Bolling was never a political personality by trade– in fact, if you ever caught him hosting Glenn Beck, you’d remember his first trade was as a professional baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. An injury cut his athletic career short, and he eventually ended up on the trading floor of the New York Mercantile exchange. “I was competing with the big banks. Early on I saw it was oil company trading with investment bank on Wall Street, and I said, ‘There must be a way to compete with this,’” he notes, and found himself doing quite well in commodities trading. So well, in fact, that he caught the eye of a CNBC reporter on the trading floor, and the rest is essentially history. Bolling went on to help put together what is now CNBC’s Fast Money. His departure to Fox Business, he has recalled several times, was a decision made the same way every other single decision is made or conclusion arrived at: what the best thing would be for his son. Fox Business offered hours more compatible to quality time with the younger Bolling, and it wasn’t a difficult decision to make from there.

“I test everything with: How would this affect my 13-year-old when he becomes an adult?”

During his tenure at CNBC, he first developed a taste for challenging the norms. He fondly remembers his biggest challenge there, against Mad Money star Jim Cramer. “I was the guy that had all this trading experience… a lot of skin in the game. I heard Jim Cramer was getting a little upset with me because he was the big dog, he had Mad Money, he had this huge persona and whatnot, then I was starting to get some popularity. I like energy markets, I like metal markets, and I said, ‘you have to be careful with the financial markets.’ This is before the meltdown. So he booked himself on our show—now, we’d never had guests up until that point,” he explains. “So I hear he’s coming on and coming after me. And I did what I do best, I have a tendency to fight back and, sure enough, he came at me.” He went on to bet Cramer $50,000 on the air — for charity — that the financial markets would be in decline in the very near future. He won. “You talk about defining moments in life? That was my defining moment in TV. Everyone said ‘He knows what he’s talking about, in the markets.’”

Bolling does not feel that, in the political world, he has different responsibilities as far as what he says on air. “When you talk about financial news, you’re talking about peoples’ money,” he argues. “They listen to you, they take your advice… there are certain principles in life that work whether you’re talking baseball, whether you’re talking business, or you’re talking politics, and they happen to have all the same drivers.” For Bolling, that most important driver is the future he and the country leave to his son, Eric Chase. “I have a 13-year-old son, it scares me to think that he’s going to grow up in a situation where he may step into adulthood owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the government, or China, or whomever.” He brings that to any and every program on which he appears. “It’s an interesting concept that I can take my business background and apply it to the politics of the day, and it works,” he notes. No matter what the issue, “I test everything with: How would this affect my 13-year-old when he becomes an adult? If you keep doing that and you stay true to it, then you’re not going to get in trouble.”

NEXT PAGE: Bolling on the Differences Between Hosting The Five And Follow the Money

After basking in several seconds of laughter, Gingrich added, “It’s a severe limitation.”

It’s an odd barb for several reasons, not the least of which is that he was answering a question that he did not know the answer to. The macro message, then, is that he still doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but now, it matters.

While Fox News did terminate Gingrich’s contract in May (along with fellow candidate Rick Santorum), they did so in anticipation of Gingrich’s presidential run, and Fox News chief Roger Ailes hasn’t exactly bent over backwards for Gingrich rival Mitt Romney.. Ailes reportedly shot down former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s pitch for a Fox News job by telling him, “I’m not sure I want to sign you as a paid spokesman for Romney.”

Ironically, that same night, Fox News’ Bret Baier was doing some Herculean heavy lifting for Gingrich with a devastating interview of Mitt Romney. You would think Newt would show a little bit of gratitude, even if he does have a point about the network’s roster of regulars.

Finally, isn’t it possible that when his presidential bid ends in a few weeks, he might want to go back to work for Fox? We know now that he was doing pretty well as a historian before, but that didn’t stop him then.

Here’s Gingrich’s Fox News zinger, from CNN:

(h/t Raw Story)

At the heart of the disappointment is the fact that Palin had been a contributor to Fox News for two years, and her announcement would have been a ratings coup for FNC. But after Fox hired Karl Rove, Palin’s nemesis who reportedly was not very nice to her (“From day one, he hasn’t been very nice,’ a Palin adviser tells Sherman), she decided to make the announcement on Levin’s show, as Levin is a Palin loyalist. A furious Ailes then came up with the idea of “benching ” Palin — paying her but not putting her on air. The move doesn’t seem so crazy in light of Palin’s inability to boost ratings. Says Sherman:

Ailes, who told Newsweek that he hired Palin when she was “hot,” clearly hoped she would boost ratings. But beyond her prime-time commentary, Palin hasn’t turned into the television asset Ailes had hoped. Palin’s contract is up in 2013 and it’s unclear what the current fracas will mean for her future on Fox News.

Sherman does suggest that Palin has one card left in her deck, now that the, “will she or won’t she run,” question is up: her endorsement of a GOP candidate. And when she decides to endorse someone in this field, Sherman says, she had better do it on Fox News. Because for as much as people like to paint Ailes as a string-pulling villain, he has a right to be angry here — he paid Palin a boatload of money, and she should have had the decency to make the announcement on the network that is giving her a soapbox on which to stand.

Read the entire report at NY Mag.

You might recall that, back in 1994, Ailes hired Matthews to host Politics with Chris Matthews on the “America’s Talking” channel. The show would later transform into Matthews’ current MSNBC program, Hardball.

RELATED: Chris Matthews On Being A Media Bogeyman To The Right: ‘I Love It!’

Deadline.com offers a deliciously snarky bit of reaction from Fox News:

“Those offers were made before we became #1,” a Fox News executive said. “Where would we put him now? Maybe as a lead in to Red Eye.” This is a reference to the fact that in October, Fox News’ 3 AM show Red Eye beat MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews in adults 25-54 with 177,000 viewers vs. 163,000.

Looking at criticism Matthews has received from the left (for, say, having voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and for featuring right-leaning guests on his show), it’s not too surprising that the man Salon once referred to as the “most conservative voice” on MSNBC would have been considered for a Fox News show.

And, you know. He might be a good fit yet. Can you imagine him on The Five?

h/t Deadline.com

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. Quickly, Roger Ailes himself (!) tried to help him but couldn’t get his arms around Beckel’s body. Fortunately, Bolling was there to give him the Heimlich or else we’d be stuck watching The Four.

Yeah, this apparently really happened.

And, for all the kids out there, here’s a perfect example of a “Boy Who Cried Wolf”-style teaching moment. Apparently, Beckel was sitting next to Dana Perino who, if you remember, just one week ago had been scared to death when Beckel faked having a heart attack live on air. As she told it today, when Beckel started choking, she thought it was another gag* and didn’t do anything. Yikes!

*Pun entirely intended.

Watch the clip from Fox News below:

Huh.

Here’s the quote in question:

“From the start, Ailes has steadfastly denied any such political bias or agenda on the part of his network. Politics, schmolitics: ‘I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings,’ he declares.

