If you have turned on Fox News during any hour of the day in the past several months, you know who Eric Bolling is. The host of Fox Business’s Follow the Money and co-host of The Five can be seen on nearly every program– from Fox & Friends to filling in on The O’Reilly Factor, and his swing-for-the-fences opinions have made him as popular as he is controversial on the network. Bolling opens up to Mediaite about how he ended up in the cable news business, his favorite television moments, and what plans may be in store for the future.

Current Republican presidential primary frontrunner Newt Gingrich took an odd swipe at his former employer at a town hall meeting in South Carolina on Tuesday. In answering a question about HIV/AIDS policy, Gingrich zinged Fox News, saying “One of the real changes that comes when you start running for President — as opposed to being an analyst on Fox — is I have to actually know what I’m talking about.”

Fox News chief Roger Ailes is furious at Sarah Palin, according to Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine, because she announced that she wouldn’t be running for President in 2012 on Mark Levin‘s show, and not on Fox News Channel. “Ailes was so mad,” Sherman reports, “he considered pulling her off the air entirely until her $1 million annual contract expires in 2013.”

Would you want to be see Chris Matthews on Fox News? The MSNBC host and former speechwriter to Jimmy Carter has revealed in an interview with Forbes that, not only has he turned down two opportunities to work at Fox News  (over a decade ago), but he is also “loyal” to the network’s president, Roger Ailes.

And we can officially put the “Bob Beckel Death Scare Count” at two for the past week. Seriously. Today’s The Five began with Beckel sincerely thanking his frequent sparring partner Eric Bolling for literally saving his life. Apparently, a few hours prior to the broadcast, a few of the hosts had been having lunch together at a Fox party when Beckel began choking on a large shrimp.

Amongst the hoopla surrounding Fox News’ 15th anniversary, Frazier Moore of the Associated Press has done an interview with Roger Ailes. And, while those are always super fun, one comment in particular is already raising some eyebrows. In the article, Ailes combats the idea that the network is biased. His proof; the reason he hired Sarah Palin isn’t her views, it’s that she’s “hot.”

This week, Adweek has offered a retrospective of Fox News now that the “little network that could” is the midst of celebrating its 15 years on the air. Mediaite readers know that, last week, the network celebrated this milestone with a party, during which Fox News head Roger Ailes held up an issue of USA Today, from 1996, that had taken a skeptical view of the then brand-new network.

But more than merely looking back on the network or its influence on politics and pop culture (or its ability to throw a pretty good party), the Adweek piece notes how Fox News managed to change the way TV itself works.

Newsweek/Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, as she does every week, to discuss some of the most notable features in the weekly edition of her magazine. The topic of conversation today centered on the Howard Kurtz article about Fox News chair Roger Ailes, specifically how the dominant cable news channel has allegedly “corrected course” in their coverage, ostensibly going from a predictably hard-charging conservative point of view, to a more moderate one.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once considered a more base-palatable alternative to Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was forced to drop out of the race early after a slide that began with his refusal to confront Romney at a debate over “Obamneycare.” According to Howard Kurtz, Pawlenty went looking for work at Fox News shortly thereafter, but was given a resounding “Fox no!” for his troubles.

The Daily Beast and Newsweek have offered a revealing look at Fox News president Roger Ailes — and it’s interesting not only because it provides additional insight regarding Ailes, the wildly successful businessman; but also provides a rare glimpse into Ailes and his personal life (Example: Don’t try to get between Ailes and a pinch of sea salt!), Perhaps most noteworthy, the piece offers a brief look into the future of Fox News Channel.

Fifteen years ago, a new cable news channel began broadcasting among a fairly loud chorus of media skeptics. “Fledgling Fox News” was an oft-repeated refrain by the media establishment, and oddly, became a rallying cry with founding Fox News Chief Roger Ailes and his loyal support staff. Last night, I was able to attend, on behalf of Mediaite, the 15 year celebration at New York’s Chelsea Piers, and caught up with Mr. Ailes, plus on-air stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly, Shep Smith, and many others to discuss Fox News success.

In the latest issue of Esquire, writer Tom Junod analyzes the serious side of The Daily Show and compares comedian Jon Stewart to Fox News president Roger Ailes. Junod devotes most of the article to Stewart’s serious side, suggesting in recent years it has influenced and guided his work more than his comedic side. Talking [...]

Jon Stewart is famous for his legendary take-downs of Fox News, but in an interview with Rolling Stone, he says The Daily Show and Fox are not so different from one another.

