Roger and Me: Remembering the Legendary Fox News Channel Creator
Roger Ailes, who founded Rupert Murdoch’s media empire’s crown jewel — the Fox News Channel — is gone. He died early Thursday at the age of 77. Unfortunately, one of the greatest television news honchos to ever breathe got very little attention from the news media except to remind Americans that Ailes resigned from FNC under a cloud of scandal.
Why did Ailes’ passing receive scant coverage compared to other news stories? Because the so-called mainstream news media are too busy helping the Democrats, the leftist-activists and the likes of George Soros bring down another bigger-than-life conservative, President Donald J. Trump.
Besides being the powerhouse who brought conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh to national attention and singlehandedly resurrecting AM radio, he was a friend to U.S. presidents and foreign dignitaries, yet never allowed it to go to his head. I know that personally since I had the opportunity to work numerous times as a Fox News contributor between 1999 and 2003.
While he founded Fox News in 1996, the channel didn’t enter the New York City market until he fought against Ted Turner and his CNN – who many called the Clinton News Network — and built FNC into the nation’s No. 1 cable news network.
While I never worked directly for Mr. Ailes, I did work with many great journalists in his stable of stars including Bill O’Reilly, Linda Vester, John Gibson, Paula Zahn, Steve Doocy, David Asman and others. They were all an inspiration and an answer to a prayer that Americans would someday have a news source that wasn’t in the tank for the Democratic National Committee. Although I wasn’t employed or paid by Fox News, I was a frequent contributor as the vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and found that I was treated very, very well by everyone there. My favorite appearances were those in which I verbally jousted with Bill O’Reilly, the most intelligent and down-to-earth celebrity I’ve ever met.
Not only were the Fox News “talent” a group of true professionals, the network’s production, technical and editorial staff were filled with the three important “E’s” –enthusiasm, energy and excitement. They knew they were on the cutting edge of broadcast news and they behaved accordingly.
One of the new millennium’s biggest news stories was the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and it was that event that led to FNC becoming the number one cable news channel in the country. FNC under Roger Ailes will always be remembered as the network that covered the terrorists’ attack and its aftermath with professionalism and with genuine sympathy for the victims, their families, the survivors, the police officers, the firefighters, and the emergency medical professionals.
I believe it’s safe to assume that without Roger Ailes, the American people would not have experienced such memorable news coverage. He will be missed.
