Daily News that Luhn had had an affair with Lee Atwater (which she denies; Atwater died in 1991), a story designed to make Luhn seem promiscuous so that her credibility would be damaged. When Luhn had an emotional breakdown en route to a vacation in Mexico, it was Shine’s job to arrange to bring her home. Scott picked her up at the airport and drove her to the Warwick hotel on Sixth Avenue, where Luhn recalled that Scott checked her in under Scott’s name. (Scott denied this.)

Luhn later moved into a Fox corporate apartment in Manhattan, during which time, she said, Laterza and Shine monitored her email. (Shine denied this.) Luhn’s father says that Shine called him several times to check up on Luhn after she moved to California while still on the Fox payroll. Eventually, Shine even recommended a psychiatrist, who medicated and hospitalized her. At one point, Luhn attempted suicide. Through a spokesperson, Shine says he “was only trying to help.”

In late 2010 or early 2011, Luhn wrote a letter to [Fox general counsel Dianne] Brandi saying she had been sexually harassed by Ailes for twenty years. According to a source, Brandi asked Ailes about the allegations, which he denied. Brandi then worked out a settlement at Ailes’s request. On June 15, 2011, Luhn signed a $3.15 million settlement agreement with extensive nondisclosure provisions. The payment was approved by Fox News CFO Mark Kranz. The check was signed by David E. Miller, a treasurer for Fox Television Stations, Inc., a division run by current Fox co-president Jack Abernethy. “I have no idea how my name ended up on the check,” said Miller, citing standard company practice of signing checks and not asking questions. The settlement documents were signed by Ailes, Brandi, and Shine.