How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory | Rolling Stone Politics

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory | Rolling Stone PoliticsComment291

The Chairman: Roger Ailes at Fox News. The network says his "dear friend" Rush Limbaugh, "is a reflection of him."
Catrina Genovese/Getty Images
By TIM DICKINSON
MAY 25, 2011 8:00 AM ET
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 boos erupted among the Fox faithful. The CNN logo followed, and the catcalls multiplied. Then a third slide appeared, with a telling twist. In place of the logo for Fox News was a beneficent visage: the face of the network’s founder. The man known to his fiercest loyalists simply as "the Chairman" – Roger Ailes.

“It was as though we were looking at Mao,” recalls Charlie Reina, a former Fox News producer. The Foxistas went wild. They let the dogs out. Woof! Woof! Woof! Even those who disliked the way Ailes runs his network joined in the display of fealty, given the culture of intimidation at Fox News. “It’s like the Soviet Union or China: People are always looking over their shoulders,” says a former executive with the network’s parent, News Corp. “There are people who turn people in.”

This article appears in the June 9, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue will be available on newsstands and in the online archive May 27.

The key to decoding Fox News isn’t Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn’t even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first understand Chairman Ailes. “He is Fox News,” says Jane Hall, a decade-long Fox commentator who defected over Ailes’ embrace of the fear-mongering Glenn Beck. “It’s his vision. It’s a reflection of him.”

Photo Gallery: Roger Ailes, GOP Mastermind

Ailes runs the most profitable – and therefore least accountable – head of the News Corp. hydra. Fox News reaped an estimated profit of $816 million last year – nearly a fifth of Murdoch’s global haul. The cable channel’s earnings rivaled those of News Corp.’s entire film division, which includes 20th Century Fox, and helped offset a slump at Murdoch’s beloved newspapers unit, which took a $3 billion write-down after acquiring The Wall Street Journal. With its bare-bones news­gathering operation – Fox News has one-third the staff and 30 fewer bureaus than CNN – Ailes generates profit margins above 50 percent. Nearly half comes from advertising, and the rest is dues from cable companies. Fox News now reaches 100 million households, attracting more viewers than all other cable-news outlets combined, and Ailes aims for his network to “throw off a billion in profits.”

Slideshow: An hour-by-hour look at how Fox disguises GOP talking points as journalism

The outsize success of Fox News gives Ailes a free hand to shape the network in his own image. "Murdoch has almost no involvement with it at all," says Michael Wolff, who spent nine months embedded at News Corp. researching a biography of the Australian media giant. "People are afraid of Roger. Murdoch is, himself, afraid of Roger. He has amassed enormous power within the company – and within the country – from the success of Fox News."

Read about the GOP's dirty war against Obama

Fear, in fact, is precisely what Ailes is selling: His network has relentlessly hyped phantom menaces like the planned “terror mosque” near Ground Zero, inspiring Florida pastor Terry Jones to torch the Koran. Privately, Murdoch is as impressed by Ailes’ business savvy as he is dismissive of his extremist politics. "You know Roger is crazy," Murdoch recently told a colleague, shaking his head in disbelief. "He really believes that stuff."

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COMMENTS
Comments (291) Sort by:

Kayla Michel
June 12, 9:18 PM ET
It's really sad to hear some of the "jesus camp" comments on here from liberals, what does ones belief in god have to do with this? do a majority of christians vote republican? Yea, but mostly due to real moral issues like abortion. The ethical dynamics of abortion are impossible to fully define since no one can inherently say when a developing baby becomes a person, but a person who feels many abortion practices are wrong isnt uneducated, they aren't under mind control, it's simply their opinion. It's issues like this that keep many christians on the right. If anything, Christian teaching promotes universal healthcare, it doesn't promote war or capitalism. Are there idiots who vote republican blindly? Sure, but no more then there are clowns who vote liberal bc their union leader told them to, or just bc they'd get a tax break. The reality is that huge problems exist within the framework of both parties, we are a great nation but a very imperfect one as well. We need a new party to rise up and succeed for the people where liberals and conservatives have failed.
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Dennis Hayes
June 12, 7:24 PM ET
OMG I an so grateful I get my news from a network owned by the nice people at Comcast!!

