Free Republic

Per Jim Romensko, so says Fox News Chief Roger Ailes: Jon Stewart is a comedian. He wouldn’t do well without Fox. And he basically has admitted to me, in a bar, that he’s a socialist. Of course Jon Stewart is a socialist. But like all elitist millionaire socialists, he's one who sees himself as or who intends to be The State, should he win the day. In other words, Stewart would like to be the "benevolent" overlord who tells us what's best for us, especially in areas of speech, an area Stewart is desperate to control. What is so appalling...

Ahead of her Fox News special Paying at the Pump, Sarah Palin gave an interview to Breitbart.com. Discussing various aspects of energy policies, Palin’s final question was about the network’s boss Roger Ailes — and her response wasn’t exactly glowing. The question was: “Governor, many people were disappointed that you decided not to run for president this year, but are still hoping that you might one day run for the White House in the future. Roger Ailes was recently quoted as saying, ‘Sarah Palin had no chance to be President.’ What do you make of that?” “Interesting,” Palin said, before...

Roger Ailes: "You talk about burning bridges. This guy really burns ‘em. Now, I feel sorry for anybody who’s out of work, so I don’t want to trash him or say anything negative about him. He was great at sports, I thought. And everybody has some redeeming quality, so people find a job again. But it’ll be, you know. A pet show in St. Louis, or something."

Cliff Kincaid at America's Survival has launched a call for Fox News to bring back Glenn Beck. This announcement comes on the heels of troubling revelations about Beck's firing and other disturbing trends at Fox. It quickly got front-page coverage at the Huffington Post, presumably to launch a campaign of ridicule and smears before Kincaid's idea builds momentum. No matter how much they sneer, the left is terrified of Beck. Beck's firing was the work of George Soros, Kincaid has revealed. Soros funded Color of Change, the organization founded by Van Jones that launched a boycott against Fox after Beck...

How George Soros Sacked Glenn Beck by Cliff Kincaid on 19 Oct 2011 A recent interview of Fox News chief Roger Ailes by Howard Kurtz suggested that the channel is becoming less conservative by design. The real question, not addressed in the piece, is whether the relentless attacks on the channel by George Soros-funded groups have anything to do with this change in the direction of the popular channel and the demise of the Glenn Beck program in particular.On Glenn Beck’s new TV program, carried on the Internet, Beck himself seemed to indicate this was the case. Talking about Orson...

Fox News is still leading the cable news ratings race—but for how long? Fox's overall ratings for November dropped 13% compared to the same month last year, reports Mediabistro.

Sarah Palin's announcement that she wouldn't run for president disappointed her legions of admirers — but it infuriated Roger Ailes. The Fox News chief wasn't angry about the decision itself. Rather, he was livid that Palin made the October 5 announcement on Mark Levin's conservative talk-radio program, robbing Fox News of an exclusive and a possible ratings bonanza. Fox was relegated to getting a follow-up interview with Palin on Greta Van Susteren's 10 p.m. show, after the news of Palin's decision had been drowned out by Steve Jobs's death. Ailes was so mad, he considered pulling her off the air...

Roger Ailes tells the AP that there was nothing political in his decision to hire Sarah Palin as a Fox News contributor. “I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings,” he told Frazier Moore, AP’s television writer, in a long and wide-ranging interview.

Just in case you, like me, are afraid tonight will be the same ol’ show we’ve seen the last two rounds, here’s a little something to get you energized for tonight — a behind-the-scenes sneak peek with Bret Baier:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Best news of the video: Not only will a dream team of moderators host the debate (Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly), but they’ll also be taking outside questions. We saw that the CNN/Tea Party Express debate format generated some unlikely-to-otherwise-be-asked inquiries, and it seems the format for tonight’s debate might do the same. As a...

The awful launch week for the over-hyped, expected bestseller The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, by controversial author Joe McGinniss, just got worse. Much worse. After a week of universally scathing pans from the reflexively anti-Palin establishment media, McGinniss now faces the fight of his literary life: the accusation that he seems to have knowingly submitted a book to his publisher, Crown/Random House, that was filled with unproved “tawdry gossip” and rumors that lacked “factual evidence.”

