Roger Ailes
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| Image:RogerAiles.png Ailes during the 10th Anniversary Special on Fox News Channel |
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| Born: | May 15, 1940 (age 66) Warren, Ohio, United States |
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| Occupation: | President of Fox News Channel Chairman of Fox Television Stations Group |
| Salary: | $8.3 million [1] |
Roger Eugene Ailes (born May 15, 1940) is the president of Fox News Channel and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group.
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[edit] Early life, education, and family
Born in Warren, Ohio, Ailes graduated in 1962 from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, receiving a BA
Ailes' first marriage was to Norma E. Ailes (born November, 1945), who had been a televison producer with Mission Media Ministries. The two had one child, a daughter, Shawn C. Ailes Visco Ferrer (born July, 1968), now a television producer.
In July 1997, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Ailes was engaged to Elizabeth Tilson (born December 1960), whom he married on February 14, 1998. Formerly a television executive, she is now a homemaker.
[edit] Career
[edit] Early television
Ailes' career in television began in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a producer and director for KYW, for a then-locally produced talk-variety show, The Mike Douglas Show. He later became executive producer for the show, which was syndicated nationally. He received two Emmy Awards for it 1967 and 1968. It was in this position, in 1967, that he had a spirited discussion about television in politics with one of the show's guests, Richard Nixon, who took the view that television was a gimmick. Later, Nixon called on Ailes to serve as his executive producer of TV. Nixon's election victory was only Ailes' first venture into political spotlight.
[edit] Other ventures
Ailes founded Ailes Communications, Inc., in New York in 1969, and consulted for various businesses and politicians, including WCBS-TV in New York. He also tried his hand in theater production with the Broadway musical Mother Earth (1972) and the off-Broadway hit play Hot-L Baltimore (1973-76), for which Ailes received 4 Obie Awards. He was executive producer for a television special The Last Frontier in 1974. He produced and directed a television special, Fellini: Wizards, Clowns and Honest Liars.
[edit] Political consulting
Ailes carried out Republican political consulting for many candidates during the 1970s and 1980s, but returned to presidential campaigning as a consultant to Ronald Reagan in 1984. He is widely credited with having coached Reagan to victory in the second presidential debate with Walter Mondale after Reagan had disappointed his partisans with what some call a lackluster effort in the first debate. In 1984, Ailes won an Emmy Award as executive producer and director of a television special, Television and the Presidency. In 1988 Ailes was credited (along with Lee Atwater) with guiding George H. W. Bush to a come-from-behind [2] victory over Michael Dukakis. Ailes did not work on the 1992 Bush campaign against Bill Clinton.
[edit] Later television
In 1988, Ailes wrote a book with Jon Kraushar called You Are the Message: Secrets of the Master Communicators, in which he discusses some of his philosophies and strategies for successful performance in the public eye.
In 1991, Ailes convinced a syndicator to bring Rush Limbaugh from radio to television and became executive producer of the late-night show. He announced his withdrawal from political consulting in 1992.
In 1993, Ailes became president of NBC's cable channel CNBC and began planning another NBC cable channel, America's Talking. The new channel debuted on July 4, 1994. Ailes also hosted his own nightly show, Straight Forward, an hour-long talk show.
[edit] Fox News
After the announcement of Microsoft and NBC's partnership to create an online and cable news outlet, MSNBC, taking the place of America's Talking, Ailes left the network in February 1996 and was hired by Rupert Murdoch to create Fox News Channel for News Corporation. In addition, 89 additional employees of the NBC networks left with Ailes to help with the new channel's creation. Adding to a team in place at Fox News, they created the programming concept and proceeded to select space in New York. Ailes worked his staff through five months of grueling 14-hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before launch, on October 7, 1996.
Airing in 10 million households at launch, the network is currently available to 85 million households in the U.S. and over 55 countries worldwide. The network has also become the top cable news channel in the United States.