I don't care that I can't find a job and I've lost the equity in my house but Sarah Palin's bus tour made me SO MAD!!!!
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Rob Utzig
June 11, 8:41 PM ET
The truth of the bias in media is that it leans towards conservatives. Who owns all the networks, how many reporters are part of the upper 5% in income, and how often do they actually research anti-liberal claims BEFORE reporting them? you will seldom hear a claim about a Major Republican that hasnt already been proven, but they all still cover stories that claim Obama is Muslim or not a citizen when they have no basis to make the clams. (Even if the president were muslim it wouldnt change his qualification to be president!)
Ailes, and his friend Karl Rove are driving this nation into a third world nation instead of keeping us as the preeminent super-power we were in the past!
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Ryan Kenneth Leddy
June 11, 1:14 AM ET
Fox News anger and blatant disregard for being fair and balanced will be the end of them. Most of their viewing base is seniors which are now jumping over to the Democratic side in fear of losing their medicare. They are also exploiting all of the independent vote with this seismic right shift. Now, because of the hate and lies the left has the senior, independent, young, and minority vote in their back pockets which is more than enough to win an election. Now, more than ever we need bipartisanship or we will lose this country.
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Kay Ebeling
June 10, 4:08 PM ET
There is no "liberal news bias." In order to be a journalist one must be well read, do research, learn all sides of issues and have a grasp of all current affairs. When someone becomes that knowledgeable, they realize how corrupt politics is on the right. So it is not a liberal news bias, it is that journalists tend to be better informed than average, so inevitably lean to the left. Fox News and the Tea Party are thriving in the U.S. today because we have cut budgets in public education and created an illiterate uninformed population. Thank you, Rolling Stone, for speaking out for the intelligent members of our population, if only there were more...
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Richard N. Williams
June 9, 5:28 PM ET
Your lack of journalistic integrity eliminates any negative nuance to my Oho friend Roger. Everyone knows AlGore used the Willie Horton smear first. This "oversight" poisons the whole premise.
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Bob Soper
June 8, 7:04 PM ET
Excellent article, Tim-- and judging by the massive blowback from the wing-nut tr0llies, you seem to have hit a nerve. And thanks to RS for making this exposé available to non-subscribers -- between Taibbi & Dickinson, RS is harkening back to some of the great independent journalism of its earlier years, in the tradition of William Greider & Hunter S. Thompson.
Keep up the good work!
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George Munyan
June 8, 8:37 AM ET
Ah Rolling Stone you are the masters of propaganda...and now you are protecing us from propaganda! What a joke.
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Joe Gisondi
June 8, 7:13 AM ET
Propaganda machine, look no further R.S, You are years ahead of Ailes with a Thirty five year head start. it seems , we the people are finally seeing through your monopoly so you guys have turned up the heat with article after article every issue. Gladly, your readership numbers are in the toilet, just the same as the NY Times, Kattie Correct and the rest who will one day end up in mothballs buried with Lenin.
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Dagny Dagnee
June 7, 4:21 PM ET
Roger Ailes is a dangerous man. However, just like Glenn Beck and McCarthy before him, he is spiraling toward the abyss of his own paranoia; the common thread between the three. As the Democrats continue to call the Ryan budget 'the kill medicare/social security' bill and more voters experience buyers remorse over the Ailes endorsed Republican candidates they put into office (for a myriad of reasons, but for mostly being out of touch with the rest of America) the more viewers Fox loses and the closer Ailes will come to self destruction. All we have to do is wait for the day Fox news announces Roger Ailes is stepping down.
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James Gregory Backus
June 7, 3:09 PM ET
None of this is new to anyone whom has had a basic 6th grade education. Rove and Ailes have been playing the Nuzi playbook fo Goebbels and Adolf - manipulating their propaganda for the "corporate citizen" they truly represent. As some of the "paid" RNC marketers here try and equate a false equivalency to "all media are" keep in mind - Fox is not news, it is propaganda. There is no equivelancey. Jesus Camp indoctrination is the problem though. Our education system, under attack by the GOP and Republicans since Reagan - want, need and depend on the ignorance of their flock to repeat their idiocy to win. That doesn't start with Fox (that's where it ends up) - it starts with the GOP's infiltration of religious nutwings like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ted Haggerd, etc. whom teach their flock of marketing deceivers to spread locally and at ground level - little brainwashed Jesus Camp sheep that will believe liberals are the cause of their mistakes because they're not naive in their faith. KKKrazy is the right-wing nuzis.
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Paul A Rokas
June 7, 3:00 PM ET
heres the truth: most media doesnt tell you half of whats going on. Fox news says everything you want and need to know. all the other networks just lie, straight up. and on Fox news making Obama look like the second coming of Vladimir Lenin: WAKE UP! they're making Obama look like him because Obama basically is the second coming of Vladimir Lenin. seriously, he wants to raise the Debt limit with out any cuts so he can get obamacare in, and maybe another bailout and plan to create jobs, since the first try went up in flames. sure i may be a little over the top on a second bailout and jobs plan, but you never know what will come out of the white house half the time. and btw, wheres the money going to come from this time? sure as hell not the middle class. i'll be seeing Obama as a complete failure and utter joke if the us has to default. and last time i checked, his economy rating's at a new low, and i'm not surprised either. when did wall street hit 12,000 and how long ago was that?! we're still there, not past 13,000 yet, which i find sad. and where the flip is the help in recovering from the tornadoes and floods? i guess thats allowable since we used most oft the supplies and staff on Haiti, and they're still down in the trenches.(i'm not saying haiti never deserved the help, im just stating the facts).whoever seriously thinks obama deserves another 4 years in the office needs to get locked up in a psycho ward and never see the light of day for the rest of their lives. oh sure, Bin ladens dead and one of his potential successors was killed within the past week. that alone will not help Obama out any. hes got bigger fish to fry. and right now, it's way underdone, or the opposite, burned to a crisp. Obama doesnt have what it takes to get our nation back up and running. bottom line.
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Trevor Aleo
June 7, 1:39 PM ET
As sad as it is an episode of South Park completely nailed the pathetically blind polarization of our countries politics. It was the episode spoofing the immigration problem, and ironically Fox News' O'Reilly Factor was the forum the two spoofed characters put forth their arguments. On the right was the "White trash Redneck conservative" and on the left was the "Aging Hippie Liberal douche."
What two perfectly appropriate caricatures of the right and the left! The conservative was angry, uneducated, uninformed and xenophobic and the liberal was elitist, self aggrandizing, condescending and equally uninformed.

This article not only misses the greater evil in our countries political realm, it reinforces it! That enemy? Blind partisanship. The sad truth is the right and the left have BECOME those South Park caricatures of themselves. Blindly shouting slogans and platitudes shoved down their throat not only by propaganda machine Fox but by self-important liberal elitists who oppose Fox as well.

Let's make politics about the people again; not the party. Only then will we make any real progress.
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Hayden Tingey
June 7, 1:42 AM ET
As much as I hate bashing on either political party, I do agree with RS that fox news is a republican propaganda spewing nightmare. I don't understand why anyone would go out of their way to create hate, lies, and tension in their own country. The country they're vowing they hold the real values and truths of... And slander the hard earned reputation of a president that has a pivotal place in history.
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Adam Smith
June 6, 4:41 PM ET
the news is so corrupt. they keep us scared, and blind to the outside world. PROPAGANDA!!
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Nancy German
June 6, 2:29 PM ET
Great article. Sadly, the people who really need to be reading this won't.
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Al Bloom
June 6, 12:22 PM ET
There’s a common truth found within your articles about FOX and Goldman - there’s no interest like self-interest…given opportunity and left to our own devices we will serve our own interests first!

The cost of this reality is a workable system of checks and balances. Our forefathers realized that in order to govern, “for the people, by the people,” - we actually need protection from ourselves!

