“Not sure I would have been President w/o his great talent.”
the network’s political messaging during his presidential campaign and mixed it with populist promises of bringing jobs back.
He snatched crucial victories in swing states that had previously voted Democratic.
“Trump is the perfect Fox spokesman. If he (wasn’t) the president, he’d have his own show,” Bartlett said.
Fox News legitimized a compelling business model for a new generation of conservative media outlets.
“It spawned a great industry of the conservative media universe that’d include talk radio and websites,” Bartlett says. “To a large degree, they all sit on the foundation of Fox.”
Fox News changed how we think of a TV news network, said Kyle Pope, editor in chief of the Columbia Journalism Review. “He clearly created the partisan rightwing media in America in modern incarnation. And he took it to a different level.”
A LIGHTNING ROD
He also energized a liberal media. The headline on a Rolling Stone article looking at Ailes’ legacy Thursday read, “Roger Ailes Was One of the Worst Americans Ever.”
Fox News is undergoing tumultuous changes brought on by sexual harassment scandals involving Ailes and others, while its parent company, 21st Century Fox, struggles to deal with a wave of lawsuits.
It has paid $45 million in settlements related to sexual harassment cases against Ailes, the company reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this month.
Two weeks ago, the network’s co-president Bill Shine resigned as women came forward with allegations of harassment at Fox News. Upon Shine’s departure, Murdoch promoted Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace as division heads — Scott of programming, Wallace of news.
All this follows the firing last month of Bill O’Reilly, one of the network’s top talents. The New York Times reported that he was the subject of sexual harassment complaints by former female colleagues.
Before that, Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren, jumped ship from Fox News.
In a column written exclusively for USA TODAY, O’Reilly defended Ailes, arguing that “while opinions were many, facts were few. Roger was convicted of bad behavior in the court or public opinion. … He, himself, was stunned and never really recovered . ... Roger Ailes experienced that hatred and it killed him. That is the truth.”
Federal investigators reportedly are investigating Fox over settlements paid to individuals who filed sexual harassment suits against Ailes.
Neither Fox nor the Justice Department or other agencies would confirm an investigation.
Fox said in a statement it had communicated with the U.S. attorney’s office “for months” and would “continue to cooperate on all inquiries with any interested authorities.”
Ailes’ name is mentioned in several other discrimination suits filed against Fox, including one by 13 former and current Fox employees who allege the network engaged in “systemic discrimination based on race, ethnicity and national origin.”
To say that Roger Ailes led a full life is a massive understatement. A force of nature with an agenda, RA, as fellow executives called him, was a man on a mission.
That quest was to infuse America with traditional philosophy and see to it that conservatives like him were heard loud and clear.
The list of legendary Americans that Roger helped is long and impressive. From Ronald Reagan to George Bush, the elder, to Rush Limbaugh, Ailes gave them all blunt advice that led them to success.
And it was that bluntness that made his life difficult, as enemies accumulated — some armed with a brutal hatred.
It was the Fox News channel that crowned Roger’s career of achievement. In 1996, the cable news start-up was mocked by CNN’s Ted Turner. Few thought Ailes and his inexperienced crew would dethrone the mighty international news agency that Turner helmed.
But it happened and relatively quickly.
I was there at the beginning. When Roger offered me an hourly program, I asked if he’d like to see a written outline.
Ailes scoffed, told me to be fair and tough but, most of all, not to screw it up. I knew that I had to meet his personal challenge: work hard, be honest in my opinions. Do not seek to curry favor.
Not once in almost 20 years did Roger Ailes order me to say anything on the air. I had total independence. In private, I sometimes challenged his orthodoxy. I wish I had taped that.
When stuff hit the fan, as it will when you are doing daily political commentary in a polarized nation, Roger had my back. Even in the beginning when my ratings were not dominant. He defended me in public even while sometimes mocking me in private. He was genuine, charismatic, profane, generous and sincere in his beliefs. He could be brutal verbally, but if you were straight with him, he would protect you.
Over the years, I saw Roger literally save people from destruction. And more than a few. He didn’t have to do it, there was no benefit to him. In the callous world of TV news, that kind of generosity is rare. If a Fox person had trouble, Roger was the guy to go to. But you had to be honest.
When Roger departed Fox News last July under a cloud of suspicion, the vast majority of Fox employees were sad. We were not privy to executive actions and while opinions were many, facts were few. Roger was convicted of bad behavior in the court of public opinion and it was painful for many of us to watch. He, himself, was stunned and never really recovered.
It’s easy to make judgments from afar — but fair people know that seeking the truth is a complicated and demanding process. In my opinion, few sought the comprehensive truth about Roger Ailes.
Millions of Americans have been affected by the Fox News, no doubt about that. In a nation where the national press is generally sympathetic to the left, Fox gives voice to a more traditional point of view that other TV news operations historically ignored. That is a very good thing for our republic, and Roger Ailes is directly responsible.
So at age 77, Roger is gone. Some in the press continued to demean him even on the day of his death. He leaves a wife and son who knew him best and adored him. For Roger, that meant more than all his accomplishments, and I hope that brought him solace in his last tough year.
We are living in a rough age, with technological advances changing behavior and perspective. The downside of that is turning us into a nation where hatred is almost celebrated in some quarters. Roger Ailes experienced that hatred and it killed him. That is the truth. But he would not want to be remembered that way. He did both good and bad in his life and in that, he has something in common with every human being.
When I remember Roger, as I often will, I’ll picture him holding court with his top anchors, jazzing them with wit, verbally crushing any and all pretensions. He was truly a force, an unforgettable person.
It was a privilege to know him.