From the get-go, he meant for his network to counteract the sins he saw others committing: “I really believed there was no fairness or balance” elsewhere on the journalism landscape.

And they struck back.”

Already some are questioning the comment. Over on the Huffington Post they’ve headlined their reprint of the AP article as “Fox News Chief Reveals Crude Reason He Hired Sarah Palin” and the story is beginning to go viral, especially on left-leaning websites. And this isn’t the first time Ailes had discussed his fondness for hiring good looking ladies. In the lengthy profile Esquire did last January, a big portion was dedicated to Ailes’ criteria for anchor women including quotes where he critiqued the fashion sense of the women on HLN.

It also isn’t the first questionable thing involving Ailes and Palin in an interview. In a profile last May, an allegation was raised that Ailes thought the former Governor was “an idiot.” This caused a bit of an uproar and was quickly and vehemently denied by those at Fox News. However, we can imagine that critics of either Ailes and Palin will be quick to see this latest quote as proof the earlier was true.

Of course, it should be noted that it’s quite possible Ailes merely meant “hot” in TV terms. Like, “Hey, Two and a Half Men is hot.” That’s not a referendum on the physical attractiveness of Jon Cryer but rather a reference to the fact that about a billion people decided they needed to see how that show would work without Charlie Sheen. Entertainment Weekly‘s “Hot List” was never just a list of attractive and good-looking people.

The media interpretation of the word “hot” seems to also gel well with the context and his reference to “good ratings.” It’s TV talk.

But, seriously. Lets be honest. Even if Ailes really meant “hot” as in physically attractive, is it really groundbreaking news that a television president sees a benefit in putting pretty women in front of the camera?

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:

Under normal circumstances, once cable operators are convinced to pick up a network, they enter into what’s called a carriage agreement wherein the cable provider—Time Warner Cable, say, or Cablevision—agrees to pay the network a certain amount per subscriber for its programming. This accounts for a large chunk of a cable network’s revenue. (The median rate is around 25 cents per subscriber per month; CNN gets 51 cents and MSNBC pulls in an average of 17 cents.) Murdoch and Ailes settled on a different approach. In order to get off the ground, Fox needed viewers, so Ailes and Carry met with cable chiefs from across the country—from New York to Kentucky and California—and offered to pay them around $10 per subscriber to carry Fox News. It was a huge sum. But the bet paid off—a decade and a half later, many of those contracts are due for renewal, and News Corp. isn’t the party that’s paying anymore.

“In making the decision to pay for distribution, they changed the paradigm forever,” says Current TV co-founder and CEO Joel Hyatt. “Once Rupert was willing to pay for carriage, it ended the era of anybody being able to go in and launch a network de novo for which license fees were available.”

As for the future? Fox News is looking into renegotiating its subscription fees “way up” as it considers itself in the same tier with league with networks, like ESPN, that can command quite a bit per subscriber. And, as the article plainly states, this poses a little problem for cable operators, which, at this point, “simply cannot live without Fox News.”

Adweek‘s Michael Wolff — who knows a bit about Ailes following the extensive research on the man Wolff conducted while preparing his biography on News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch — also weighed in, describing Ailes as being full of “full of piss, vinegar, and brio.”

Wolff’s particular focus — which involves taking a look at whether Ailes is himself as devoted to right-wing politics as his creation — is not a new one, but that doesn’t mean it’s one that isn’t worth pursuing, particularly amidst new reports that the network is seeking a more moderate, centrist approach. Regardless of his real or imagined political agenda, however, Ailes remains a unique figure in business and television — a veritable James Dean of opinions news media, if Wolff’s musings are any indication:

But, if the fun principle isn’t about conservatism, per se, but about giving the finger to everybody else, then shouldn’t Ailes be something of a vaunted anti-hero?

Who, with heart and imagination, and a problem with authority, wouldn’t want to do what Ailes has done?

h/t Adweek

At this point, it no longer matters if it’s true (or not) that Fox News has “course corrected”; yes, Glenn Beck‘s dire predictions are no longer included, and as we have consistently pointed out, Bill O’Reilly often stands out with his non-doctrinaire approach to real issues. But long time viewers of Fox News (and there are literally millions and millions of them) would be hard pressed to point to any significant difference in the editorial and news offerings at FNC.

So the genius of Mr. Ailes’ media operation again seems to be in evidence, as Ailes, in Tom Sawyer-esque fashion, gets MSNBC to paint his fence. Here we have a moderate and well respected conservative thinker in Joe Scarborough openly praising the brilliance of Roger Ailes and Fox News to viewers of MSNBC. By comparison, it’s impossible to imagine Fox and Friends anchors speaking with such candid admiration for MSNBC’s Phil Griffin, though that speaks as much to the qualitative differences between the two competing morning shows — one is meant to be an open dialog among disparate points of view, and the other a more traditional entertainment program.

Yes, Scarborough gets some slight jabs in on Ailes, saying that the Fox News chief’s “course correction” assertion basically validates a thesis put forth earlier in the year by New York magazine’s Gabe Sherman, that Ailes “admits that he took the Republican party too far over the cliff.”

But I’m not sure that that is the case, on a number of levels. Sherman’s essay essentially stated that Fox News was an enormous hit from a business perspective, but that politically speaking, it would not be able to produce a viable presidential candidate. It was far too early to make that statement in the Spring of 2011, and it’s still too early to believe that now. Further, there is a reason that we called Roger Ailes the most powerful political person in America back in Fall of 2009, and it has less to do with promoting candidates, than it does in pointing out others’ flaws.

Watch the thoughtful segment below, courtesy of MSNBC:

Tucked away within Kurtz’s eminently quotable Newsweek profile of Fox News chief Roger Ailes was this indignity:

Three weeks after dropping out of the race, Tim Pawlenty showed up to ask for a gig at Fox. But there was a complication: Pawlenty was on the verge of endorsing Romney. “I’m not sure I want to sign you as a paid spokesman for Romney,” Ailes said.

Ailes, bless his heart, was probably being kind to Pawlenty with that Romney excuse. Pawlenty’s lucky that Ailes didn’t turn him down as a Fox News viewer, for fear he’d sap the network’s energy right through the TV. I’m not saying Pawlenty is dull, but when he went to ask Ailes for the job, the Fox chief said, “Okay, send him in,” to which Pawlenty replied, “But I’m sitting right here, sir.”

Pawlenty was also rejected as a pitchman for 5 Hour Energy, whose distributors explained, “That’s five hours in a row.”

In other Pawlenty news, the former governor recently sat for an official portrait by Bulgarian artist Rossin, which gave onlookers the unique opportunity to either watch paint dry, or look at Rossin’s painting.