It’s time for the pendulum to swing back to return the original national responsibility requirements to both industries. Core values like truth, balance, fairness and accountability should never have been commodities available through the free market system.

So, while we all aspire to having a government that is nimble to change and efficient, streamlining government to the detriment of oversight is both foolhardy and a tangible risk to liberty. And, despite our national well-being is at stake, deregulation and streamlining government become right-wing, FOX talking points that ensure a license to steal!

The real questions are how to put the genie back in the bottle. What bully pulpit is capable of shouting down the rhetoric of the right? And more disturbing…is truth truly capable of offsetting libel?
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Andrew Bolduc
June 6, 10:15 AM ET
all the news organizations are corrupt lying fear mongering propaganda peddlers. To state that one is worse than another is putting yourself in the middle of the light that only shines on ignorant buyers of bridges in the desert. We as Americans have been duped; the two political party system is dead as there truly is no difference between them as they are both owned by the same evil ultra wealthy death dealers, and any person who spends his/her time devoted to a party is a fool at best and at worst trying to be a politician. the news agencies spread hate, fear and mistrust. They are all at par with one another in deception and community betrayal. We haven't had a decent choice of politician to vote for at even the lowest levels of service in near 50 years, so keep your hate filled ideas about your fellow human to yourself determining someones life from their party affiliation is stupid. Anyone who follows a party is confused between what they want to believe the truth to be and the overwhelming lies they are fed minute by minute on the TV, radio, internet and publications like this one.
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Dean Butler
June 6, 7:02 AM ET
Murdoch is an unmitigated peddler of trash who constantly appeals to the lowest common denominator and has added nothing to the world. Ailes and his propaganda riddled Fox "news" has a real 1984 feel about it, appealing to fear, prejudice and stupidity. Hopefully one day people will decide to become better educated and realise these Fox nob jockeys have absolutely no freaken idea.
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Jerry Willis
June 5, 4:31 PM ET
I'm just waiting for the day that people, and for the most part I mean conservatives, start using their own brains and stop letting FOX and the right-wing hate machine on radio do their thinking for them. How can right wingers, who for the most part are middle class, continue to buy into the FOX propaganda machine? Don't forget, people, if you are what used to be considered middle class, are making 45-60,000 dollars a year, and are struggling from paycheck to paycheck, WAKE UP!!! FOX, the Republican Party, and the Tea Partiers don't care about you!

Actually, I think its time to retire the name, Republican Party. How about just calling it the FOX Party?
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Matt Lewis
June 5, 10:13 AM ET
"Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us," said David Frum, the former Bush speechwriter. "Now we’re discovering that we work for Fox."


A network run by a right wing homophobic, racists, mysogynist hatemonger who has no love or devotion to the USA
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David Scott Baker
June 4, 4:47 PM ET
Excellent article. One need only look at the detail of your fact-based piece verses the free-wheeling fiction of Fox News to recognize the difference between journalism and propaganda. That said, I have to take issue with the repeated declaration of Roger Ailes as an "evil genius". To call him that is to imply that, though it is nefarious, he is instilled with some rarefied ability of insight. It is as if two guys were leaving a bus and there was guy passed out in a seat with his wallet in his lap and one of them grabbed the wallet. Then when they got to the sidewalk, the other one said, "Man, that was brilliant the way you got that wallet!" That is to say, Roger Ailes is a greedy immoral opportunistic bigot and so, operating without the usual constraints of decent people, he can take advantage where others would (rightly) be impeded by their character.
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Tony Chopkoski
June 3, 10:22 PM ET
Oops, it's Tim Dickinson again....chief hatchetman for wannabes. I could care less about Fox News corrupting the world. But D-son is a laugh riot...for those who can work in sarcasm. However, for those who believe we are taken over by Ailes' Martians or whatever...this is good timing for you to worship at D-son's feet, for surely, he is your savoir. And the fact is, we live in a time of people looking for the New Saviors, what with the Old Religion on the way out, there is a belief gap present. Gotta roll it with...whatever...and RS takes the cake on offerings.
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Jon Ber
June 3, 5:56 PM ET
David Meller

Roger Ailes and the Fox fifth column lying machine,
betrayed a CIA agent, conspired and bullied us into a war by terrorized everybody who dared to ask questions. Even threatened the Dixie Cheeks.

Ailes's demented clowns,
Bachmann, Palin and Back, and such, have been inciting their dumb and dumber-flock, to take up arms and upload to protect America. From our own president.

And you my friend, are worried about a name of a movie. And a comedy at that. Relax. Shanty.
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David Meller
June 2, 9:16 PM ET
Both Ailes, and Murdoch, along with their counterparts on the "left" are symptoms of the same disease! The disease is the belief that somehow these noisy, biased (although in opposite directions) and frequently advertiser directed print and video fishwraps somehow represent--and can ever represent--the TRUTH! They can't and even if they did, they shouldn't! YOU should!

The most that they can ever do, even when they report factual events, is offer their particular slant on the issues under discussion, one slanted toward maximizing their viewership or circulation ratings, and hence their ad revenue, NOT truthfulness, accuracy, or observant and perceptive historical background! They material is written, is edited, and must be published under time deadlines, with word (and coverage) limitations and must, in order to be sold at all, conform to the biases, ignorance and blindness of the public at large, whether "leftist" or "neocon" in orientation.

Recognise the limitations of the so-called media! They are primarily an ENTERTAINMENT, not an INFORMATION source! They are, and must be, unavoidably biased, either toward the likes of McCain, Bush II, Giuliani, Palin, Newt Gingrich, et al. on the part of the GOP. but no more so and not really any differently than the similarly fading and shrinking media on the "left' are in their support of the misdirection of Obama, the Clintons, Biden, Schumer, et al among the opposition...

Recognise the shortcomings of the "mainstream" media, and look deeper on your own to discover what you may comfortably regard as truthful and accurate accounting of events of the day! God bless good sense, God Bless the internet, and God Bless the 'blogosphere"! Enjoy some of articles on Fox News--or its liberal counterpart-- for the entertainment value (if any) but don't take them seriously in any way as sources of "objective", "trustworthy", or 'unbiased" news! These media are not so much a scientific research lab analysing events in our society and economy, nor even a center for debate and investigation, but, for want of a better term, a circus, complete with performing acrobats, trained animals, and a "democratically elected" ringmaster! Have fun!

PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller
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Jon Ber
June 2, 5:19 PM ET
David Meller
Waiting is not an option

I hate to disagree
with your conclusion because we are on the same side, or at least, it seem, doing our best to reason and are bound by ethical and moral values.

Yet, Roger Ailes's terrorizing machine eventual demise, is just not good enough for the people of this planet.

And using "near-paranoia"
to describe the demented condition of Roger Ailes - the man who coached Richard Nixon to Lie, spread wars and toxin, fathered the Brithers, Teabaggers , Glenn Back and Michele Bachmann - is a submission to ignorance and evil. By the pussies we became.

But don't despair. There will be very happy ending.

How we killed Roger Ailes. A Jon Ber Movie. SOON.
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Chuck Wilson
June 2, 12:54 PM ET
Disseminating propaganda from the government to the American people is unlawful so that makes the Republican party illegal. Live long and prosper.
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David Meller
June 1, 9:06 PM ET
Few policies are more damaging to morale, loyalty, and honesty in people--regardless of their politics--than the behavior of suspicion and near-paranoia that Mr. Ailes permeates Fox News with! This does not , and never will, bring out the best in people! Contrast this with any number of libertarian websites, blogs, and "meetup groups"!

As intelligent and well disposed journalists, photographers, editors, and other valued employees become fed up with the endless (and mindless) suspicion and hostility encouraged by Roger Ailes and people like him, Fox News will inevitably start to lose their best people. Loss of ratings and advertising revenue will follow, and eventually facing bankruptcy; Fox News will devolve, like so many of its "progressive" counterparts have been doing for the past decade or so, e.g. New York Times, NBC, CNN, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, etc. into little more than a historical curiosity, a strange relic of the past, and new and better, probably internet based (and somewhat libertarian) politics, journalism, and art will succeed them!

PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K.Meller
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Jon Ber
June 1, 5:43 PM ET
Ed Novak
Excellent point. Hilarious.

Roger Ailes is a traitor.
I heard that Osama loved him and wanted to marry him and the whole Fox NEWS fifth column team. In Iran he is a national hero. Rogertolah.

Rupert Murdoch though,
wants Roger Ailes dead and will pay 10 million Euros in cash, with a super-bonus. (Australian: twice for a swift action.). Some people say - Is a Roger Ailes, Fox NEWS fact/

There are so many others, Roger Ailes should be worrying about.

His Tobacco mafia victims alone,
are in the many millions. The wars he invented victims and millions of americans who lost their houses because he's running a Crook protection racket.

Even many Republican politician would pay to see him dead. They hate their un-ellected demented boss.

But I'll tell you soon how he died. How we killed Roger Ailes, is the working name of a new movie I wrote and being produced these days.
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Kevin D. Korenthal
June 1, 4:02 PM ET
How can anyone take seriously an article by a has-been music and social commentary magazine that now masquerades as a hard news mag? Especially when the article open with the intention of pre-biasing the reader into believing that Fox News and not the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN etc is a propaganda network. My friend Matt is always forwarding me articles from RS and every single one of this is filled with incurious bias against Conservatives and often misses the greater issues that effect the stories they write about. For instance, I understand Golden Sachs ended up at the heart of the mortgage scandal and financial meltdown, but how do you have a 2000 word piece on the subject without talking about the Democrat-cronyism at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the bad ideas of the Community Redevelopment Act and the fact that Bush and Republicans were pushing hard for Congress to reign in the banks as early as 2005? You do that because RS and every other left-leaning media org are trying to rewrite history in a way that makes Liberals look good and Republicans look bad.
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James Graening
June 1, 9:38 AM ET
Don J you are so correct! I am a musician and have subscribed and read RS for years. My three boys are band members and fine musicians currently playing metal. The lies and propaganda from this article and the lack of knowledge or ignorance of Tim Dickinson is astounding! I doublt I have ever seen such garbage and lies thrown together as an article and actually published. Unbelievable, at least my sons and their friends know the Truth and know when they are being 'duped'. I hope that RS corrects this so that we dont have to cancel the subscriptions...
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Ed Novak
June 1, 1:12 AM ET
It's funny that Ailes thinks he's a top target for Al Qaeda. Why would they want to kill him, when he's done so much to further their goals?
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Cow Bell
June 1, 12:02 AM ET
Haaaaaaaa haaaaaaa haaaaa! Funny article by another lefty anti freedom to choose what to think for ourselves hate monger!! Thanks for the anti freedom hate rant. More proof of what the lib head are all about. Now go back to your leftist lemming hole.
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Bria Thornsley
May 31, 9:08 PM ET
I want my country back, from the likes of Exxon , United Healthcare, Goldman Sachs, Fox News and other capitalists who really run this country. It is said the way Republicans try to use the word of God to say what is right and wrong in government, the constitution separates church and state
And by the way my God is loving and a humanitarian, not only choosing the rich and well off to watch over . I really do believe the haters who partake in this foolery will pay in the end.
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Bria Thornsley
May 31, 8:53 PM ET
I want my country back, from the likes of Exxon Mobil,United Healthcare,Goldman Sachs, and Fox News. These and many other Capitalists will do all they can to stop a president voted for by the people of this great country where people still have voice. The conservatives have even now made public ed. an entitlement. Don"t worry the rich will still get richer even if us working class, can still be educated , by my tax dollars too. Oh , and my God believes in love and humanity not hate and attacks on people that are not just like you.
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Don J Carvelas
May 31, 5:57 PM ET
This article is quite an interesting read and the funny thing is that Dickinson could easily apply many of his statements and perceptions to that of MSNBC or even CNN to a lesser degree. Case in point, I substituted MSNBC in place of Fox News in the following words from the article: "To watch even a day of MSNBC – the anger, the bombast, the virulent paranoid streak, the reporting that’s held to the same standard of evidence as a late-­October attack ad". See how easily you can substitute MSNBC in place of the word Fox News and you can right the same article, at least in many respects. The difference being that Fox News is 10 times more successful than MSNBC will ever be and it's not because the American people are stupid or ignorant...sorry Rolling Stone you are dead wrong here.

