Roger Ailes

Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's 1989 New York City mayoral election. In July 2016, he left Fox News after allegations of sexually harassing female Fox employees, including on-air hosts Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Andrea Tantaros.

Ailes had hemophilia, a medical condition in which the body is impaired in its ability to produce blood clots. He died on May 18, 2017, at the age of 77 after a subdural hematoma that was aggravated by his hemophilia. Ailes is known for his influence on conservative media, the conservative movement, and American presidents. He is also considered controversial due to the numerous allegations of sexual harassment against him throughout his career and for allegedly creating a misogynistic environment at Fox News.

Ailes was born and grew up in the factory town of Warren, Ohio, to Donna Marie (née Cunningham) and Robert Eugene Ailes, a factory maintenance foreman. Ailes had hemophilia and was often hospitalized as a youth. He attended the Warren city schools, and later was inducted into Warren G. Harding High School's Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. Actor and playwright Austin Pendleton was a childhood friend of Ailes.

Ailes's father was an authoritarian parent who was often physically and verbally abusive, while Ailes later recalled that his mother feared his hemophilia and was only physically affectionate "once in a while". His parents divorced in 1960; when he came home from college for Christmas break, they informed him that he would have to stay at a friend's house. In 1962, Ailes graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he majored in radio and television and served as the student station manager for WOUB for two years.

Ailes's career in television began in Cleveland and Philadelphia, where he started as production assistant (1961), producer (1965), and executive producer (1967–68) at 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 1967 and 1968 he won Emmy Awards 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 successful presidential campaign was Ailes's first venture into the political spotlight. His pioneering work in framing national campaign issues was later chronicled in The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss.

Ailes was an employee of Television News Inc., a syndicated television newsfilm service owned by Joseph Coors, from January to September 1975.

In 1984, Ailes worked on the campaign to reelect Ronald Reagan. In 1987 and 1988, Ailes was credited (along with fellow consultant Lee Atwater) with guiding George H. W. Bush to victory in the Republican primaries and in the victory over Michael Dukakis.

Ailes was 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 in his run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in November 1991. He announced his withdrawal from political consulting in 1991.

Ailes was married three times. His first marriage was to Marjorie White from 1960 to 1977.

He married his second wife Norma Ferrer in 1980 after meeting while working together on The Mike Douglas Show. Ailes adopted Norma's daughter Shawn Ferrer upon their wedding, walking Shawn down the aisle at her first wedding to Alexander Visco on April 12, 2001. Norma and Roger were married until 1995.

In October 2007, Ailes donated to Ohio University for a renovated student newsroom. Ailes had majored in radio and television while at Ohio University and served two years as manager of the school's radio station. Starting in 1994, he funded scholarships for Ohio University students in the school's telecommunications programs.

Ailes and his wife Elizabeth, through their charity, ACI Senior Development Corp., promised $500,000 toward the completion of a senior center in Cold Spring, Putnam County, New York. Local opposition to Ailes's participation in the project arose after publication of the sexual harassment accusations against him and in response to a Journal News report about previously undisclosed conditions attached to the proposed gift. Under those conditions, ACI would act as general contractor for the project with no obligation to conduct competitive bidding before awarding construction management and other subcontracts.

Further, ACI was excused from any obligation to pay prevailing wages to workers on the project, workers and subcontractors would have no recourse against ACI in case of payment disputes and ACI would deliver its work without warranty. There was extensive public objection to Ailes's participation. At an August 2, 2016 public hearing, the Putnam County Legislature suspended adoption of the proposed charitable donation agreement with ACI. The next day Ailes withdrew the gift.

In a 2013 book excerpt from Roger Ailes: Off Camera, Ailes spoke about facing death, saying, "Because of my hemophilia, I've been prepared to face death all of my life. When it comes, I'll be fine, calm. I'll miss life, though. Especially my family."

On May 10, 2017, Ailes fell and hit his head at his Palm Beach, Florida, home. He died on May 18, three days after his 77th birthday, due to injuries from the fall. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner

attributed his death to a subdural hematoma, aggravated by hemophilia. His wife, Elizabeth, announced his death in a statement on the Drudge Report.

George H. W. Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Bill Hemmer, Bret Baier, Geraldo Rivera, Laura Ingraham, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Jesse Jackson, Ainsley Earhardt, Shannon Bream, Al Sharpton, David Axelrod, Jeanine Pirro, Martha MacCallum, Newt Gingrich, and Lou Dobbs paid tribute to Ailes.

In 2018, Ailes briefly appears in the Adam McKay film Vice.

In 2019, Russell Crowe portrayed Roger Ailes in Showtime's limited series The Loudest Voice alongside Naomi Watts as Gretchen Carlson. Crowe won a Golden Globe for the performance.

The same year, John Lithgow received critical acclaim for playing Ailes in Jay Roach's film Bombshell, also starring Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson.

Kerwin Swint (2008). Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes. Union Square Press. ISBN 978-1-4027-5445-6.

David Brock (2012). The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine. Anchor. ISBN 978-0-307-27958-3.

Ze'ev Chafets (2013). Roger Ailes: Off Camera. Sentinel. ISBN 978-1-59523-108-6.

Gabriel Sherman (2014). The Loudest Voice In The Room: How The Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – And Divided A Country. Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-9285-4.