It appears that Newsweek writer Howard Kurtz (who also hosts CNN’s Reliable Sources) was afforded a rare level of access in doing research for this article. The fascinating read hits many of the same notes we have come to expect to hear about the Fox News chief — he can be combative, sees himself as an underdog, and uses candor to both charm and command respect from his staff — but the larger leitmotif of the essay is that the pendulum of Fox News’ opinion coverage is swinging back towards the middle. Or, at the very least, that’s the message that Kurtz and Ailes would like the reader to take away. There are lots of great details to highlight as well:

For starters, then, let’s take a look at just one example supporting the notion that Ailes is a man who knows very well what he wants. And no New York City mayor is going to change that.

Ailes is also fully aware that a little competition never hurt anyone…

Speaking of competition, Ailes keeps a close eye on other news outlets as well, not only to see what they’re up to, but also to gauge the tone and rhetoric they employ in packaging the news for their audiences:

Ailes keeps a close eye on the network’s stars. While this might appear, on the surface, to be the result of a tendency to micromanage the network’s talent, the overall takeaway is that Ailes is constantly viewing his network in terms of the big picture — a picture, as at least one former aide to Barack Obama has noted, that may be transforming:

You see, if there is one thing that Ailes focuses on, it’s the bottom line. The profile presents a picture of a man finely attuned not only to what the American public says they want, but what they’re actually going to end up watching. And, for now, it seems that means a subtle tweaking of Fox News’ programming and overall tone:

Do yourself a favor and read the interesting essay at Daily Beast / Newsweek.

Never before would I have thought to write the phrase “ain’t no party like a Fox News party,” but here we are. An open bar, generous buffet and upbeat DJ created a predictably joyful — if not relaxed and loose — background for the staff to take a victory lap for creating a cable news outlet that many cynics predicted would last maybe two years. In case anyone forgot about the naysayers from 15 years ago, it was an oft-repeated theme, and for good reason. Many Fox Newsers still seem driven to succeed by the volume of critiques. This was an employment-only event — there were no non-Fox News people there, apart from myself and one other reporter — which seemed a consistent and organic by-product of the esprit de corps which plays a big role in FNC’s overall success.

From an outsider’s perspective, Fox News appears to have endured a stunningly low amount of staff turnover in the last decade and a half, and in fact, anyone who had been on board since the beginning seemed to boast about that as though it were their own “red badge of courage.” So it made some sense that one such alumnus, Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy, would introduce the man of the hour, Mr. Ailes, who delivered a speech that was equal parts proud, relaxed and charming. After running a video clip that featured the big stories that FNC was built on in the early years — the Menendez Brothers, Oklahoma City bombing and, oh yeah, that Monica Lewinsky scandal (and notably missing Glenn Beck) — Doocy reminded the crowd of the naysayers, before lauding Ailes for creating Fox News “out of whole cloth.”

Ailes then took the podium to a rousing ovation that even got top dog Bill O’Reilly out of his chair in a standing show of respect for the architect of Fox News. Ailes graciously thanked Doocy for the kind words, before charmingly reprimanding the morning host for “skipping two paragraphs that I wrote.” He then mentioned a USA Today article from September 23rd 1996 that stated ‘Ailes tackles toughest assignment’ before good-naturedly quipping “I didn’t even know O’Reilly then.”

NEXT>>>> Roger Ailes comments and insight from O’Reilly, Shep and Others

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 about Stewart’s memorable and contentious interview with Chris Wallace a few months ago, Junod calls the comic “smug and condescending without bothering to be funny at all.” He claims that Stewart has become the very thing he has parodied for so long:

He’s the very embodiment of the self-important yet dim-witted — or is that dim-witted yet self-important? — media creature whom Stewart has made a living schooling over the last tumultuous decade. So if Jon Stewart can’t be smug and contemptuous and superior with Chris Wallace, who can he be smug and contemptuous and superior with?

Some media pundits thought Stewart’s “jumping the shark” moment came during his Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear last November, but Junod believes it started in 2004, when he made his infamous appearance on the late CNN program Crossfire. He details a pre-show conversation between Stewart and liberal host Paul Begala, where Begala noticed that Stewart appeared to look nervous.

What Begala didn’t know, of course, was that Stewart was nervous in the way that Michael Corleone was nervous when he walked out of the bathroom of the Italian restaurant with more than his dick in his hand. He’s a great reflexive comic who’s made his living reacting — or appearing to react while scripting his reactions — on The Daily Show, but on this day, he, Jon Stewart, had Something to Say. “I thought he was going to push his clever book that had just come out,” Begala says. “But he wanted to be more serious. He came out and started tearing into us. It was funny and pointed, and it was great TV before the whole thing got derailed and the name-calling started.”

He addresses Stewart’s coverage of the 9/11 health care bill, his 2009 takedown of Jim Cramer, and the brief Rick Sanchez controversy. But perhaps the most damning part of the article comes when Junod talks about The Daily Show‘s recurring Fox News coverage, quoting a former writer as admitting he left because the staff was “running out of targets,” and directly compares the influence of Jon Stewart to a man he has mocked many times before: Roger Ailes.

Stewart gives Fox’s hosts something to complain about — confirmation that the media is “biased” and the game rigged against them — but Fox gives Stewart a reason to exist, and he’s been obsessed with Roger Ailes ever since he went to O’Reilly’s studio and was summoned into Ailes’s office… It’s that Ailes is all about power and so has accepted the obligation that Stewart has proudly refused. You want to know the difference between the Left and the Right in America? The Right has Roger Ailes, and the Left has Jon Stewart; the Right has an evil genius, while the Left contents itself with a genius of perceived non-evil.

That’s a comparison no one is really going to take well.

h/t Esquire

“We’re both expressions of dissatisfaction,” Stewart said. “[Roger Ailes'], I think, happens to be a slightly more powerful version. … Ailes was a strategist for Nixon. He comes from the seat of power, and he understands how important the narrative is. We come from comedy, so our natural instinct is not to understand that, and to be bratty. That goes a long way towards explaining the difference between the two organizations.”

Stewart’s show doesn’t only focus on Fox’s journalistic sensationalism: CNN and MSNBC are common targets, too. And the cable networks’ 24-hour news cycle does little to help inform Americans, Stewart said.

“[The 24-hour networks] are now the absolute most powerful force driving the political narrative,” he said. “And the picture that they create is one of conflict, because they’re on for 24 hours a day, so they have to create a compelling reason for you to watch them. Otherwise, they’re just Muzak – newzak.”

Read the interview teaser here. The interview appears in the latest issue of Rolling Stone and will be available on newsstands Friday.

Note – this post was written by David Taintor for Talking Points Memo and appears here via a content sharing agreement with Mediaite.

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 — it’s simply the reaction to his questions that has changed:

I asked tough questions of the Bush White House when I was at CNN. I asked tough questions of the Obama White House when I was at CNN and nobody freaked out. I start asking tough questions at Fox and everybody freaked out. If I was a shrinking violet at CNN and was meekly sitting in the corner and occasionally raising my hand and then went to Fox and on Day 2 started asking really tough questions, I think the case would be stronger that I had some sort of bias. I was asking tough questions at CNN, I’ll be asking tough questions at Fox.