I would like to see Rolling Stone ever dare write an article about the misinformation, distortions, lies, etc. of the dominant liberal mainstream media (MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc.) but they wouldn't dare because it obviously doesn't fit their agenda.
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Leon Kelly
May 31, 5:42 PM ET
OK! Ailes is evil reincarnate. Points well made. Plus he is balding and a hemophiliac which makes him an enormous jerk too. So why does his stuff sell and Chris Mathews does not? Chis is a nice guy with beautiful blond hair, plus he is witty, compassionate, and knows his stuff. What gives?
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Richard Van Hoosen
May 31, 1:54 PM ET
To me, this is the most disturbing part of the entire piece:

"But Ailes is also, by turns, a tyrant: "I only understand friendship or scorched earth," he has said. One former deputy pegs him as a cross between Don Rickles and Don Corleone. "What’s fun for Roger is the destruction," says Dan Cooper, a key member of the team that founded Fox News. "When the light bulb goes on and he’s got the trick to outmaneuver the enemy – that’s his passion."

The people that he's overrunning in his zeal to get his own way are fellow citizens. They're us. According to Ailes, however, there are Americans, and then there are people that disagree with him, and those people should be destroyed. Is it any wonder that this country is so divided, when someone with so much control over the news actively encourages differing opinion to be treason?
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Sylvia Scarlett
May 31, 1:47 PM ET
Bias, not bais. If you don't like Fox, cancel your cable. I haven't had cable for two years. I'm well-informed and my blood pressure is much lower. Plus, I discovered I'm not missing a thing. I can watch movies on my Roku via my Neflix account. I can get real news from the internet and I can get in depth news and opinion from reading books, magazines and newspapers. The best thing of all is that I have more time to devote to the important things in life.
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Richard Van Hoosen
May 31, 1:32 PM ET
Really, does this come as any surprise at all? Roger Ailes is the J. Edgar Hoover of television news. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out that he has a file on everyone in the United States.
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Danielle Swain
May 31, 9:09 AM ET
Great article very informative and full of insightful facts and some left sided opinion, hay it is RollingStone what did you Right minded individuals expect. Rolling Stone has been around a long time it started when I was a pot head stoner. Lots of Art and Music stuff and great political stuff too even way back then in the 60’s. I have been reading Rolling Stone since it began. I have also been reading William F. Buckley Jr.; I. F. Stone; Ann Rand; Bukminister Fuller and a lot more lefties and righties past and present. Over the years RollingStone has proven itself to be one of the best surviving American publications around both in arts and politics, yes a little to the left, like me… well I am way to the left. And I can still put up a good fight even though I have no MBA or speak only English and enough Spanish to hire a few illegals. For Christopher W I will leave you with this William F. Buckley Jr. quote “Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.” Love from the Left and as my Marine son would say "Peace out bro"
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Reasoned Ranter
May 31, 6:26 AM ET
Roger Ailes is a scumbag, but a brilliant one.

It's a shame that even those who understand the dangers of Ailes' tactics are sinking to (or even below) his level. He seems to have succeeded in controlling the conversation among followers and opponents alike. There's little in this article, or the comments section, that even remotely encourages meaningful discourse. Shouldn't this just be an opportunity to remember some parental wisdom? I'm sure most of us with siblings were told at some point in our childhoods to ignore an annoying brother/sister, and found that it can actually work. Certainly we should remember how ineffective name-calling and incrEASED VOLUME were at solving conflict and finding common ground.

Heck, you can really read this this article in all kinds of ways, I'm sure we can all find some common ground!

I know most of these comments (on both sides) seem to think Mr. Dickinson is just ripping Ailes & Fox News, but I'm not convinced. There are so many instances of high praise throughout the article that it could certainly be quoted to look like Ailes is being canonized.

"He was the premier guy in the business," says former Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins. "He was our Michelangelo."

“Ailes is actually much more sophisticated than Coughlin,” says Sean Wilentz, a Princeton historian and author of The Age of Reagan. “…That’s why Ailes is a genius. He’s combined opinion and journalism in a wholly new way…”

“The phenomenal political power and economic prowess of Fox News has inspired imitation. In recent years, MSNBC has tried to refashion itself as the anti-Fox..."

“…it is Ailes who has built the most formidable propaganda machine ever seen outside of the Communist bloc…”

“He proved to be a TV wunderkind, charting a meteoric rise from gofer to executive producer by the age of 25. Ailes had an uncanny feel for stagecraft and how to make conversational performances pop on live television.”

“On any campaign you have a small table of inside advisers,” says Mary Matalin, the GOP consultant. “Roger always had the clearest vision. The most robust, synthesized, advanced thinking on things political. When you came to a strategy impasse, he’d be the first among equals. I can’t remember a single incident where he lost a fight.”

See, RS isn't so liberal - Tim Dickinson admires Roger Ailes deeply.

Then again, this piece could also be read as a shamelessly pandering, insulting hackjob easily ranking with some of the worst drivel Fox news has ever pushed on an unsuspecting public.

“It was as though we were looking at Mao,” recalls Charlie Reina, a former Fox News producer.

"You know Roger is crazy," Murdoch recently told a colleague, shaking his head in disbelief. "He really believes that stuff."

“The 71-year-old Ailes presents the classic figure of a cinematic villain: bald and obese, with dainty hands, Hitchcockian jowls and a lumbering gait.”

“Ailes is also deeply paranoid. Convinced that he has personally been targeted by Al Qaeda for assassination, he surrounds himself with an aggressive security detail and is licensed to carry a concealed handgun.”

A teenage booze hound – "I was hammered all the time" – Ailes said he "went to state school because they told me I could drink."

“The shock seems to have left him with an almost pathological nostalgia for the trappings of small-town America.”

