Early life

Ailes was born and grew up in the factory town of Warren, Ohio, the son of Donna Marie (née Cunningham) and Robert Eugene Ailes, a factory maintenance foreman. Ailes suffers from hemophilia and was often hospitalized as a youth. He attended the Warren city schools, and later was inducted into Warren High School's Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. His father was abusive, and his parents divorced in 1960. In 1962, Ailes received a bachelor's degree from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Career

Early television

Ailes' career in television began in Cleveland and Philadelphia, where he started as Property Assistant (1962), Producer (1965), and Executive Producer (1967-68) for KYW-TV, for a then-locally produced talk-variety show, The Mike Douglas Show. He continued as Executive Producer for the show when it was syndicated nationally, and in 1968 was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for it.

In 1967, Ailes had a spirited discussion about television in politics with one of the show's guests, Richard Nixon, who took the view that television was a gimmick. Later, Nixon called on Ailes to serve as his Executive Producer for television. Nixon's election victory was Ailes's first venture into the political spotlight. His pioneering work in framing national campaign issues and making the stiff Nixon more likeable and accessible to voters was later chronicled in The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss.

Political consulting

In 1987 and 1988, Ailes was credited (along with Lee Atwater) with guiding George H. W. Bush to victory in the Republican primaries and the later come-from-behind victory over Michael Dukakis. Ailes scripted and (with Sig Rogich) produced the "Revolving Door" ad, as well as all of Bush's broadcast spots in the primary and general-election campaigns.

Ailes is credited with the "Orchestra Pit Theory" regarding sensationalist political coverage in the news media, which originated with his quip:

"If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, 'I have a solution to the Middle East problem,' and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?"

Ailes's last campaign was the unsuccessful effort of Richard Thornburgh for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in November 1991. He announced his withdrawal from political consulting in 1992. Though he aided with behind-the-scenes speechwriting and coaching in 1992 for both President and Mrs. Bush at the GOP Convention in Houston, Ailes did not work on the unsuccessful 1992 Bush re-election campaign against Bill Clinton.

Ailes's TV ads for the 1988 Bush campaign were extensively examined in the award-winning documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

Days after the 9/11 attacks, Ailes gave President George W. Bush political advice indicating that the American public would be patient as long as they were convinced that Bush was using the harshest measures possible. The correspondence was revealed in Bob Woodward's book Bush At War. Ailes lashed out against Woodward, saying "Woodward got it all screwed up, as usual," and "The reason he's not as rich as Tom Clancy is that while he and Clancy both make stuff up, Clancy does his research first." Ailes refused to release a copy of the memo he sent to Bush.

Book

In 1988, Ailes wrote a book with long-time aide Jon Kraushar, called You Are the Message: Secrets of the Master Communicators, in which he discusses some of his philosophies and strategies for successful performance in the public eye.

CEO of Fox News

On October 7, 1996, Ailes became the founding CEO of Fox News.

Chairman of Fox Television Stations

After the departure of Lachlan Murdoch from News Corporation, Ailes was named Chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group on August 15, 2005. Following his newest assignment, one of his first acts was canceling A Current Affair in September 2005 and replacing it with a new Geraldo Rivera show titled Geraldo at Large, which debuted on Halloween, 2005. Rivera's show drew about the same ratings as A Current Affair in January 2007. Ailes decided to cancel Geraldo at Large to move Rivera back on Fox News Channel.

Ailes also hired former CBS executive Dennis Swanson in October 2005 to be president of the Fox Television Stations Group. Additionally, there have been changes in affiliates' news programs with the standardization of Fox News Channel-like graphics, redesigned studios, news-format changes, and the announcement of a new morning television show called The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet to be produced by Fox News Channel.

In October 2012, his contract with the network was renewed for four years, through 2016, at which time he will have served as head of Fox News Channel for twenty years. Salary terms were not made public, although his earnings for the 2012 fiscal year were a reported $21 million inclusive of bonuses. In addition to heading Fox News and chairing Fox Television Stations, Ailes also chairs Twentieth Television, MyNetwork TV and Fox Business Network.