In answering a follow-up question about possible meddling on the part of the network, Henry makes an interesting differentiation between Fox News’ reporters — like Bret Baier, a colleague whom Henry seems to admire greatly — and the channel’s opinion news folks:

My first day at Fox, President Obama gave a prime-time address to the nation. That would have been a great chance for Roger Ailes or someone to say, “Hey, Ed, there is going to be a lot of people watching tonight, maybe you should hit Obama on this or that.” I didn’t get a phone call from anyone. I didn’t get an email from anyone. But what I did get was, we want you to be front and center tonight. I was on with Bret Baier, not Sean Hannity or some of the opinion anchors we have. Next morning ratings came out, and Fox had about 4 million viewers. CNN had about 2 million.

Then there’s the matter of Henry’s own personal reporting style which, he says, stems from his time as an “old print reporter” working under “Jack Anderson, the muckraking newspaper columnist:”

You had to write lively copy and cut to the heart of the story. I’ve heard from Roger [Ailes] and other people at Fox that one of the reasons they wanted to hire me was I have a sincerity that you can’t make up. I’m passionate and that has to come out. I love politics. I love breaking news, I love bringing context to big stories, and you can’t fake that. And I like to have a little bit of fun on air, and that is something Fox does better than anyone else.

Plus, the man can rock a Hawaiian shirt like none other.

Take a look at the full interview to get to know Ed, in his words.

h/t Adweek

Doocy introduced the spot more generally, talking about “trendy liberal and gossip sites” like Digg (trendy? Maybe to MySpace), but as he introduced BreitbartTV’s Larry O’Connor, the focus narrowed to Gawker, whose John Cook has (coincidentally?)  been something of a thorn in the side of Fox News executives.

Breitbart’s Larry O’Connor makes a few good points, noting correctly that websites like Digg have had their roles largely usurped by Facebook and Twitter. He also assured viewers that, while Gawker is in trouble, Andrew Breitbart‘s “Big” sites are “fine.”

While dancing on Gawker’s alleged grave, O’Connor noted criticism of things like the Gawker Stalker Map, and the site’s alienation of New York Magazine‘s Vanessa Grigoriadis, which are apparently coming home to roost four years later. He also manages the neat trick of slamming Gawker’s non-stop snark, while noting that it’s “as predictable as the end of a Scooby-Doo cartoon,” which is kind of like decrying junk food through a mouthful of Cheez Waffies™.

O’Connor also gets in a few shots at secondary target Salon.com, but the real prize here is unmistakably Gawker: (from Fox News)

If ever there was a perfect application for Benjamin Disraeli‘s famous quote about statistics, it would have to be to the measurement of internet traffic. There are more ways to measure it, and more services to do so, than you can shake a stick of indeterminate length at. Gawker founder Nick Denton immediately pushed back against the story, calling Fox “doofuses” (although I believe the correct plural form is “doofi”), and pointing his Twitter followers at a much rosier assessment from Quantcast, which shows Gawker’s monthly unique visitors basically flat from a year ago, but page views way up.

Fox’s report cited analytics from Compete.com, which, amusingly enough, shows Gawker in much better shape than the “Big” sites that Larry O’Connor says are “fine.” While Gawker’s traffic dipped significantly from January to April, it’s unclear where Fox got their 75% figure.

Denton, for his part, isn’t taking this lying down. He told Mediaite that Fox’s attack was “amusing, adding, “Don’t they realize that we thrive on a good media fight?”

Denton also said that, while he’s “a huge admirer of the guy,” Fox is “playing by a playbook as old as Ailes.”

We obviously haven’t heard the last of this feud.

You know the scene….we would be tending bar (with razor sharp comedic timing); maybe Roger Ailes would show up each night as the curmudgeonly-yet-cuddly common sense guy alongside George Stephanopoulos or Rachel Maddow with their charmingly know-it-all selves. No question, the foppishly droll (or is it drolly foppish?) Piers Morgan would probably be a regular as well. We would have a good time while gathering stories for the site, and perhaps even learning a little about ourselves. And there would be a laugh track.

Alas, while all those people probably went there, we didn’t see them and The Lion never became the Mediaite version of the Algonquin round table (which is a shame because I do a stunning Dorothy Parker impersonation.) We did all get to go out to dinner there on Dan’s dime one time, which was pretty remarkable given how hard it often is to get Dan to spend money.

Regardless, any entree to having him pay for our entrees (and not pizza in our conference room) is welcomed. So when we read that the “team behind the Lion” was set to open a new place on the Upper East Side we thought, maybe this will be the place! We even suggested that Dan take his hard working staff out again to celebrate our ridiculously amazing traffic after just two years at his brand new joint!

When we brought it up last week, we were surprised to learn that it was yet another dream dashed, but this time for a different reason: Dan casually responded that he and other co-owner Dave were not actually involved in this new establishment called Crown. Huh? Wait, aren’t Dave and Dan the key players in the “team behind The Lion”? And so isn’t it pretty newsworthy (in our tiny micro media world), that this “team” is going uptown without them?

While Dan didn’t seem to think so, we kind of do. After all, haven’t we read about some conflict between the “D’s” and some non-media, non-fabulous investors? 

So rather than have some other entity scoop us on “news” connected to our founder, we insisted on some answers from Dan (and politely requested them from Dave) and received the following responses:

From Dan: “I am very proud of the enormous success we continue to have at The Lion and am confident it will thrive for years to come. Dave and I are pursuing another exciting restaurant project downtown and you will be the first to know if and when I have an announcement to make. Now get back to work.”

From Dave: ” I have nothing but admiration for John DeLucie and our other partners, and I look forward to sharing our successes”

Blah blah blah. Bottom line, Dan and Dave are probably starting their own restaurant thing downtown, while Crown will try to cater to an Upper East Side crowd. Great so this time around will the BFF’s create a media place for us to eat and drink too much and where “everyone knows our name?” We aren’t counting on it.

(Photo Via)

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.”

No. Fox News covers stories that some other news outlets won’t cover. We ask some questions that other news outlets wouldn’t ask. And sometimes that’s perceived as bias by people who’ve grown up in a world where there are only liberal outlets.

In her answers, Kelly does an incredibly fine job of remaining diplomatic and even-keeled while making her thoughts known. For example:

Marie Claire: I assume you believe in free speech. How do you feel about the fact that Sarah Palin doesn’t talk to the press unless it’s Fox News?

Megyn Kelly: Well, I don’t know if the premise of the question is correct, because she has talked to other outlets. I think there are certain outlets she doesn’t like. And I think she thinks she’s been treated unfairly by people in the press.

And that, folks, is how you answer a question with professionalism! (I mean, seriously, like she’d ever say, “Yeah, that is certainly wack, isn’t it? Such wackitude as I have never seen.” Also… free speech?)