How the Drive-By Media Became the Hit-and-Run Media: Author Joe McGinniss’s Further Misadventures in Wasilla Joe McGinniss, author of a controversial new biography of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, was charged in connection with a hit-and-run accident in Wasilla, Alaska in July 2010, police and court records show. McGinniss had moved to Wasilla in the spring of 2010 to work on his book, and rented the house next door to the Palin family, prompting Palin and her husband to erect a higher fence to protect their children’s privacy. On July 12, 2010, at about 2 p.m., McGinniss was allegedly driving...

McGinniss reports that Palin enrolled at the Hilo campus of the University of Hawaii after graduating from high school, and left after only three weeks because "the many people of color there made her nervous." At least this time he quoted someone by name - Palin's dad. "They were a minority type of thing and it wasn't glamorous," Chuck Heath later explained. But McGinniss never explained where or in what context Chuck Heath said that, much less to whom. I Googled the quote and found numerous references to Sam Tanenhaus' New Yorker review of Palin's memoir, Going Rogue. That review...

I was in the middle of the controversial new book about everyone’s favorite Alaskan—The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin—when I began to fret that I’d accidentally fallen into a DeLorean and time-traveled back to 2008. Does our world really need yet another person to tell us that the former Alaska governor is a vicious, savage, vindictive, paranoid, lying, hypocritical Jesus freak? If that’s your thing, by all means run to your local bookstore before Matt Damon buys up all the copies. But perhaps you might take a moment for what Sarah Palin’s onetime running mate famously called a...

The Joe McGinniss Sarah Palin book The Rogue is the left's latest hate letter to God-fearing patriotic Americans. Make no mistake about it, folks. The McGinniss attack along with the other numerous attacks on Sarah Palin are really about attacking you -- mainstream Americans with traditional values. Since her extraordinary, upbeat VP nominee acceptance speech in 2008, I have wondered. What did Palin specifically say to prompt such immediate visceral hatred from the left? I have come to realize the answer is her celebration of God, family, and country. How dare Palin praise traditional marriage, motherhood, Christianity, and American exceptionalism,...

RUBES: The REAL Sarah Palin Haters © 2011 By Anthony James There’s a new book out, purportedly an “exposé” on the “real” Sarah Palin, by noted Palin hater Joe McGinnis. Joe is as well known for his questionable sources and frequently unattributable accusations as he is for his creepy fixation on all things Sarah. This is the guy who actually went to Wasilla last summer and rented the house next to the Palins so he could spy on them and be an aggravating thorn in their sides as he concocted his latest hit piece on America’s favorite Governor. Released on...

Sarah Palin doesn’t deserve this. Neither does any other similarly situated public figure, whether on the political right, left or in the middle. But worthiness has nothing to do with this, not when there’s a chance of driving up book sales and bringing down the celebrity you despise at the same time. Enter Joe McGinniss. His new book, “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin,” claims that the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate had a tryst in 1987 with basketball star Glen Rice when he was in Alaska to play in a tournament with his University...

[ Joe McGinniss interview on The Today Show 9/16/11 ]Sometimes, I think it’s a public service to sit through some of this garbage so that you don’t have to.The Today Show calls Joe McGuinness “longtime political author� — but I can think of a few better descriptive words more apt for a man who moved next door to the Palin family to stalk them and peep into the windows of young girls, the way McGuinness did last summer. “Longtime political author� is not the word I’d use to accurately convey the disgust his behavior generates.I have no idea what this...

The Palin family is going on offense against author Joe McGinniss, whose forthcoming book about Sarah Palin broke into the headlines thanks to a Wednesday National Enquirer report. In a statement to reporters, Todd Palin described the book as "disgusting lies, innuendo, and smears." He cited the New York Times review of "The Rogue" as evidence the book should be discounted. "This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with my wife," Palin said...

<p>"This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us. He traffics in innuendo and falsehoods. A few years ago he interviewed members of Sarah's administration for a magazine article, and afterwards they said that he was the most disingenuous and intellectual dishonest writer they'd ever dealt with. He's spent the last year interviewing marginal figures with an axe to grind in order to churn out a hit piece to satisfy his own creepy obsession with my wife. I'd ask that people consider these facts when evaluating his latest lies."</p>

Erik Wemple reports that Fox News says it tried to book Joe McGinniss to talk about “The Rogue,” but he said he was “too busy.”That’s an interesting decision, given that McGinniss has been friends with Roger Ailes for 44 years.McGinniss wrote in May about their friendship, which started when he was writing a column and the Philadelphia Inquirer and Ailes was producing the Michael Douglas Show in Philadelphia.The post was sparked by Gabriel Sherman’s story on Ailes, which quoted an anonymous associate of the Fox News boss saying that he thought Sarah Palin was “an idiot” – a claim that...