[edit] Chairman of Fox Television Stations
After the departure of Lachlan Murdoch from News Corporation, Ailes was named Chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group on August 15, 2005. Following his newest assignment, one of his first acts was canceling A Current Affair in September 2005 and replacing it with a new Geraldo Rivera show titled Geraldo at Large, which debuted on Halloween, 2005. Rivera's show drew about the same ratings as A Current Affair [1] in January, 2007. Ailes decided to cancel "Geraldo At Large" to move Geraldo back on FOX News Channel.
Ailes also hired former CBS executive Dennis Swanson in October 2005, who will be president of the Fox Television Stations Group. Additionally, there have been changes in affiliates' news programs with the uniforming of Fox News Channel-like graphics, redesigned studios, news-format changes, and the announcement of a new morning television show called The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet to be produced by Fox News Channel.
[edit] MyNetworkTV
Following the announcement of the UPN/WB merger to The CW network, News Corporation announced the creation of MyNetworkTV to provide an alternative network for its O&O UPN affiliates on February 22, 2006. Ailes only learned of UPN's demise ten minutes before the official announcement.[2] The network officially debuted on September 5, 2006 with a slate of telenovelas like Watch Over Me and Wicked Wicked Games, which received extremely low ratings. The soap operas are now being phased out in favor of an all-reality show format.
[edit] Controversy
On March 9, 2007 the Nevada State Democratic Party [3] cancelled their August, 2007 presidential debate to be hosted by Fox News. Fox News vice president David Rhodes responded to the cancellation by saying that the Nevada Democratic caucus is controlled by MoveOn.org.[4]
In the same speech, Ailes said:
- "Only people who understand different points of view can exercise an informed decision in the voting booth. Freedom of the press did not invent democracy. Democracy invented freedom of the press. For saying that, I sometimes get accused of being too pro-American or too pro-Israeli. I just happen to like democracies. But it don't mean we can't cover the news fairly. Bias is not necessarily what you believe in, but it can be reporting a story and leaving out other people's valid beliefs." [5]
[edit] Bibliography
- Ailes, Roger. "Attorney Style: Charisma in a Court Counts." The National Law Journal (New York), 21 July 1986. You Are the Message. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
- Ailes, Roger. "Campaign Strategy." Time (New York), 11 May 1992.
- Ailes, Roger. "A Few Kind Words for Presenter Tip O'Neill." Advertising Age (New York), 8 January 1990.
- Ailes, Roger. "How to Make a Good Impression." Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York), September 1989.
- Ailes, Roger. "How to Make an Audience Love You." Working Woman (New York), November 1990.
- Ailes, Roger. "The Importance of Being Likeable." Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York), May 1988. "Sam and Diane: Give 'em Time." Advertising Age (New York), 21 August 1989.
- Ailes, Roger. "Lighten Up! Stuffed Shirts Have Short Careers." Newsweek (New York), 18 May 1992.
- Ailes, Roger. "They Told the Truth...Occasionally." Adweek's Marketing Week (New York), 29 January 1990.
- Ailes, Roger. YOU Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are (1989)
- Angwin, Julia. "After Riding High With Fox News, Murdoch Aide Has Harder Slog" The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2006;.
- Barnes, Fred. "Pulling the Strings." The New Republic, 22 February 1988.
- Devlin, Patrick L. "Contrasts in Presidential Campaign Commercials of 1988." American Behavioral Scientist, March-April 1989.
- Hass, Nancy. "Roger Ailes: Embracing the Enemy." New York Times Magazine, 8 January 1995.
- Miller, Stuart. "Roger Ailes Hits TV with a Rush." Variety , 21 June 1991.
- Oneal, Michael. "Roger Ailes Fixed CNBC, But Now Ted Turner Looms." Business Week, 3 July 1995.
- Wolinsky, Leo C. "Refereeing the TV Campaign." Washington Journalism Review, January-February 1991.
[edit] References
- ^ The Ticker: Ailes, Cooper/Sheehan, 9/11.... LA Times (via. TVNewser). Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
- ^ New Polls Show Bush Shaves Dukakis Lead