His 1950s manners, martini-dry ripostes and unreconstructed sexism give the feeling, says one intimate, "like you’re talking to someone who’s been under a rock for a couple of decades."

To balance an obligatory "Negro" on a panel in Philadelphia, Ailes dreamed of adding a "good, mean Wallacite cab driver. Wouldn’t that be great? Some guy to sit there and say, 'Awright, Mac, what about these ni**ers?'”

“…both saw themselves as victims of what Ailes would call “liberal bigots.”

“…Ailes had shed 40 pounds by curbing his Häagen-Dazs habit…”

“…The location made Ailes queasy: It was close to the street, and he lived in fear that g*y activists would try to attack him in retaliation over his hostility to g*y rights...”

“…The brain room is where Willie Horton comes from,” says Cooper, who helped design its specs. “It’s where the evil resides…”

Once, after observing a dark-skinned man in what Ailes perceived to be Muslim garb, he put Fox News on lockdown. “What the h*ll!” Ailes shouted. “This guy could be bombing me!” The suspected terrorist turned out to be a janitor. “Roger tore up the whole floor,” recalls a source close to Ailes. “He has a personal paranoia about people who are Muslim – which is consistent with the ideology of his network.”

“…Ads cater to the immobile, the infirm and the incontinent…”

D*mn, not even the elderly Fox viewers are safe from this clearly biased vitriol.

Just sayin' -

Tim Dickinson is a scumbag, but a brilliant one.
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Brett Anderson
May 30, 11:34 PM ET
Dean, you really undermind yourself when you say that MSNBC is biases but FOX is most trusted, stop being a partisan hack for one moment and realize they both are biased corporate media and FOX is by far the worse of the two. Be an independent thinker for one second, and realize that while you may agree with FOX politically, they are still an embaressment to journalism and patronizing to the American public.

and Glenn Beck can say that God caused the earthquake in japan, and then say "but dont take my word for it, read the bible", it still doesnt add any credibility to it. Beck, and those like him, are successfully banking on the fact that 99% of their audience wont get off their butts and "look it up for themselves". Dont pretend to be so naive, its unbecoming.
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Joseph Brown
May 30, 10:33 PM ET
Everyone must understand that if you are subscribing to Cable or Dish television, you are financing Fox News.

If you want to do your part to defund Ailes' agenda, ditch the cable.
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Jeannie Lin
May 30, 7:00 PM ET
This is stunning. It's a long read but every page, every paragraph is a mind explosion, it's a thought-provoking big O of information. This needs to be read far and wide and those on the right need to be hog tied and spoon fed, force fed, every bit of this information until they absorb it and get it.. get what? that they are brainwashed.

Great article, had to take guts to write this and get all this down on paper. Seek protection from Ailes and his minions though - lol.
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Drift Glass
May 30, 5:45 PM ET
A wonderful, well-researched article that will make no difference whatsoever. Those who live outside the Murdoch Empire have known this for years. Nothing new. Those who live inside in the Murdoch Empire have sealed off the exits and welded the windows shut behind them, and they ain't ever coming back. They are an unreachable and unsalvageable cultural dead-loss: True Believers who will continue to pay Fox News to tell them comforting lies until they shamble off to their unquiet graves. The only question is how to best minimize the destruction the Pig People are leaving in their wake.
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John Foster
May 30, 3:44 PM ET
This was a powerful piece. Obviously well researched, factual, well written, with a compelling narrative. It exposes Fox "News" as what we've known about it for a long time: It's a right-wing propaganda outfit, posing as a news organization, controlled by a vicious and obsessed Nixon operative, who even has his purported boss, Rupert Murdoch, completely intimidated, impotent and shaking in his Australian boots.

So, it's easy to understand why a small cadre of vituperative right-wingers is attacking this piece so savagely. The truth hurts. And good journalism can be devastating. Ailes and his hired minions clearly understand how truly damaging this piece is, and how it undercuts---with surgical precision---the idea that Fox "News" is any kind of legitimate journalistic organization.

Which is why so many trolls have raced to this site, howling like badly wounded animals or preschoolers who have been told that the play date has ended; which is exactly what has happened. Rolling Stone and Tim Dickinson have struck a significant blow here, and its effect is devastating.

If this piece weren't so accurate, and so damaging to what little credibility Fox "News" and Roger Ailes retain, we wouldn't be seeing so many furious, enraged and frankly, unhinged attacks on this writer and this publication. If this article weren’t so seriously damaging to Ailes, it wouldn't be generating this type of ferocious reaction.

We have no way of knowing how many of these right-wingers with their scathing and bitter responses are actually employees of Fox "News", or closely connected with Ailes in some other way. But it's very clear that some of them are, and we can safely assume that Roger constructed some specially developed "Talking Points" to guide these posters, just as he does every morning before another day of Fox "News" propaganda.

So, congratulations, to both Tim Dickinson and Rolling Stone for a true journalistic achievement. This piece is reporting at its very best and should be cited as an example at journalism schools throughout the country.

And again, if you doubt the power and the impact of this devastating piece, scroll through these comments again and read some of the manic and frenzied comments from the Ailes groupies. A sense of panic has set in. And it's easy to understand why.
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Jon Ber
May 30, 11:59 AM ET
How we killed Roger Ailes.
A Jon Ber movie

A1 S1 -
Underground command. Zurich Bahnhof. Morning. a month after the raid on Bin Laden.

Retired US special forces agent Alfa:
"Its a 24 hours a day freaky reality show. produced by a demented, obese, Roger Ailes. His vile Fox NEWS lying machine is destroying the world. The Irak war, Wall Street collapse Bank fraud, corporate mafia protection. He is the biggest enemy of the people of Earth. We are going to obliterate the scum and his top lieutenants.".