In response to Fox's brand new practice of calling Governor Palin "Contributor Palin," some of my Facebook buddies have started a campaign where we're putting "It's Gov. Palin to You" in the subject line and sending a strongly worded missive to one or more of the following emails: studiob@foxnews.com hannity@foxnews.com oreilly@foxnews.com kelly@foxnews.com yourcomments@foxnews.com It's time to stand up for what's right. That's all.

Recently we had a series of discussions with someone familiar with the inside dealings of Fox News regarding the way Fox News treats Governor Palin. While I don’t condone using anonymous sources (I usually make fun of those citing anonymous sources) unfortunately we can’t not reveal the source. So we have therefore gathered the evidence that will back up everything we were told and it’s up to the reader to come to his or her own conclusion. Whichever way you look at it, the evidence is astonishing on how Fox News is out to sabotage Governor Palin.When Roger Ailes hired...

RealClearScott Scott Conroy Think it's safe to say Palin is going rogue on Roger Ailes. Answering a ton of substantive q's to the non-Greta media 6 minutes ago

The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America's Unfair and Imbalanced Network.... (HIT PIECE) Chairman: Roger Ailes at Fox News. The network says his "dear friend" Rush Limbaugh, "is a reflection of him." At the Fox News holiday party the year the network overtook archrival CNN in the cable ratings, tipsy employees were herded down to the basement of a Midtown bar in New York. As they gathered around a television mounted high on the wall, an image flashed to life, glowing bright in the darkened tavern: the MSNBC logo. A chorus of...

[...] In a statement to The New York Times, the Fox News Channel executive vice president of programming, Bill Shine, said: “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...

[...] Ailes is the most successful executive in television,.... So it must have been disturbing to Ailes when the wheels started to come off .........Last summer, he’d invited Christie to dinner at his upstate compound along with Rush Limbaugh,....he fell hard for Christie, .......He still speaks almost daily with George H. W. Bush,... [...] “He thinks things are going in a bad direction,” another Republican close to Ailes told me. “.....He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot..." [...] For Ailes, Tucson was a turning point,.... Ailes began to doubt Palin’s political...

<p>Before Sarah Palin posted her infamous “Blood Libel” video on Facebook on January 12, she placed a call to Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. In the wake of the Tucson massacre, Palin was fuming that the media was blaming her heated rhetoric for the actions of a madman that left six people dead and thirteen others injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.</p>

NEWS CORP ISSUES WEAK STATEMENT ON ROGER AILES: Judith Regan's New Story Is That Roger Ailes Did Not Tell Her To Lie Henry Blodget Feb. 27, 2011, 11:32 AM Now that there's a rumor going around that FOX boss Roger Ailes is going to be indicted for telling underling Judith Regan to lie to federal investigators, it makes sense to take a closer look at what News Corp. has said about the matter. When the New York Times broke the story last week that Judith Regan had accused Ailes of this--and had a recording of the telephone call to prove...

This is from Barry Ritholtz's blog: Here’s what I learned recently: Someone I spoke with claimed that Ailes was scheduled to speak at their event in March, but canceled. It appears that Roger’s people, ostensibly using a clause in his contract, said he “cannot appear for legal reasons.” I asked “What, precisely, does that mean?” The response: “Roger Ailes will be indicted — probably this week, maybe even Monday.” You read it here first . . .

It was an incendiary allegation — and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie to federal investigators two years before. The investigators had been vetting Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who had been nominated to become homeland security secretary and who had had an affair with Ms. Regan. The goal of the News Corporation executive, according to Ms. Regan, was to keep the affair...

Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America? An exclusive and unbiased investigation into the highly paid operative of a foreign-born tycoon, a man who reengineered political and media culture and fomented a revolt that threatens the very stability of our country By Tom Junod Today, here at Esquire — and only at Esquire, because only Esquire has the guts to tell you this story — we're going to tell you about a man you need to know a little better, maybe a lot better: a man named Roger Ailes. Maybe you've heard of Mr. Ailes. As the chairman and CEO of...

