Roger Ailes: Beck, Palin Were 'Branding Issue'

Fox News chief also explains why Glenn Beck is off the network

(NEWSER) - Roger Ailes is probably the last guy Anthony Weiner expected to rally to his defense. But in a new interview the Fox News chief does just that. “The media’s had enough giggles over Mr. Weiner and his name,” Ailes told Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast . “Sometimes the families take a bigger hit than the person that people are trying to destroy.” Ailes had good things to say about another Democrat, too: “I’d like to hire Hillary Clinton. She looks unhappy at the State Department. She’d get ratings.” More»

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 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 .

'New York' profiles Fox News boss

(NEWSER) - In the wake of President Obama’s 2008 win, Roger Ailes successfully built up Fox News’ ratings and raked in $900 million last year—but he still hasn’t found a 2012 candidate to throw his weight behind, according to an extensive New York magazine cover story. “You can’t run for the Republican nomination without talking to Roger,” one source tells author Gabriel Sherman, who the Daily Beast notes is writing a book on Fox News. “Every single candidate has consulted with Roger,” but he’s not impressed with any of them. “He finds flaws in every one,” says another source—particularly Sarah Palin. More»