Fox Business Network Debuts

It's part of Roger Ailes' 'course correction'

(NEWSER) - Is Fox News shifting to the center, relatively speaking? Politico thinks so, tracing it back to a "course correction" ordered by Roger Ailes last fall. He wanted Fox to move away from Tea Party "cheerleading" and to tone down the far-right rhetoric, writes Politico's Keach Hagey. "A casual Fox viewer might barely notice the changes since the network remains critical of the Obama administration and reliably conservative opinion voices, like (Sean) Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, still anchor key spots in the Fox firmament. But the changes are there." More»

Roger Ailes' plan was a winner, anchor says

(NEWSER) - Fox News has plenty of critics— including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy —but it also has more viewers than its two closest rivals combined, according to the latest Nielsen Ratings. The figures show that Fox is the most-watched cable news channel for the 10th year in a row, averaging 1.86 million viewers in prime time, while MSNBC had 775,000 and CNN had 689,000, the New York Daily News reports. More»

News chief reportedly cutting deal with Harper Collins

(NEWSER) - Fox News chief Roger Ailes is reportedly writing an autobiography, which may mean he's planning to abandon the conservative media colossus he launched in 1996. After all, he could hardly publish an unvarnished tell-all while managing Fox News, writes Gabriel Sherman in New York . People like Ailes' Fox colleagues and Rupert Murdoch will be a little miffed if the mucky muck reveals what he really thinks of them. More»

Roger Ailes furious that decision not to run wasn't announced on network

(NEWSER) - Fox News chief Roger Ailes was furious when Sarah Palin decided to announce her non-candidacy outside of the network, sources tell New York . Ailes—who grumbled that he "paid her for two years to make this announcement on my network"—was so angry that he considered yanking Palin off the air until her $1 million-a-year contract expires in 2013, the sources say. More»

Fox News chief says he was concerned about ratings, not politics

(NEWSER) - In an interview with the AP about the 15th anniversary of Fox News, Roger Ailes has set off a mini-tizzy with this line about Sarah Palin: "I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings." He was deflecting criticism that the channel is politically biased—as in, he hired her for ratings, not her politics. Samples of how it's playing:

• "The "quote is stunning in its own right, but it’s worth noting that were it coming from a progressive figure, he would likely be immediately tarred and feathered by conservatives as a sexist," writes Alex Seitz-Wald at Think Progress .