Fox News President Roger Ailes denounced attempts to tie Gabrielle Giffords shooting to Fox News and the right, but said he had told "our guys [to] shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually" in an interview with the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons for Simmons's GlobalGrind.com. "He just was not attached to the Tea Party. It’s just a bullshit way to use the death of a little girl to get Fox News in an argument," Ailes said. "You know, they’re using this thing...apparently there was a map from one of Palin’s things that had her (Congresswoman Giffords) targeted district....

Part Two of Howard Kurtz’s interview with Fox News chief Roger Ailes is out today, and based on his frank and candid assessment of Jon Stewart, NPR and a defense of conservative bias, no one should ever call Mr. Ailes a shrinking violet. His provocative comments are sure to predictably raise eyebrows, but one could just as easily read the enlightening Q & A as a plain-spoken conversation in which one of the most powerful media figures of the day isn’t afraid to speak from the heart, and perhaps confirm what everyone already thinks about him. As usual, the the...

Who needs who more? Does Glenn Beck need Fox News or is it the other way around? Ailes, who declined to comment for this article, has generally been supportive of Beck. But he has also been vocal around the network about how Beck does not fully appreciate the degree to which Fox News has made him the sensation he has become in recent months. In the days following Beck’s Lincoln Memorial rally, which by Beck’s estimate drew a half-million people, Ailes told associates that if Beck were still at Headline News, there would have been 30 people on the Mall....

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Shepard Smith is the DARLING of DailyKos, TPM, ThinkProgress and Media Matters. Why? Because he is a hard left-wing news anchor on what is supposedly the "Right-Wing Network"--FoxNews. Moreover, Smith routinely bashes Republicans and gives Democrats a pass. Today was no different, as he blasted Republican chairman Michael Steele. But don't believe me...read what a Kos blogger had to say about the exchange. Then you might want to email Roger Ailes and let him know what you think of his "anchorman"...I've written more than once in praise of Shepherd Smith as the best newsperson on TV; today he proved it...

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes stopped by the D.C. bureau for an impromptu visit as he was in town for tonight’s Radio Television Correspondents Association Dinner. Sources tell Mediaite he talked about the success of the bureau and the network as a whole – but also addressed the recent Washington Post Glenn Beck profile. Sources present at the time tell us that Ailes said he was “very proud of this bureau” and “they used to come to us after the news event…now they come to us for the news event as well…I really just want to congratulate you and thank...

FOX NEWS Makes More Money Than CNN, MSNBC, And NBC-ABC-And-CBS News Combined Henry Blodget Jan. 9, 2010, 7:54 PM When Roger Ailes started FOX News in 1996, people said he'd have no chance against CNN. This year, FOX News will likely make $700 million of profit--more money than CNN, MSNBC and the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC and CBS combined. Ailes rules not only the news business but politics: If Ailes were a Democrat, James Carville says, the Democrats would control 67 seats in the Senate. David Carr and Tim Arango of the NYT provide a snapshot of News Corp's...

In the fall of 2008, Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News, went to his boss, Rupert Murdoch, with two complaints: he had heard that Mr. Murdoch was considering endorsing Barack Obama for president in The New York Post, and he had read a book excerpt in Vanity Fair suggesting that Mr. Murdoch was sometimes embarrassed by the right-leaning Fox News. Mr. Ailes threatened to quit, a person familiar with the conversation said. Instead, Mr. Murdoch soon rewarded him with a new, more lucrative contract — he made $23 million last year in salary, bonuses and other compensation, more than...

Geraldo Rivera has told Fox News honcho Roger Ailes he'll quit if Ailes hires Lou Dobbs, according to a well-placed source. Rivera, who has blasted the nativist Dobbs for his "slander" against Latinos, tells us, "I never threatened to quit." But he did let Ailes know he wouldn't welcome working with the man who has called him a "cowardly liar." Says Geraldo: "The last time I checked, no one here was talking to the a-—." Still, Ailes is said to be considering Dobbs for the Fox Business Channel. "The trouble is Dobbs wants too much money – like $8 million...

Before Glenn Beck started his new show on Fox News in January, he sat down with Roger Ailes, the network's chief executive, to make sure they were on the same page. "I wanted to meet with Roger and tell him, 'You may not want to put me on the air. I believe we are in dire trouble, and I will never shut up,' " said the conservative radio host. But before Beck could say anything, Ailes shared a message of his own: The country faced tough times, he said, and Fox News was one of the only news outlets willing...

