Newsweek Affirms Mediaite: Fox News’ Roger Ailes Runs The GOP

by Joe Coscarelli | 12:14 pm, January 17th, 2010

» 19 comments

A recent Newsweek column makes a bold, if slightly counter-intuitive pronouncement that pairs media and politics: “Roger Ailes is the real head of the GOP” argues Howard Fineman in “Life of the Party.” But it just sounds so familiar…

Ah, yes! Mediaite has been making a similar case since September, when a column by Managing Editor Colby Hall called Ailes “The Most Powerful Political Figure In America,” supported again last month when we named Ailes the #1 Media Innovator of 2009. Glad we can agree, Newsweek, but let’s run down the evidence.

Fineman leads with the lack of a leader in the current GOP. Unable to come up with a clear answer, he writes that he “finally found my answer while I was watching Fox News Channel.”

Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum—which is why God created Roger Ailes. The president of Fox News is, by default, the closest thing there is to a kingmaker in Anti-Obama America. And that, in turn, makes him the de facto leader of the GOP. In a relentless (and spectacularly successful) hunt for cable ratings, Ailes has given invaluable publicity to the tea partiers, furnished tryout platforms to GOP candidates, and trained a fire hose of populist anger at the president and his allies in Congress.

Our own Hall wrote:

In discussing the power and influence of Ailes, one has to start with the ratings – as we reported this Monday, FNC is consistently beating all other networks combined.
…
But the power of Fox News goes beyond total eyeballs — their influence is actually shaping policy and taking down federal officials in an unprecedented manner. First, there is the Health Care debate – no outlet has had more influence than Fox, who went so far as to claim that the Obama Administration was attacking FNC.

We went on to run down Fox’s role in the resignation of Van Jones, the ACORN scandal, the 9/12 Project and so on.

Fineman reveals that he has a personal relationship with Ailes and goes on to call the FNC boss a “frenemy.” The most interesting section, though, follows:

The irony is that Ailes is not in the game to wield political power per se. He doesn’t talk to the RNC and he can’t stand most elected politicians, even the ones he puts on the air. “It’s beneath him to get into politics,” says a longtime friend. In his universe, the Washington equation is reversed: political power begets profits, not the other way around. But if politics is a nonstop talk show, being the head booker means you are the boss.

And profit is something Ailes knows all about, earning almost $24 million last year, a figure we’ve highlighted before. Let’s not forget our assessment of the Ailes portrayal in the New York Times either.

Plenty of ink (and blog ink, of course) has been spilled on Ailes in recent months — he’s impossible to ignore. And obviously, there’s plenty of room on this particular analysis beat. Just remember where you came from, okay?

Bill O'Reilly, David Carr, fnc, fox news, Fox News Channel, Glenn Beck, Howard Fineman, News Corp., Newsweek, Roger Ailes, rupert murdoch, Sean Hannity, Tim Arango

TfT

Oh well….newsweek also thinks that Obama is “god” — they didn’t get that one right either.
timzank

Newsweak and Mediaite “Making It Up As We Go!”
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

So Ailes runs the entire party — this makes so much sense. No, wait, it doesn’t make any sense, because we have been told that Karl Rove was the guy calling all the shots. But other sources also said that Dick Cheney was the guy actually pulling the strings. And president Obama also declared Rush Limbaugh was the head of the party. Now I have no idea from whom we are supposed to get our marching orders.

The evidence given pointing to Ailes is less than convincing. Van Jones hung himself with numerous videos using his own words. The ACORN scandal derived from Breitbart, not FOX. And the 9/12 project had many hands in its gestation, it was not created by FOX News.
timzank

Hey everybody, re-read that headline about 3 times and see if it doesn’t just make you start to chuckle. You guys need to make up your mind who your enemy is and stick with it. Last week it was Rush, right? Then again I thought you said Murdoch ran the right.
m

>Van Jones hung himself with numerous videos using his own words.

Was on Fox News 24/7.

>The ACORN scandal derived from Breitbart, not FOX.

Gained publicity by being pumped on Fox News 24/7.

>And the 9/12 project had many hands in its gestation, it was not created by FOX News.

It WAS created by Fox News. It was a Fox News-created event.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

Sorry, Martini, I have to agree with m on the 9/12 Project. That was Mr. Beck’s work. He started it almost a year ago. He wanted us to “get back to feeling like we did on 9/12″.
Fidoohki

No it was a Glenn Beck created event. You cna argue that Foxnews had a hand in it but you’ll have to bring more
proof than ‘they covered it’.
Fidoohki

Oh! and as for Ailes running the GOP? When does the stupid stop?
Pat Doherty

In a span of 14 months, liberal journalists and commentators have asserted with full confidence that Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, John McCain, and now Roger Ailes is the “Leader of the GOP.” Can someone explain to me the obsession with identifying the “Leader of the GOP?” I imagine it’s an attempt to identify all perceived negative qualities of the “Leader of the GOP” and then define the party as a whole with said qualities. This is a tired meme.
dogmeat

Who really cares what Newsweak has to say! The Nationally Edited Word Service doesn’t report news! This is the reasoln they are financial trouble. Obama has in his brief career been on the cover more often any other person. They have made every effort to deify the man. They are prpogandist period. Yes they are weak on news!
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

@ Stephen Hogan
Beck may be credited with starting it nearly a year ago, but he was not on FOX news at the time, he was at CNN.
And they may have covered the Van Jones story but his quotes were over a long span of time and not the creation of FOX. And the numerous ACORN stories were purely out of Breitbart. I’m just saying they attribute more to Ailes to make the case but it does not hold up.
germ

lol The 9/12 Beck-FOX correlation is hilarious – this could also be said for NBC’s Green week:

NBC’s Green week is really a for-profit promotion for GE, since GE owns NBC.

See Mediaite, it works both ways.
Moderate

“Who really cares what Newsweak has to say! The Nationally Edited Word Service doesn’t report news! This is the reasoln they are financial trouble.”

Newsweek is simply the print version of MSNBC.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

@MartiniShark

Actually, Beck was at Fox News when he started it. The 9/12 Project was founded on March 13, 2009 during a special episode called “We Surround Them. Beck left HLN at the end of 2008 and started his Fox program in January of ’09. I have made no dispute in regards to Van Jones or Breitbart. I agree with you that they did make their case very well.

@germ

It’s not a “correlation”. A correlation describes a possible relationship. There is no “possible relationship”. Beck started the 9/1 Project. He created it. Your comparison regarding NBC and GE is an absolute red herring and has nothing to do with the content of this editorial.
germ

@ Stephen Hogan – Beck made the 9/12 Project as part of his “Mercury Entertainment” Company, guess you didn’t know that he owns his own company and hires staff, but is under contract as a contractor to FOX News. I guess I didn’t make that part clear.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Guo/100000649950349 James Guo

fox stuff
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

@germ;

Actually, I am very much aware that the 9/12 Project is part of his own company. This is another red herring.

I’m not sure what your point is here. I stated that Beck created the 9/12 Project. He used Fox News as his platform. Although Fox News did not create the 9/12 Project, it certainly aided in its development and growth.
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

I could have sworn he began the 9/12 project on his radio show but I’ll defer to those dates. Couldn’t research with “24″ on tonight.
Facebook User

Why do the liberals always resort to some corporate conspiracy theory about EVERYTHING. It’s a news channel with a conservative slant. Get over it.