Other highlights from the interview include…

And… Whether or not she’ll take over Beck’s slot:

It’s not like I’m not going to consider it if they approach me. But it would require a lot of soul-searching because I really do like the setup I have now.

For more, do be sure to read the full interview at MarieClaire.com.

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/marie-claire-asks-megyn-kelly-do-you-think-fox-is-biased/feed/ 224 http://www.mediaite.com/online/aclu-likely-to-drop-gawker-lawsuit-against-chris-christies-office/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/aclu-likely-to-drop-gawker-lawsuit-against-chris-christies-office/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:55:22 +0000 Alex Alvarez http://www.mediaite.com/?p=321922 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.]]> 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. The AP (via a local CBS affiliate) reports that the ACLU of New Jersey is “likely to drop” the lawsuit filed against Christie.

After the suit was filed yesterday, Christie’s office released a page from his calendar confirming that the governor and his wife attended a private dinner on Sept. 11, 2010, in New York City.

The ACLU then released a statement noting that while the “response from the Governor’s office will likely resolve the lawsuit, it raises new questions.”

Frank Corrado, a lawyer representing Cook on behalf of the ACLU in New Jersey said he’s “happy so the matter resolved quickly,” but still has his concerns:

We’re happy to see the matter resolved quickly but remain concerned that the governor’s office initially issued a blanket executive privilege claim in response to Gawker’s request for records. Is the governor’s office actually reviewing records requests from the public, or is it simply using executive privilege as a carte blanche to deny access to all correspondence with his office?

h/t CBS3 Springfield

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/aclu-likely-to-drop-gawker-lawsuit-against-chris-christies-office/feed/ 0 http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawker-goes-to-court-aims-to-reveal-connection-between-roger-ailes-and-gov-chris-christie/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawker-goes-to-court-aims-to-reveal-connection-between-roger-ailes-and-gov-chris-christie/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:04:47 +0000 Alex Alvarez http://www.mediaite.com/?p=321202 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.]]> 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 and encouraged him to campaign in 2012 (an option, it should be noted, that Christie has repeatedly stated he won’t pursue). Cook had recently looked into publicly available documents dating back from Ailes’ time working with the Nixon administration.

Cook had previously called Christie’s office directly in an effort to obtain evidence of telephone, mail or email correspondence between Christie and Ailes, only to be told that, were such records to exist, they would be exempt from New Jersey’s open public records act due to “executive privilege and well-settled case law.” A spokesperson for Ailes told the gossip site that “Whatever the governor wants to do is his business.” Christie had claimed executive privilege before, when legislators requested records about an error in his “Race to the Top” application, although he eventually provided these when legislators threatened to issue a subpoena to obtain the requested information.

In June, Christie attended a dinner with Ailes as well as prominent conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, later refusing to discuss the meal with the press.

The American Civil Liberties Union has since taken up Gawker’s case.

Cook shared his plans moving forward with The New York Times:

The next thing that I would like to be publicly acknowledged is not just that they’re ideological — they’re not just the TV equivalent of The Weekly Standard or something — they are actually a power base within the Republican Party.

Cook is by no means alone in his assessment. Ailes’ possible role in politics has been discussed by many, including Tim Dickinson, who wrote an in-depth piece on Ailes for Rolling Stone.

h/t New York Times

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawker-goes-to-court-aims-to-reveal-connection-between-roger-ailes-and-gov-chris-christie/feed/ 21 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-refused-to-air-full-statement-site-unseen-from-fox-news-over-ailes-memo-story/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-refused-to-air-full-statement-site-unseen-from-fox-news-over-ailes-memo-story/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:06:20 +0000 Colby Hall http://www.mediaite.com/?p=310162 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.]]> Perhaps owing to a classic summer news lull (combined with Casey Anthony Trial fatigue) CNN looked to Gawker for news today. The Situation Room, which is typically dedicated to hard news coming from inside the beltway, decided to devote 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.

The content in the Ailes memos range from the mundane to the prescient, and was presented by Gawker as breathless evidence to support the notion that Fox News is not only a political operation, but was actually conceived by Ailes in the late 60′s while serving in the Nixon White House. Given the tenor of the original post, it would not seem unreasonable for Fox News to insist that they have their say.

In preparation for the segment, CNN’s Brian Todd contacted Fox News earlier today for a response to the item. Mediaite has learned that Fox News offered to provided the statement, and simply asked for their two-line response to be used in full — a pretty standard request when it comes to dealing with the media, since anything can be edited. CNN refused to use the statement in its entirety, stating that it is against their policy.

Brought to you now, by Mediaite, the 42 words from a Fox News spokesperson that CNN refused to air:

“We are not going to respond to memos that were allegedly written more than forty years ago. However, if Mr. Ailes did have the idea for Fox News nearly half a century ago, he would have beaten CNN and MSNBC even sooner.”

Given that CNN was reporting on a report that seemed to go out of its way to make the Fox News chief look bad, it doesn’t seem terribly unfair for Fox News to ask for the full statement to run. One might think that CNN could have easily just run the statement and had a little self-deprecating fun with it on a slow summer Friday. Instead, by choosing not to run the entire statement, they come off looking, to some, as pedantic. Could this be the start of a new chapter in the cable news wars? Stay tuned.

Update: CNN tells Mediaite ““CNN simply doesn’t make deals with individuals or organizations about how much of a statement the network will air, especially sight unseen. And we can’t imagine that Fox News would do that either. But then again, maybe they would…”

Watch the clip below, courtesy of CNN:

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-refused-to-air-full-statement-site-unseen-from-fox-news-over-ailes-memo-story/feed/ 345 http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawker-unearths-roger-ailes-white-house-memos-concludes-he-was-very-good-at-his-job/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawker-unearths-roger-ailes-white-house-memos-concludes-he-was-very-good-at-his-job/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:00:19 +0000 Alex Alvarez http://www.mediaite.com/?p=309394 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. ]]> 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.

What Cook found in the documents, which are available to the public through the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, show Ailes to have been an ambitious, meticulous, involved force in media – even before he hit his 30th birthday. How meticulous? In one memo (found here on page 222), Ailes advises then-Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman that close-up shots of President Nixon should be reserved for the beginning of his speeches, before he begins to perspire. “I assume,” he adds, “it was the President’s own decision not to use a handkerchief.” He was also instrumental in organizing the lighting for the White House Christmas tree.

Cook’s post on the documents pays particular attention to a memo from 1970 titled “A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News,” which Cook deems a “nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the ‘prejudices of network news’ and deliver ‘pro-administration’ stories to heartland television viewers.” The documents show that Ailes, through his REA Productions and Ailes Communications, Inc. firms, aided both the Nixon and George H.W. Bush administrations as a paid media consultant.

