"Things you might read today are horsesh--," he added, before taking a shot at a rival network: "As phony as 24-hour breaking news on The Plane Channel," a reference to CNN's relentless coverage of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight.
The memo, which Smith sent from Los Angeles, where he was attending the annual National Cable and Telecommunications Association, was first obtained and reported on by The Daily Banter.
In response to Gawker's report, Ailes and Smith released a joint statement declaring the report "100% false and a complete fabrication." Bill Shine, an executive vice president who Gawker depicted as homophobic, issued a separate statement calling Smith "the gold standard of this profession."