Roger Ailes And What He Brought

Ailes brought personalities to Fox. It was much less expensive to have screaming hosts than reporters and bureaus. And it worked better! It was under Ailes that Fox News became the first modern network with a political attitude.

Blogger’s note: The first paragraph refers to the sexual harassment charges and settlements paid on Ailes’ behalf by Fox News. I should have made that more clear from the get-go. Sorry for any confusion.

You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but Roger Ailes was a vile man. We’ll get that out of-the-way first. NewsCorp/21st Century Fox should be forever ashamed for what they allowed to transpire.

Ailes was incredibly impactful as a broadcaster. Fox News Channel changed the face of cable news.

Before FNC, CNN was ‘just a news channel.’ It was straight news delivered by straight news anchors. Sometimes they lightened it up a little (I always enjoyed Beverly Williams and Patrick Emery, the “Moonlighting” of TV news), but mostly it was news of-the-day from around-the-world.

Ailes brought personalities to Fox. It was much less expensive to have screaming hosts than reporters and bureaus. And it worked better!

It was under Ailes that Fox News became the first modern network with a political attitude. Saying “Fair and Balanced” couldn’t hide its right-of-center slant. I don’t think they really wanted to hide it anyway.

And it worked.

Fox News Channel was/is fabulously profitable. The dollars involved are mind boggling. This is a few years old, but you’ll get the idea.

Fox led in revenue in 2015; the network was projected to increase by 14% to $2.3 billion. CNN was projected to grow by 6% to $1.2 billion, while MSNBC was projected to grow by 3% to $518 million.

In a half-decade that saw moderate decline in the number of foreign bureaus, CNN continued to lead in the number of domestic and international bureaus. – Mediatite

Fox’s secret was to make its audience part of a cause and then keep them angry. I’m not saying others don’t do this now, just Fox was first and had a huge head start.

Here’s where it all goes off the rails. When there is no reason for its audience to be up-in-arms, Fox will find and promote a story to rebuild the anger.

They did it with the “War on Christmas” and recently with an awful story about the shooting of a DNC employee. Fox connected the murdered man to Wikileaks, as it turns out falsely.

Partisan news outlets aren’t new. The last fifty years are the exception. Newspapers which dominated journalism until the sixties was heavily political. I remember when the New York Post was the liberal voice of labor — really.

Through Roger Ailes, FNC and the other outlets have traded news for adrenaline. This is his legacy. No one should consider it a gift.

14 thoughts on “Roger Ailes And What He Brought”

  1. It’s to bad we can’t have straight unbiased news. Not everything is ‘Breaking News’. I want to see what happened and the impact to individuals. Sports, news & Weather (can’t forget that). I don’t want to see 24 hours of hate Trump or love Trump. Almost as bad as the politicians in DC.

    The likes of Ailes, ruined the news channels. Anything for a buck. We used to watch our local channel (WTNH) then switch over to national news. Nice & simple with no commentary and unbiased information. Those days are gone.

  2. Interesting comments, Geoffrey! You obviously have far more knowledge of Fox News than I. My wife is the “political one” in our family and she gets 95% of her news from Fox. Occasionally, she will switch to MSNBC to see what they are saying on “The Dark Side.” 🙂 As for me, I’m pretty much apolitical but I prefer to watch the evening news on NBC, ABC, & CBS. I find their news to be more interesting since they carry stories that have nothing to do with politics. With Fox it’s “All politics all the time” and they clearly lean very heavily to the right. They did everything they possibly could to trash Hillary and get Trump elected. And it worked! “Fair and balanced” my ass!

      1. This is the sign of someone who’s angry but doesn’t read. I said: “Fox’s secret was to make its audience part of a cause and then keep them angry. I’m not saying others don’t do this now, just Fox was first and had a huge head start.”

        So, he’s asking a question that’s already been answered… and he’s pissed I didn’t say it… but I did. One of the biggest annoyances for me is when this happens.

        1. My comment about CNN was not in regards to your article, it was in regards to the comment above my CNN comment.

        2. Jeff
          what you are saying, Fox was leader and the others were followers..How come they chose to do that?..MONEY MONEY MONEY.
          We became a nation of followers, and forgot the civility and creativity while being honest and honorable. Have a grand day…

  3. I would have thought you were going to call him vile because of all the sexual harassment complaints against him. But no, you find him disgusting because of his political views. Strange you find it worse to stray from liberal views than to be abusive towards women.

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