The undated, unsigned “Plan,” which features handwritten notes, corrections and expanded thoughts by Ailes, highlights the importance of television over newspapers in shaping the public’s relationship to the nation’s news…. because, he notes, “people are lazy” and TV essentially “does the thinking for you.” The purpose of the proposed television project is to “provide pro-Administration, videotape, hard news actualities to the major cities of the United States” with an emphasis on providing coverage of interest to local stations.

The documents are well worth the read as they provide a revealing and fascinating look at how one of the most influential individuals working in media today presented and refined his ideas for the symbiotic relationship between television and public perception of any given political figure.

h/t Gawker

Photo via Esquire

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawker-unearths-roger-ailes-white-house-memos-concludes-he-was-very-good-at-his-job/feed/ 33 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/roger-ailes-talks-palin-weiner-and-explains-why-glenn-beck-is-out-at-fox-news/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/roger-ailes-talks-palin-weiner-and-explains-why-glenn-beck-is-out-at-fox-news/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:46:02 +0000 Mark Joyella http://www.mediaite.com/?p=296340 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." ]]> 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 (in Rolling Stone and New York–neither of which Ailes cooperated with) that, in Kurtz’s words, portray Ailes as “power mad, paranoid, and a GOP puppeteer.”

Does Ailes double down in the face of bad press? Hardly. “Part of his genius is that when he faces hostile fire, Ailes can turn unexpectedly mellow, the better to make his critics look like the loony ones,” Kurtz writes.

On Palin, Ailes described a pleasant family meeting at his office:

Ailes told me he met with Palin in his Manhattan office, serving chicken sandwiches and giving her parents and daughter Piper a tour of the Fox studios. Palin told him she’ll decide on a White House bid this summer. Denying a New York magazine report that he called the former Alaska governor an idiot, Ailes marveled at the frenzy surrounding her tour of historic sites: “She’s so smart she’s got the press corps running up the whole East Coast behind her bus.”

In the story, Ailes explains why Glenn Beck will soon be an ex-Fox News host, saying it wasn’t just Beck’s rhetoric that ran him afoul of his bosses. It was his wide-ranging business priorities. “His goals were different from our goals… I need people focused on a daily television show.”

Ailes also offered new takes on two Democrats who don’t usually enjoy lavish praise on Fox News, Rep. Anthony Weiner and President Obama. Ailes, pressed to find something positive to say about Obama, said simply: “He shot that SOB in the head that killed 3,000 Americans. That was his finest hour.”

And as for Weiner, whose career has skidded into a tabloid frenzy over a Twitter pic, Ailes says enough already. He’s directed his newsroom to “move on” unless something new develops on the story. “The media’s had enough giggles over Mr. Weiner and his name,” Ailes says. “Sometimes the families take a bigger hit than the person that people are trying to destroy.”

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/roger-ailes-talks-palin-weiner-and-explains-why-glenn-beck-is-out-at-fox-news/feed/ 91 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/author-of-roger-ailes-rolling-stone-profile-its-a-lie-that-ailes-isnt-still-active-in-politics/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/author-of-roger-ailes-rolling-stone-profile-its-a-lie-that-ailes-isnt-still-active-in-politics/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:29:28 +0000 Matt Schneider http://www.mediaite.com/?p=294089 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.]]> 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.

Dickinson’s main argument:

“Roger Ailes has always said that he has had a break between his two lives. His life as a politico and his life as a broadcast executive. And I think the main takeaway from my piece is that – that is a fiction. It’s a lie that he’s told to the American people – he’s told it to Congress. But there’s this dramatic through-line where everything he wanted to do as an operative with Richard Nixon in 1968, he’s now doing 24/7 on his political network.”

Dickinson also described Ailes as someone so fearful that he will be targeted by Al Qaeda or gay activists and that traveling with Ailes is “like an episode of 24” given all of his security. This prompted Roberts, an openly gay anchor, to make an admission about the gay people he knows who work at Fox News, saying “I know they’re in his newsroom and they’re on his air.” Dickinson concluded, matter-of-factly saying Fox News is a “24/7 propaganda outlet for the Republican party,” but was a little surprised by his own research:

“What I was really shocked by was the totality of what they were doing. The active collaboration with the Republican party. The talking points that come out of Mitch McConnell’s mouth the same day they come out of Sean Hannity’s mouth.”

However, it seems doubtful that anyone else will be shocked that Ailes maintains conservative connections or that a liberal magazine doesn’t paint a glowing portrait of Fox News’ success.

Watch the clip from MSNBC below:

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/author-of-roger-ailes-rolling-stone-profile-its-a-lie-that-ailes-isnt-still-active-in-politics/feed/ 36 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-sarah-palin-wont-talk-to-media-because-roger-ailes-wont-allow-it/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-sarah-palin-wont-talk-to-media-because-roger-ailes-wont-allow-it/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:01:59 +0000 Colby Hall http://www.mediaite.com/?p=294044 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. ]]> 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.

Stewart seems to clearly believe that Palin is in fact running for president; how else could one reasonably explain this bus tour with her family around key primary states? But the The Daily Show seems to hold the media coverage in as much contempt as anyone else in the following segment, which you can watch for yourself, courtesy of Comedy Central:

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-sarah-palin-wont-talk-to-media-because-roger-ailes-wont-allow-it/feed/ 56 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-defends-ailes-was-dripping-with-contempt-for-becks-craziness/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-defends-ailes-was-dripping-with-contempt-for-becks-craziness/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 14:23:14 +0000 Matt Schneider http://www.mediaite.com/?p=290873 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."]]> 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.”

Sherman highlighted from his piece that Ailes was aware of Beck’s growing notoriety and how the Beck brand was overtaking Fox. Therefore, “Roger decided he can’t have Glenn Beck being the public face of Fox News” since he didn’t want Fox News “to be associated with that type of incendiary rhetoric.” Scarborough agreed, saying Beck’s rantings “made a lot of people uncomfortable including Roger Ailes” and kept repeating the fact that Beck owes all of his success to Ailes. Scarborough was convinced that thanks to Ailes, Fox News, is bigger than any one person:

“Roger Ailes – other than [Bill] O’Reilly – can take everybody out of Fox News from six in the morning to midnight and it would still be Fox News and they would still get extraordinary ratings. This is the story of a guy who did not understand. [Beck] got plugged into the machine and he started believing the headlines.”

Although Scarborough’s world seemed to humorously shatter a bit after learning what Ailes has now helped Beck launch. When Sherman revealed just how much money Beck makes “on the side” from his company Mercury Radio Arts ($40 million last year alone), Scarborough responded:

“I’m in the wrong business. . . . So I could put like Vicks in my eyes, set my hair on fire, say the world is coming to an end every Tuesday and you’re saying $40 million?”

Mika Brzezinski had her own conclusion, saying “the things you can do if you don’t care about morals.”