Ed Henry, who made a fast friend in White House Press Secretary Jay Carney upon leaving CNN to become Fox News’ White House correspondent, gave Adweek a very revealing interview about the course his career has taken.

Henry even tackles the media buzz surrounding his switch to Fox News, sharing that he feels his questions are just as tough as when he was at CNN.

Fox & Friends‘ Steve Doocy hosted BreitbartTV Editor-in-Chief Larry O’Connor this morning to discuss reports of several popular websites that are now, supposedly, “dead or dying.” The real target here, though, was obviously Gawker, who Fox says has lost 75% of its traffic since last year. You can almost audibly hear the axes grinding, as Fox extracts some payback for Gawker’s unflattering coverage of Fox News, and O’Connor blames the whole thing on liberal hoity-toitiness. Gawker’s Nick Denton immediately pushed back against the story.

Here at Mediaite we don’t write about, much less care too much about, fancy-pants restaurants, even those deemed to be “media” hangouts and especially those considered “hot spots.” So last year when our founder Dan Abrams and other media guy Dave Zinczenko got involved in The Lion restaurant, we yawned publicly while secretly imagining a new Mediaite clubhouse, sort of like a real-life version of Cheers only with powerful media figures playing the part of regulars.

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, back to work following her maternity leave, took some time to speak with Marie Claire about a whole lot ‘o stuff: the role her looks have played in her television career, Glenn Beck, Roger Ailes… and whether or not she believes her network is biased in its coverage.

Much of the interview — surprisingly hard-hitting for a profile in a fashion-oriented magazine — focuses on image. How does Kelly’s image help or hurt her career? What image does Beck give off to viewers and detractors? …Does she agree with the perception of Fox News as a biased news source? In a word, “No.”

Yesterday, we told you that Gawker and its investigative report John Cook were preparing a civil suit against New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in an effort to obtain records that he had met with Fox News head Roger Ailes on September 11th of last year. Cook believes Ailes has a direct hand in GOP politics and may have encouraged Christie to try and seek the Republican nomination for president. The American Civil Liberties Union decided to help the website in its legal pursuits, filing the suit on behalf of Gawker Entertainment LLC.

Now, however, it seems that the organization is having a change of heart.

Gawker and its resident investigative reporter John Cook are planning to file a civil suit today against Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as part of the site’s investigation into whether Christie communicated with Fox News president Roger Ailes… and whether Ailes has a direct hand in politics.

Gawker’s investigation was inspired by New York magazine’s recent, much-publicized profile on Ailes, which noted that the chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group called Christie to encouraged him to campaign in 2012.

Perhaps owing to a classic summer news lull (combined with Casey Anthony Trial fatigue) CNN looked to Gawker for news today. The Situation Room devoted a segment to yesterday’s story on Fox Chief Roger Ailes and some memos unearthed by Gawker’s John Cook. CNN producers sought a statement from Fox News who insisted that a statement would be forthcoming if they ran it unedited. CNN refused to air it “sight unseen,” Mediaite has obtained the full statement that CNN did not run.

Gawker’s investigative reporter, John Cook, recently combed through various documents (as in, 318 pages of memos, letters, outlines and resumes) detailing Fox News president Roger Ailes‘ working relationship to the White House under President Richard Nixon.

No, Roger Ailes insists, he does not think Sarah Palin is an idiot. Far from it. In an interview with Newsweek‘s Howard Kurtz, the Fox News boss responds to a recent run of lousy media coverage, including two magazine profiles that, in Kurtz’s words, portray Ailes as “power mad, paranoid, and a GOP puppeteer.”

Roger Ailes, the head of the Fox News Channel, is written about very extensively in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. The author of the piece, Tim Dickinson, appeared last night on MSNBC with substitute anchor Thomas Roberts and continued his unflattering description of Ailes, “the Chairman,” as a “deeply paranoid” but extremely powerful man.

Coming back from a week long vacation from the news last night, Jon Stewart laced into both the mysterious One Nation bus tour of Sarah Palin — and the media that are desperately trying to cover/make sense of it. Stewart cited a blog post by the one lucky journalist allowed to interview Palin on her bus, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, who in a blog post explained that she got the plum interview spot since Palin is a fellow Fox News employee. In Stewart’s estimation, ergo, Fox News’ chief Roger Ailes is calling the shots.

The explosive New York magazine profile of Roger Ailes that we covered extensively, was the subject for discussion on Morning Joe with the article’s author, Gabriel Sherman. Joe Scarborough was most intrigued by the relationship and discussions between Ailes and Glenn Beck and was pleased to conclude “Ailes was dripping with contempt for Beck’s craziness long before we heard about it.”