Encyclopedia
Roger Eugene Ailes is the current
president of
Fox News Channel, chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group, and oversees the upcoming
My Network TV. Ailes is most well known for two things: his creation and management of the
Fox News Channel, and his creation of the
Willie Horton ads which attacked Democratic presidential candidate
Michael Dukakis during the 1988 campaign.
Early Life, Education, and Family
Born in
Warren, Ohio, Ailes graduated from
Ohio University in
Athens, Ohio, receiving his BA in 1962. He later received an Honorary Doctorate from the university.
He was formerly married to Norma E. Ailes , formerly a TV producer with Mission Media Ministries. The two have one child, a daughter, Shawn C. Ailes Visco Ferrer , a TV producer.
The
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on July 3, 1997, that Ailes was engaged to Elizabeth Tilson , whom he married on February 14, 1998. Formerly a TV executive, she is now a homemaker.
Career
Early television
Ailes' career in television began in
Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a producer and director for
KYW-TV, 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.
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 and the off-Broadway hit play Hot-L Baltimore , 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.
Political consulting
Ailes carried out 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 Ronald 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 with guiding
George H. W. Bush to a come-from-behind victory over Michael Dukakis. During that election campaign, Ailes and Atwater were reviled by Democrats when they devised and marketed the
Willie Horton ad campaign. Ailes did not work on the losing 1992 Bush campaign against Bill Clinton.
Later television
In 1988, Ailes wrote a book with Jon Kraushar, 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 media 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, a celebrity hour-long talk show.
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 individuals 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 #1 cable news channel in the United States.
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.
Ailes also hired former
CBS executive Dennis Swanson in October 2005, who will be
president of the
Fox Television Stations Group. Additionally, there has also 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 to be produced by
Fox News Channel.
My Network TV
Following the announcement of the
UPN/
WB merger to
The CW network,
News Corporation announced the creation of
My Network TV to provide an alternative network for its
O&O UPN affiliates on February 22, 2006. The announcement included that Ailes would be assigned to oversee the network under his position at the Fox Television Stations Group. The network will officially broadcast on September 5, 2006.
Overview
...
's 1988 Presidential campaign *President of CNBC; 1991-1996
- President of NBC's America's Talking, 1993-1996
- Chief Executive Officer, Fox News Channel; 1996-present
- Chairman, Fox Television Stations; 2005-present
Bibliography
- Ailes, Roger. "Attorney Style: Charisma in a Court Counts." The National Law Journal , 21 July 1986. You Are the Message. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
- Ailes, Roger. "Campaign Strategy." Time , 11 May 1992.
- Ailes, Roger. "A Few Kind Words for Presenter Tip O'Neill." Advertising Age , 8 January 1990.
- Ailes, Roger. "How to Make a Good Impression." Reader's Digest , September 1989.
- Ailes, Roger. "How to Make an Audience Love You." Working Woman , November 1990.
- Ailes, Roger. "The Importance of Being Likeable." Reader's Digest , May 1988. "Sam and Diane: Give 'em Time." Advertising Age , 21 August 1989.
- Ailes, Roger. "Lighten Up! Stuffed Shirts Have Short Careers." Newsweek , 18 May 1992.
- Ailes, Roger. "They Told the Truth...Occasionally." Adweek's Marketing Week , 29 January 1990.
- Ailes, Roger. YOU Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are
- 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.
External links