Watch the clip from MSNBC below:

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-defends-ailes-was-dripping-with-contempt-for-becks-craziness/feed/ 93 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/krauthammer-the-genius-of-murdochailes-is-they-found-a-niche-that-is-half-the-american-people/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/krauthammer-the-genius-of-murdochailes-is-they-found-a-niche-that-is-half-the-american-people/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 01:49:19 +0000 Frances Martel http://www.mediaite.com/?p=290662 most trusted news personality on TV-- has had Bill O'Reilly fascinated all week, and tonight he brought on Charles Krauthammer for further commentary. Krauthammer's explanation for Fox News' success happened to coincide with his explanation for why the Democrats' campaigning has become so "scurrilous": "America is a center-right country... not conducive to a liberal message."]]> The shift in media power in the past couple of decades– as exemplified by his election as the most trusted news personality on TV– has had Bill O’Reilly fascinated all week, and tonight he brought on Charles Krauthammer for further commentary. Krauthammer’s explanation for Fox News’ success happened to coincide with his explanation for why the Democrats’ campaigning has become so “scurrilous”: “America is a center-right country… not conducive to a liberal message.”

O’Reilly began the segment by asking Krauthammer how much of an advantage having the media in his pocket was entering the 2012 election cycle. Krauthammer didn’t seem particularly worried about the perceived bias. “The left, the Democrats, always have the press on their side,” he explained languidly. “They’ve had it for forty years. Nonetheless, the Republicans have won the presidency seven out of the last ten elections.” That said, O’Reilly argued that they were losing their grip on the country, which Krauthammer elaborated that, instead of the media, “what conservatives have is the country. It is a center-right country, it has remained like that for almost four decades.”
How will that impact the 2012 elections? Krauthammer predicts the politics will get very dirty, very fast. “Democrats have already prepared dirt-digging on Governor Chris Christie,” he argued by way of example, “who isn’t even a candidate.” He also pointed to “these truly scurrilous ads” depicting Republicans literally throwing old people off cliffs.

Krauthammer did not express any concern that that would put a dent in the right-wing vote, though, particularly due to the rise of Fox News. O’Reilly asked him to evaluate why the network was such a success, to which he replied that while they spread a message “anathema to the liberal elites,” they were able to harness the demographic power of conservative views. “What I’ve always said about the genius of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch,” he explained, “is that they found a niche… that is half the American people.”

The segment via Fox News below:

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/krauthammer-the-genius-of-murdochailes-is-they-found-a-niche-that-is-half-the-american-people/feed/ 164 http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ed-schultz-new-york-article-reveals-fox-news-is-a-political-machine-not-a-news-organization/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ed-schultz-new-york-article-reveals-fox-news-is-a-political-machine-not-a-news-organization/#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 14:11:34 +0000 Matt Schneider http://www.mediaite.com/?p=290100 Ed Schultz found many revelations in the New York magazine profile of Roger Ailes to be very interesting. However, Schultz and his guest, former Governor Ed Rendell, also came to their own conclusion: this article proves to them Fox News' inescapable bias.]]> Like many others, Ed Schultz found many revelations in the New York magazine profile of Roger Ailes to be very interesting. However, Schultz and his guest, former Governor Ed Rendell, also came to their own conclusion: this article proves to them Fox News’ inescapable bias.

Schultz argued:

“This article tells us a lot about Roger Ailes. It’s not a news organization, it’s a political machine – that he would hire people that hopefully would end up wanting to run for President.”

And Rendell agreed, saying this “strips away any thin veneer of impartiality that Fox may have – simply because it admits that this was a proving ground, sort of a training ground for presidential candidates.” Combined with the decision to elevate Glenn Beck, Rendell predicts these revelations will damage Fox News’ credibility with independent voters and ultimately “backfire dramatically” for Ailes in the form of a “disastrous” 2012 election.

It seems like a bit of a stretch for Rendell to hold Ailes and Fox News primarily responsible for any Republican losses in 2012 and similarly strange to suggest, as Rendell does, that the positive Republican election results in 2010 would not be possible without Fox News. Regardless, Schultz was fascinated that “it seems likes Ailes is just absolutely engrossed in making sure that President Obama is not re-elected.”

Watch the clip from MSNBC below:

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ed-schultz-new-york-article-reveals-fox-news-is-a-political-machine-not-a-news-organization/feed/ 91 http://www.mediaite.com/online/response-and-fallout-from-roger-ailes-new-york-feature-ailes-thinks-palin-is-smart/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/response-and-fallout-from-roger-ailes-new-york-feature-ailes-thinks-palin-is-smart/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 18:45:01 +0000 Matt Schneider http://www.mediaite.com/?p=289730 New York magazine profile of Fox News chief Roger Ailes continues to send shockwaves through the cable news universe, officials at Fox News are quick to clear up at least one inaccuracy while fair-minded readers of the article are left wondering about another question. Why did the piece feature a disparaging image of Ailes with a cigar blowing up in his face, while a similarly extensive profile of Media Matters founder David Brock, which appeared in the same issue of the magazine, showcased a flattering portrait of the Fox News nemesis?]]> As the New York magazine profile of Fox News chief Roger Ailes continues to send shockwaves through the cable news universe, officials at Fox News are quick to clear up at least one inaccuracy while fair-minded readers of the article are left wondering about another question. Why did the piece feature a disparaging image of Ailes with a cigar blowing up in his face, while a similarly extensive profile of Media Matters founder David Brock, which appeared in the same issue of the magazine, showcased a flattering portrait of the Fox News nemesis?

The most intriguing charge in the piece was that Ailes believed one of his star employees, Sarah Palin, is truly “an idiot.” Yet Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming for Fox News Channel adamantly denied the accusation and today told The New York Times:

“I know for a fact that Roger Ailes admires and respects Sarah Palin and thinks she is smart. He also believes many members of the left wing media are extremely terrified and threatened by her. Despite a massive effort to destroy Sarah Palin, she is still on her feet and making a difference in the political world. As for the ‘Republican close to Ailes’ for which the incorrect Palin quote is attributed, when Roger figures out who that is, I guarantee you he or she will no longer be ‘close to Ailes.’”

The profile of Ailes is certainly not a hatchet job, and in fact paints an impressive portrait of a visionary captain who is extremely perceptive about what’s happening in every corner of his ship at all times. Yet with an insulting image accompanying the profile and with the use of many anonymous sources forcing upon Ailes various unpleasant thoughts and feelings about his Fox News talent and potential GOP presidential candidates, it calls into question the fairness and potential motive of the entire piece.

Especially when the man who is trying to “take down Fox” (Brock) receives glowing treatment, the contrast in coverage highlights the particular glee with which New York magazine seems to get from turning conservative stars against one another. Sean Hannity hates Glenn Beck! Bill O’Reilly hates Sean Hannity! Roger Ailes is not fond of Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck! The fact that the liberal-leaning magazine might not be as fair to Fox News isn’t shocking, but what may have surprised some is that instead of trying to hide their preference, the editors prominently and proudly illustrated it with the type of photo used to accompany each profile.