Soon jonber.com
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Robert Glancy
May 30, 11:35 AM ET
Poor Little Timmy, big-bad Roger Ailes has him rolled up in the fetal position.
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John Ware
May 29, 11:41 PM ET
To anyone who has been around for a long time, who has seen and heard bias in the media, this should come as no surprise. From the earliest Tory rants during the American Revolution, to the New York Sun vs the New York Mirror newspaper fights during the Civil War, all the way to "Stars and Stripes" propaganda feeding our clueless sacrificers during WWII, to Bill Paley's shameless pandering to Eugene McCarthy and the boldness of Edward R. Murrow to stand up to him, and to now all the cable hooplah.... come on, it's boring. We are all adults - we know what's going on, right? The only reason this whole Ailes thing is a story is that any of us who are well-read, well-informed, skeptical of pandering and propaganda in any form.... are worried that people unlike us - doesn't make any difference if they're Democrats or Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives, Martians or Uranians - will believe this stuff. That's all. We'll always have clueless citizens who will vote for someone because he has more money, looks better, sounds better, or lies better. They're all liars. They're all rich. They're all handsome - except for Newt.

It's silly to rave on about this stuff. Pick up a book. Hit the beach. It's summer.
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James E. Knauff III
May 29, 9:35 PM ET
The avoidance of the Fox opinion oriented shows (most of them) and regular viewing of Shepard Smith (who reports with little subversive commentary), is the extent of my FOX News viewing. Even Imus on Fox Business has sipped the Kool Aid.
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Tim Neighbors
May 29, 9:18 PM ET
Bravo Rolling Stone! Thanks for saying what needed to be said about Fox News. Fox News has divided the nation and is spreading mis-information and republican propaganda around the world. Even if you want to point at MSNBC or whatever else and say it's more biased, the bottom line is FOX IS REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA. If you want to debate that with me you have been brainwashed.
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John David Hayworth
May 29, 9:11 PM ET
@Christopher Wilcox,
You originally posted your comment as a reply to my comment (and possibly to other comments) but then thought so much of it that you raised it to the level of a full-fledged comment, so I'll do the same with my reply.

Your "arguments", which actually look more like autonomic responses to stimuli, (kind of like when you shock a lab rat it twitches) are what I expect from a true believer in Fox News.

You've obviously handed over your choice to think for yourself to the likes of the reptilian Mr. Ailes. Good thing he has only YOUR best interests at heart.

Since you're a "hardcore conservative" and you're reading an obviously biased left-wing website ( I mean that sincerely, this article is biased, but that doesn't make it factually incorrect for the most part), I'm guessing you're interested in the arguments of the other side. You will not get that debate on Fox. The debate on Fox is not between liberals and conservatives at all. In fact there is NO debate on Fox News. There is indoctrination, and lots of it. It's obviously worked quite well in your case.

I suggest that you try to educate yourself on what a true "conservative" is. You might actually learn how Fox News has poisoned the entire political debate and trained its followers to react instead of to think. There's cause for genuine debate between liberal and conservative thinkers, but that's not what happens on Fox News. There's far more true debate between the two sides on NPR than on Fox News, but I doubt you'll be listening to that.

To see what a debate looks like, try the Buckley/Chomsky debate in 1969. It's on Youtube. That at least LOOKS like a debate. I think Buckley tries repeatedly to reduce very intricate historical sequences to simplistic stick figure situations and looses the debate because of it, but, hey, that's just my opinion.

Have you EVER seen anything like that on Fox? If so, please give us a link to it. I'd like to watch it.

Maybe we could have a sort-of debate here, if you could actually respond to some of the ideas in the article or to something I actually said in my comment and leave the mental boilerplate aside.

By the way, the original article mentioned the word "gun" three times (one of those references was to "hired guns", not firearms) and the word "weapon" once, so I don't know where you were heading with your God-given rights vector. (I missed the part in the Bible where God gives us the right to carry firearms. What chapter and verse was that again?)

I like guns and shooting myself. I own four firearms. Jared Lee Loughner owned at least one too. Do you know who he is? Did God give him the right to own a firearm, too?

Well, that's enough for now. Thanks for probably not reading this far.

I am JD Hayworth and I approved this message.
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John Winston
May 29, 2:24 PM ET
Wow - I thought for a second I had inadvertently stumbled across another propaganda essay on Russia Today. Turns out it's just another shill job from pot-head pretend journalist Tim Dickinson. Tim - buddy - go back to your forte, which is chasing Lady Gaga around the globe. As it stands now, only gullible teenagers and people who are perpetually high take you seriously.
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Michelle Johnson
May 29, 1:12 PM ET
All I can say is..... the good thing is he is elderly.... getting up there in years ! This too will pass. No need to ouster this dictator; but I will commemorate his passing. Call it what you want, but ideology must develop with societal advances, otherwise we would still be using outhouses. The 60's, 70's even 80's rhetoric is outdated, lets move on.
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Christopher Wilcox
May 29, 12:34 PM ET
I find it interesting that many who cheer this kind of "death to the conservatives and their paranoid agenda" propaganda refer to themselves as "moderates". I am proud to call myself a hardcore conservative, what are you ashamed of?
The only reason those on the left lambast Fox as a faux-News channel is because Fox does not sing the same tune as the rest of the lame street media. Furthermore, our 2nd amendment entitles us to possess a firearm. What is the big deal if Ailes choose to partake in his God and Constitutionally given rights? Fox reports on legitimate news stories, and in total, I believe does a better more thorough and balanced job. There is a reason they are the most trusted source for news. If all you see is Beck or Hannity, then yes of course they are pundits. Pundits get paid to provide opinion. In this case I happen to generally agree with them. I am part of the vast right wing conspiracy, and we are here to take back our government.
For those of you who want to tar and feather conservatives as a bunch of illiterate rednecks, I encourage you to continue to do so. You are also welcome to partake in the wailing and gnashing of teeth as we ride this socialist freakshow out of office! I encourage you to write us off and underestimate who we are and what we are here to do. It will make victory that much easier and taunting you because of it that much more fun.
Just to clear up the whole education thing, B.S. in Materials Engineering + MBA and I can speak three languages not including Southern Redneck! All of you mamby pamby weak minded, libtards are welcome to try and keep up with me.
God bless America, and the men and women who defend her and her citizens from evil both domestic and abroad.
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Jackie Debs
May 29, 12:06 PM ET

As a moderate, I just don't see the difference between fox news and MSNBC. Both of them simply tell the person watching what they want to hear. They both over polarize everything and fear monger about each other. Fox news gives Sarah Palin a soapbox to spout off her ignorance and MSNBC can't go an hour without throwing in a insult about Sarah Palin or demonizing bush how many years after hes been out of office?