Criticism

2011 letter of criticism by rabbis; responses

In January 2011, an open letter printed in the Wall Street Journal on the UN-designated Holocaust Remembrance Day from 400 rabbis, including leaders from various branches of Judaism in the US, called on Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, to sanction Fox News commentator Glenn Beck for his use of the Holocaust to "discredit any individual or organization you disagree with." An executive at Fox News rejected the letter, calling it the work of a "George Soros-backed leftwing political organization." Ailes is also said to have once referred to Jewish critics of his as "left-wing rabbis." Also in 2011, Ailes was criticized for referring to executives of the public radio network NPR as "Nazis" for sacking a news analyst, Juan Williams, after Williams had made remarks considered by NPR to be offensive. Ailes apologized to a Jewish group for using the expression, although not to NPR, writing to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL): "“I was of course ad-libbing and should not have chosen that word, but I was angry at the time because of NPR’s willingness to censor Juan Williams for not being liberal enough.... My now considered opinion 'nasty, inflexible bigot' would have worked better.” The ADL accepted the apology through their National Director, Abraham Foxman, who said in a press release: "I welcome Roger Ailes apology, which is as sincere as it is heartfelt. Nazi comparisons of this nature are clearly inappropriate and offensive. While I wish Roger had never invoked that terminology, I appreciate his efforts to immediately reach out and to retract his words before they did any further harm." In a subsequent letter to the Wall Street Journal, Foxman credited both Ailes, and Beck, as "pro-Israel stalwarts."

Personal life

In July 1997, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Ailes was engaged to Elizabeth Tilson (born December 1960), whom he married on February 14, 1998. Formerly a television executive, she is now a homemaker and titular publisher of The Putnam County News and Recorder. They have one son. They currently reside in Garrison, New York, on a hilltop parcel in a home constructed of Adirondack river stone across the Hudson River from West Point Military Academy.

Ailes is a longtime friend of journalist and media personality Barbara Walters.

Ohio University

In October 2007, Ailes gave a sizeable donation to Ohio University for a renovated student newsroom. The new facility will double the size of the university's existing newsroom - last upgraded in the 1960s - and allow more students to participate in the school's WOUB radio station and television programs.

Ailes majored in radio and television while at Ohio University and served two years as manager of the school's radio station. Since 1994 he has funded scholarships for Ohio University students in the school's telecommunications programs.

Ailes has said, "Ohio University ignited my interest in broadcasting, which became my lifetime career. The education I received there gave me the opportunity to take on my first managerial responsibilities and provided early lessons in leadership. I'm happy to contribute to a great university."

Biography

• Roger Ailes: Off Camera (Sentinel HC 2013) (ISBN 978-1595230959)
• The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News and Divided a Country. Sherman, Gabriel (Random House HC 2014) (ISBN 978-0812992854)

Bibliography

• "Attorney Style: Charisma in a Court Counts." The National Law Journal (New York), 21 July 1986.
• "The Importance of Being Likeable." Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York), May 1988.
• You Are The Message: Secrets of the Master Communicators. (with Jon Kraushar). Homewood, Ill.: Dow Jones-Irwin. 1988. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-87094-976-0.
• You Are The Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are. (with Jon Kraushar). New York, N.Y.: Doubleday. 1989. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-385-26542-3.
• "Sam and Diane: Give 'em Time." Advertising Age (New York), 21 August 1989.
• "How to Make a Good Impression." Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York), September 1989.
• "A Few Kind Words for Presenter Tip O'Neill." Advertising Age (New York), 8 January 1990.
• "They Told the Truth...Occasionally." Adweek's Marketing Week (New York), 29 January 1990.
• "How to Make an Audience Love You." Working Woman (New York), November 1990.
• "Campaign Strategy." Time (New York), 11 May 1992.
• "Lighten Up! Stuffed Shirts Have Short Careers." Newsweek (New York), 18 May 1992.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]