Check out the full articles on Roger Ailes and David Brock in New York.

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/response-and-fallout-from-roger-ailes-new-york-feature-ailes-thinks-palin-is-smart/feed/ 89 http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-five-most-interesting-revelations-from-roger-ailes-report-in-new-york/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-five-most-interesting-revelations-from-roger-ailes-report-in-new-york/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 15:34:04 +0000 Colby Hall http://www.mediaite.com/?p=289465 New York magazine includes an ambitious and thorough essay by Gabriel Sherman that provides an in-depth and fascinating portrayal of Fox News chief Roger Ailes. It is a must read for anyone curious about the inner-workings of the dominant cable news network, and includes a number of potentially game-changing revelations, a few of which have been outlined below.]]> This week’s issue of New York magazine includes an ambitious and thorough essay by Gabriel Sherman that provides an in-depth and fascinating portrayal of Fox News chief Roger Ailes. It is a must read for anyone curious about the inner-workings of the dominant cable news network, and includes a number of potentially game-changing revelations, a few of which have been outlined below.

Skeptical readers who might be quick to write off the essay as part of some sort of left-wing smear campaign need to understand a few things. The piece appears to be a balanced and well researched feature that wisely avoids a number of political generalizations and cliches that are typical of a hit piece. Sherman is a well respected reporter who has developed strong reputation within the cable news world from another lengthy piece he wrote on the cable news wars last Fall called “Chasing Fox.”

The article includes lots of sharp accounts, though many of which are from unnamed sources. But the lack of negative feedback from Sherman’s previous feature on cable news (particularly FNC) somewhat buttresses the accuracy of the anonymously sourced bits of the “warts and all” account. Here are five of the most interesting such morsels.

It Is Difficult To Imagine Sarah Palin’s Future With Fox News: As we pointed out yesterday, perhaps the most interesting item that came from the article is that, according to an unnamed source, Roger Ailes apparently thinks Sarah Palin is an ‘idiot.’ The tragedy in Tucson (and inflamed political rhetoric that surrounded the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and others) appears to have been a transformational moment in the relationship between Palin and Ailes, particularly when the former Alaska Governor openly sought Ailes’ advice on how best to respond, then oddly chose to ignore it. If, in fact, Ailes thinks so poorly of Palin’s intellectual capacity, and says nothing publicly to distance himself from these comments, it will be hard to see Palin continuing to contribute in a meaningful way on FNC. Update: Fox News’ Bill Shine has released a statement to the NY Times rebutting this specific point. Read about it here.

Roger Ailes Really Wanted NJ Gov. Chris Christie To Run: According to Sherman, Ailes has recognized the less-than-impressive slate of GOP Presidential candidates, and invited the New Jersey Governor to his upstate manse (alongside Rush Limbaugh) to help convince him to run. Christie has been steadfast in staying out of the fray. Oh, by the way, reports out today suggest that President Obama’s campaign staffers may already be gathering opposition research in the event that Christie ultimately decides to throw his hat into the ring.

The Relationship With Glenn Beck and Fox News Had Been Deteriorating For Some Time: As we’ve reported here before, the relationship between Beck and Fox News had grown rather tenuous in recent months. In fact, when Ailes came lose to firing the 5PM host when he felt like Beck’s “advisers” were jerking him around (perhaps by leaking news that FNC executive Joel Cheatwood would be joining Beck’s Mercury Arts?) Side note, it appears that much of the White House’s problem with Beck wasn’t so much because of his overheated rhetoric, but rather because of the success he had with derailing Van Jones (and the the mainstream media following suit.)

Bill O’Reilly “Can’t Stand” Sean Hannity (and Neither Can Michelle Obama apparently): The rise of Glenn Beck’s popularity and ratings seems to have rocked a rather fragile ecosystem of egos that comprises the Fox News prime time line up. Most notably, Bill O’Reilly reportedly “can’t stand” Sean Hannity, who seemed to be most jealous of Beck’s meteoric-but-abbreviated stint on Fox. Oh, and for good measure, First Lady Michelle Obama is not a fan of Hannity’s either.

Roger Ailes Is Very Powerful, And Apparently Actually Does Run The GOP: The larger theme of the essay focuses on the dearth of viable GOP presidential candidates (presented in the context of a likely reelection for President Obama), and Ailes’ concerns that, while he won the battle by creating a dominant cable news machine, he appears to be losing the larger war of getting a Republican president elected in 2012. Yes, we have called Roger Ailes the most powerful political person in America, and given how he appears to drive so many political narratives with his prodigious gut instinct, there is nothing in this article that will dissuade us from that position.

Read Sherman’s entire piece at NYmag.com.

Update: the post has been edited to more accurately describe Sherman’s previous and ongoing relationship with Fox News.

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-five-most-interesting-revelations-from-roger-ailes-report-in-new-york/feed/ 97 http://www.mediaite.com/online/epic-new-york-profile-of-fox-news-chair-roger-ailes-suggests-he-thinks-palin-is-an-idiot/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/epic-new-york-profile-of-fox-news-chair-roger-ailes-suggests-he-thinks-palin-is-an-idiot/#comments Sun, 22 May 2011 19:21:16 +0000 Matt Schneider http://www.mediaite.com/?p=289332 Fox News Channel Roger Ailes is profiled in a New York Magazine article that reveals tons of juicy, behind-the-scenes-details. Just some of the dirt uncovered includes the Republican who Ailes is actively trying to get to run for President and what Ailes truly thinks about lightning rods Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.]]> President of the Fox News Channel Roger Ailes is profiled in a New York Magazine article that reveals tons of juicy, behind-the-scenes-details. Just some of the dirt uncovered includes the Republican who Ailes is actively trying to get to run for President and what Ailes truly thinks about lightning rods Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

According to the epic piece, Ailes has called New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and urged him to run for President, and even had hoped that General David Petraeus might run. Citing an unnamed Republican close to Ailes:

“Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.”

Yet it seems Ailes is just as worried that Fox was becoming too synonymous with the conservative movement and that his channel was viewed by many to just be a “front” for the Republican Party. The article suggests Ailes encouraged Bill O’Reilly to shoot down the “birther” conspiracy and other right-wing myths, as one way to alter its image. Additionally, they have made conscious efforts to elevate the profile of Bret Baier, the non-partisan host of Special Report.

Yet some of the most intriguing details come from some small tidbits about what a bunch of well-known personalities really think about one another, including the revelations that First Lady Michelle Obama is most turned off by Sean Hannity out of everyone on Fox, and that Hannity himself was annoyed at Beck’s rising profile at the network (especially his weekly segment on The O’Reilly Factor). And even Ailes himself is attributed with some backbiting, as a “person close to Ailes” says that Ailes finds Palin’s erratic behavior to be proof that she is a “loose cannon.”

For all this and so much more read the full article at New York Magazine.

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