Roger Ailes

Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's 1989 New York City mayoral election. In July 2016, he left Fox News after allegations of sexually harassing female Fox employees, including on-air hosts Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Andrea Tantaros.

Ailes had hemophilia, a medical condition in which the body is impaired in its ability to produce blood clots. He died on May 18, 2017, at the age of 77 after a subdural hematoma that was aggravated by his hemophilia. Ailes is known for his influence on conservative media, the conservative movement, and American presidents. He is also considered controversial due to the numerous allegations of sexual harassment against him throughout his career and for allegedly creating a misogynistic environment at Fox News.

Early life

Ailes was born and grew up in the factory town of Warren, Ohio, to Donna Marie (née Cunningham) and Robert Eugene Ailes, a factory maintenance foreman. Ailes had hemophilia and was often hospitalized as a youth. He attended the Warren city schools, and later was inducted into Warren G. Harding High School's Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. Actor and playwright Austin Pendleton was a childhood friend of Ailes.

Ailes's father was an authoritarian parent who was often physically and verbally abusive, while Ailes later recalled that his mother feared his hemophilia and was only physically affectionate "once in a while". His parents divorced in 1960; when he came home from college for Christmas break, they informed him that he would have to stay at a friend's house. In 1962, Ailes graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he majored in radio and television and served as the student station manager for WOUB for two years.

Career

Early television

Ailes's career in television began in Cleveland and Philadelphia, where he started as production assistant (1961), producer (1965), and executive producer (1967–68) at KYW-TV, for a then-locally produced talk-variety show, The Mike Douglas Show. He continued as executive producer for the show when it was syndicated nationally, and in 1967 and 1968 he won Emmy Awards for it.

In 1967, Ailes 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 for television. Nixon's successful presidential campaign was Ailes's first venture into the political spotlight. His pioneering work in framing national campaign issues was later chronicled in The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss.

Ailes was an employee of Television News Inc., a syndicated television newsfilm service owned by Joseph Coors, from January to September 1975.

Political consulting

In 1984, Ailes worked on the campaign to reelect Ronald Reagan. In 1987 and 1988, Ailes was credited (along with fellow consultant Lee Atwater) with guiding George H. W. Bush to victory in the Republican primaries and in the victory over Michael Dukakis.

Ailes was credited with the "Orchestra Pit Theory" regarding sensationalist political coverage in the news media, which originated with his quip:

If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, "I have a solution to the Middle East problem," and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?

Ailes's last campaign was the unsuccessful effort of Richard Thornburgh in his run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in November 1991. He announced his withdrawal from political consulting in 1991.

Days after the 9/11 attacks, Ailes advised President George W. Bush that the American public would be patient as long as they were convinced that Bush was using the harshest measures possible. The correspondence was revealed in Bob Woodward's book Bush at War. Criticized for giving political advice, Ailes lashed out against Woodward, saying "Woodward got it all screwed up, as usual", and "The reason he's not as rich as Tom Clancy is that while he and Clancy both make stuff up, Clancy does his research first." Ailes refused to release a copy of the memo he sent to Bush.

Book

In 1988, Ailes wrote a book with long-time aide Jon Kraushar entitled You Are the Message: Secrets of the Master Communicators. In 1989, Ailes wrote a book with Jon Kraushar entitled You Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are.

America's Talking channel

Ailes eventually made his way back to television, this time focusing on cable news. In 1993, he became president of CNBC and later created the America's Talking channel, which would eventually become MSNBC. He hosted an interview program on America's Talking. In 1995, NBC hired a law firm to conduct an internal investigation after Ailes allegedly called NBC executive David Zaslav a "little fucking Jew prick." This was not confirmed as the reason for his departure.

20th Television/Fox News

Ailes was hired by News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch in 1996 to become the CEO of Fox News, effective on October 7.

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, Geraldo at Large, which debuted on Halloween, 2005. Rivera's show drew about the same ratings as A Current Affair in January 2007.

Ailes hired former Viacom executive Dennis Swanson in October 2005 to be president of the Fox Television Stations Group. Additionally, there were changes in affiliates' news programs with the standardization 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.

In January 2011, 400 rabbis, including leaders from various branches of Judaism in the United States, published an open letter in The Wall Street Journal on the UN-designated Holocaust Remembrance Day. They called on Rupert Murdoch to sanction Fox News commentator Glenn Beck for his use of the Holocaust to "discredit any individual or organization you disagree with." An executive at Fox News rejected the letter, calling it the work of a "George Soros-backed left wing political organization." Ailes is also said to have once referred to Jewish critics of his as "left-wing rabbis."

Also in 2011, Ailes was criticized for referring to executives of the public radio network NPR as "Nazis" for firing a news analyst, Juan Williams, after Williams had made remarks considered by NPR to be offensive. Ailes apologized to a Jewish group, but not to NPR, for using the expression, writing to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL): "I was of course ad-libbing and should not have chosen that word, but I was angry at the time because of NPR's willingness to censor Juan Williams for not being liberal enough ... My now considered opinion 'nasty, inflexible bigot' would have worked better." The ADL welcomed and accepted the apology through its National Director, Abraham Foxman; in a subsequent letter to The Wall Street Journal Foxman said that both Ailes and Beck were "pro-Israel stalwarts."

In October 2012, Ailes's contract with Fox News was renewed for four years, through 2016. If completed, he would have served as head of Fox News Channel for 20 years. Salary terms were not made public, although his earnings for the 2012 fiscal year were $21 million (~$28.3 million in 2024) inclusive of bonuses. In addition to heading Fox News and chairing Fox Television Stations, Ailes also chaired 20th Television, MyNetworkTV and Fox Business Network.

Sexual harassment allegations

In a book published in 2014, Gabriel Sherman alleged that, in the 1980s, Ailes offered a television producer a raise if she would sleep with him. Fox News denied the allegation and rejected the authenticity of Sherman's book.

On July 6, 2016, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes; Carlson's allegations were the impetus for more than a dozen female employees at 21st Century Fox to step forward regarding their own experiences with Ailes's behaviour. Carlson alleged that she had been fired for rebuffing Ailes's advances. Ailes, through his attorney, Susan Estrich, denied the charges. Three days later, Sherman reported accounts from six women (two publicly and four anonymously) who alleged sexual harassment by Ailes. In response, Ailes's counsel released a statement: "It has become obvious that Ms. Carlson and her lawyer are desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue."