Fox News Celebrates 15 Years (And Cable News Dominance) In Grand Style

Ailes’ air of humor, relaxed charm and clear intellect — and yes, perhaps even a touch of respect/fear — was in clear evidence throughout his prepared remarks. Noting how they collectively built Fox News from scratch, he quickly then added that it was “Rupert’s scratch” that was used. News Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch was not in attendance, as he was reportedly at a UN event across town. (An excerpt of Ailes’ remarks are below.)

I caught up with Mr. Ailes and asked, among other things, how he keeps his staff from becoming complacent. “My toughest job every day is maintaining intensity with myself and with my staff,” he said, adding “But I remind them every day to have fun…take the news seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously.”

When pressed, he added that “we still see ourselves as sort of the underdog, and I tell my staff that every day is the cornerstone of your career…enjoy the fight.” Having fun on the job was a recurrent theme with the on-air talent interviewed for this report.

If Mr. Ailes is the pope of Fox News, then Bill O’Reilly is the Archbishop of the New York diocese. His reputation of a somewhat dyspeptic personality was completely dissolved by an accessible and warm reception. Bill O’Reilly admitted to me that when he came on board, the thing he heard most was that “this won’t last,” but he still mostly has fun because, “like Roger, I am very competitive and I like to win.” When asked if he ever gets tired of hosting his show, O’Reilly smiled and said “if you aren’t trying to win, you should just retire.”

Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade echoed that idea, saying that he “couldn’t believe his good fortune” at going from interviewing John McCain one minute to “interviewing a ventriloquist with a terrorist puppet the next. It’s a blast and we have to be ready for everything.” Greg Gutfeld agreed with an earlier notion of being an outsider, telling me “I know it sounds weird but I always saw Fox News as sort of the outsider, and where I thought I would fit in.”

Large crowds and celebrations usually bring out the cynic in me, and there were time where I thought to myself, “I get it, you made it.” In surveying the room, however, it was hard to ignore the sheer influence — and I dare say star power –of Fox News’ talent roster. Some observations of the dynamics of the party: there is no question that Shepard Smith is the most popular guy in the room, but not because he has some sort of cool cache. Smith appears to have that unique talent of making whomever he is speaking to feel very important and at ease. When asked about his time at Fox News, he was predictably self-effacing, saying in his homespun Mississippi dialect, “we just try to be entertaining and not boring.”

Smith also revealed that most of the fun comes from doing the show “on the fly”; explaining that he, as well as most other shows on the channel, are given the freedom and autonomy to do whatever show they want. That sort of autonomy seems to not only encourage free thinking, but, judging by its ratings, also create compelling television.

Like most corporate events of this nature, there was a fairly clear age split in activities; the younger staffers enjoyed the dance floor and open bar, while the some of the more “seasoned” staffers simply enjoyed the open bar. What stood out, however, was the lack of hegemony among the staff, at least in the social setting. On-air talent, production staff, and corporate executives seemed to very affably intermingle in way you don’t typically see in other corporate media settings. Of course, a 15 year victory lap (combined with open bar) can work wonders to democratize any caste system.

While many explain Fox News success by highlighting the strong point-of-view and “playing by different rules” ethos, there seems to be another, far more important component to their unique brew of editorial, opinion and entertainment content. This came up during the centerpiece of Ailes’ comments, when he revisited a one page memo he wrote as he started the channel, in which he included the mission statement for the Fox News Channel, along with some simple guidelines for his staff to follow:

The Fox News Channel is committed to providing viewers with more factual information and a balanced fair presentation. Fox believes viewers should make their own judgments on important issues based on unbiased coverage. Our motto is, ‘We report, you decide.’ Our job is to give the American people information they can use to live their lives more effectively and our job is to tell them the truth wherever the truth falls.

I told each of you that there were four things you would need to be successful. One was excellence. Excellence requires hard work, clear thinking and the application of your unique talent. A desire to get better at your job everyday is the cornerstone of a great career.

The second is integrity. Nothing is more important than giving your word and keeping it. Don’t blame others for your mistakes, don’t take credit for anyone else’s work, don’t lie, cheat, or steal, people will always figure it out and you’ll never regain your reputation.

The third was teamwork. Our common goal as the success of the Fox News Channel. Only teams go to the Superbowl. Volunteer to help somebody when your job is finished and ask for help if you need it. Solve problems together and give the credit to somebody else. Attitude is everything. You live in your own mind. If you believe you are a victim, you will be a victim. If you believe you’ll win, you can win. Negative people make positive people sick. Management relies on positive people for all progress.

This channel was built on that piece of paper, and you did it, so I thank you. So we faced some long odds fifteen years ago, but together we built a channel from scratch- mostly Rupert’s scratch. But we did give a voice to all points of view which is generally not done in news and with that we changed the face of journalism forever.

Hard work, clear thinking and taking ownership of one’s work seem to be oversimplified clichés cut from a Management 101 book. But when presented in the context of a party celebrating 15 years of existence (of which nearly 10 were most dominant), it is not so easily dismissible. And as long as Fox News and its staff continues to see themselves as the iconoclastic outsider on the cable news paradigm, they will likely be motivated to continue such dominance in the years to come.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.