Friends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political arena for real by running for president in 2012, top sources tell POLITICO. "Ailes knows how to frame an issue better than anybody, and that's what we need now," says one Ailes friend who is encouraging the Fox founder, chairman and CEO to seek the Republican nomination to run against President Barack Obama. Ailes, 69, has an aggessive, winning personality that made Fox News a huge success — and a huge target for liberal critics. Frank Luntz, the well-known Republican pollster, said Ailes could be...

At a time of tension between their organizations, White House senior adviser David Axelrod met with Fox News chairman and chief executive officer Roger Ailes two weeks ago, sources tell POLITICO. The two met privately in Manhattan during the president’s visit to the United Nations. The two discussed news coverage and the relationship between the organizations. Ailes is the founder of Fox News. A key part of Axelrod’s portfolio is the president’s image and broad message. POLITICO has asked Fox for comment, and will update with reaction. White House officials have expressed pique with what they consider heavy coverage of...

"Video: Some things need to be defended..." Krauthammer: "....I've long thought that the Bush/Cheney administration will be treated by history like the Truman administration. But the one aspect of that I got wrong is the timing; whereas it took 50 years for Truman's work and genius to be acknowledged, we are only 5 months into the new era, and with every day and every action by this administration of adopting the wise policies that Bush/Cheney administration had adopted, even as it denounces them at the same time, the vindication of the last administration is strongly under way, and that in...

Roger Ailes has signed a new deal that keeps him at News Corp. for at least another five years. "I'm pleased to continue to work for News Corporation. It is a strong and extremely well positioned company. I look forward to carrying out Mr. Murdoch's legendary vision in the future," says Ailes in a press release. Ailes, 68, continues oversight of five News Corp. divisions including Fox News, Fox Business, Fox TV Stations, 20th Television and MyNetworkTV.

News Corporation executive Roger Ailes has told Los Angeles Times reporter Matea Gold that he has advised employees of the Fox News Channel that ''all presidents deserve time to get their team on the ground and get organized'' and that ''we have some obligation in a new presidency not to attempt to destabilize it.'' (Snip) Ailes responded to the report in the New York Daily News that he instructed FNC to tone down attacks on President-elect Barack Obama. He denied giving specific orders,

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 -- At a secret meeting with Barack Obama three months ago, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes says, he tried to clear the air with the Democratic senator by saying that his organization was determined to be fair but would not be "in the tank" for Obama's campaign. During the sit-down in a Waldorf-Astoria hotel suite in Manhattan that included Rupert Murdoch, the network's owner, Obama expressed concern about the way Fox was covering him. "I just wanted to know if I'm going to get a fair shake from Fox News Channel," Ailes recalled him saying....

P.J. assessed the pastor's public meltdown this way: "I suspect that [Wright] felt that he was walking into the lion's den Monday morning, behaving as if in combat with an aggressive and antagonistic enemy, which perhaps he was. It was obvious that he lacks the PR skills to do that job right, that he can't draw in journalists the way he can a rapt congregation. In short, he was out of his element." Indeed. But Wright's rise to national prominence is not his work alone; he's received plenty of help along the way. Obama's opponents in the media have done...

Roger Ailes and Rudolph W. Giuliani have been pulling for each other for nearly two decades. Mr. Ailes was the media consultant to Mr. Giuliani’s first mayoral campaign in 1989. Mr. Giuliani, as mayor, officiated at Mr. Ailes’s wedding and intervened on his behalf when Mr. Ailes’s company, Fox News Channel, was blocked from securing a cable station in the city. This year, they were tablemates at the White House correspondents dinner, which Mr. Giuliani attended as a guest of Fox’s parent company, the News Corporation. Now these allies and friends find themselves on largely uncharted political turf. Mr. Giuliani,...

Don Imus appears to be heading back to the airwaves. Less than six months after his long-running radio program was terminated in an uproar over a racial remark, the sharp-tongued host has come to financial terms with one of the nation's top broadcasting companies. Imus is now assembling his broadcast team, which in light of the controversy is likely to include a black panelist. Longtime sidekick Charles McCord plans to return, and producer Bernard McGuirk -- who often made controversial remarks and was involved in the exchange about the Rutgers team -- would be retained in an off-air role.