Roger Ailes, Who Built Fox News Into an Empire, Dies at 77 -
Mr. Ailes exerted wide influence on American politics with his conservative Fox News, only to be undone by sexual harassment allegations.
As recounted in “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” Gabriel Sherman’s 2014 biography of Mr. Ailes, a female producer looking
to work for him at NBC said he had offered her an extra $100 a week “if you agree to have sex with me whenever I want.”
In 1993, Mr. Ailes took charge of the CNBC business news network and a second NBC cable channel, America’s Talking (which gave way in 1996 to MSNBC).
Wary of television — convinced that he had lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy on the
basis of appearances — Nixon dismissed it in a conversation with Mr. Ailes as a “gimmick.”
“Television is not a gimmick,” Mr. Ailes said boldly, “and if you think it is, you’ll lose again.”
Nixon took those words to heart, and took the young man onto his campaign as a media adviser.
“In addition, Roger was a great patriot who never ceased fighting for his beliefs.”
Although an Ailes admirer, Mr. Murdoch reluctantly concluded in the summer of 2016
that his news chief had to go after a former network anchor, Gretchen Carlson, brought a lawsuit charging Mr. Ailes with sexual harassment.
By CLYDE HABERMANMAY 18, 2017
Roger E. Ailes, who shaped the images that helped elect three Republican presidents
and then became a dominant, often-intimidating force in American conservative politics at the helm of Fox News, which he created with Rupert Murdoch’s money and guided for two decades until he was forced out in a sexual predation scandal, died on Thursday morning.