Pieces like this are nothing more than another excuse to get punches in against those whom the writer politically disagrees with. If you really think Fox is that much more bias than MSNBC or to a lesser degree, CNN, then you are only seeing what you want to see.
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Adam B Cummings
May 29, 9:01 AM ET
What's worse, Fox news ?? or the people who no matter how much proof is shoved in their face still believe Fox is news ??
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Richard Bowles
May 29, 7:43 AM ET
Ailes and Fox News are going to cut their own throats pushing the Ryan budget plan. Attempting to make Americans feel guilty about collecting their Social Security and Medicare, which they have paid into all their lives, is a fool's game. Trying to shred the safety net of tens of millions of Americans and turn the clock back to 1929 is pure Republican idealogy, hypocrisy, and an attempt to use the American people as financial guinea pigs. Fox News and the Republicans are going to throw themselves right off the cliff with Granny on this one, and good riddance.
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John David Hayworth
May 29, 4:26 AM ET
This article weighs in at around 10K words. Most of the people who watch Fox News haven't read 10,000 words in the last year (that's a fact, I saw it on Fox News).

Counteracting a force like Ailes requires a force like Ailes, a person who understands the power of a handful of simple ideas repeated over and over again. The truth or accuracy of those ideas is irrelevant.

The eternal problem with those who want to argue against the likes of Fox News is that they don't know how to do it. Quoting Dickinson: "Even before it took to the air, Fox News was guaranteed access to a mass audience, bought and paid for."

That says it all. Nobody reading this article matters at all in the debate, not even the paid flack commenters from the right. Most of Fox News' viewers are functionally illiterate, but unfortunately, they vote.

Quoting Dickinson quoting Ailes: “This is capitalism and one of the things that made this country great.” More accurately, this is capitalism in a nation of functional illiterates.

I am JD Hayworth and I approved this message.
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Robert Stevens
May 29, 3:05 AM ET
Your only fooling yourself if you choose to watch biased "news".
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Tom French
May 29, 2:31 AM ET
I have been listening to the news since high school, I graduated in 1968. For many years it was the big 3, ABC, CBS, and NBC that delivered the news to we Americans in addition to the printed news. I watched as those networks reported only what they wanted you to see and they delivered snipits of quotes from individuals that did not tell the whole story only what they thought you should believe. I had to read newspapers to find out what really was said. I stopped listening to them more than 20 years ago. Fox News is like any other news organization in that they try to get the story first and they make mistakes doing it but I have never been misled by them when they were playing a quote from a person. I could then make up my mind whether or not they were being biased with their reporting. Try to get that from other news sources. Many people hate Fox because they are successful and they want to blame someone so they blame Ailes. Didn't Dan Rather try to do something similar to what is being said about Ailes? Remember the story on President Bush's military record? I prefer to read the news now and there is really too much favoritism in it for my tastes but when you read the same story from different writers you can formulate the whole story from it. All I ask is that you tell me the whole story and let me make up my own mind what happened.
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Tony Chadwick
May 28, 11:13 PM ET
Yup - John Michael Hall hit the nail on the head. Fox is comfort food for the people who feel that way nothing more nothing less. Of course it's propaganda but the people watching want to be entertained and riled up and Fox does that fro them. MSNBC does that same thing to a lesser extent, and CNN...well, they just have Anderson Cooper all over the fking place! I mean I'm a moderate so to get something that resembles the truth you pick up the NY Times the WSJ and the Wash Post and will probably come out with something much closer to the truth than you'll hear from Hannity or anyone on Fox. Or the MSNBC crowd for that matter.
I think network news is pretty legit but it's 30 minutes of gloss.

I do love that we have a black president and the millions of unashamed racists out there who can't do anything about it - and won't because most of them are too ignorant to vote.

And we do need Palin to make a run - Worth a smile a day.
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Panagiotes Papadopoulos
May 28, 10:54 PM ET
Was that a Fox "News" poll? I ask because I've been phoned by them before: "Would you like to hear a message by D Morris?" "I would love to!"; after two minutes of hate speech and vitriol a Fox "News" representative gets back on the line: "What did you think about what D Morris had to say!?" I respond: "I think D Morris should have his mouth washed out with soap for telling so many lies." At that point the "poll" was abruptly ended.
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Mayor Simpleton
May 28, 10:35 PM ET
As a Fox News viewer, I think this article is great. Desperation as a last refuge....on full display. Fox's ratings crush the others. Nothing to worry about here.
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Tim Devine
May 28, 6:54 PM ET
Kurt - exactly!
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Tim Devine
May 28, 6:52 PM ET
First of all, no one reports 'ALL the news' - there are not enough hours in the day. And if you think the amount of airtime given to stories like Van Jones, Bill Ayers, Soros or even gold prices constitute 'news', then what is your definition of 'propaganda'? None of that qualifies as real news. It is political hate. So Fox is the first to air with political hatred (disguised as 'news') OK, yes, now we agree!
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Tim Devine
May 28, 6:42 PM ET
This.comment is the most on-target description of this network and the state of talk radio generally. These outlets are specifically managed and funded by those who are working against the self-interest of average Americans. They are little more than thinly disguised vehicles for corporate America and the radical right. (Freedom Works, Americans for Prosperity (sic), the Council on Foreign Relations, etc...) Ailes, et al have figured out how -- by 'flag wrapping,' co-opting the religious right (i.e. Abortion as 'politics' instead or health, etc.) to create a new 'conservative' movement. They are not actually 'conservative' at all. They are corporatized, plain and simple. It is pervasive, often misunderstood, corrupt, anti-humanity and just plain wrong. A cottage industry that's actually ANTI-American and wrong.

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Nick Robertson
May 28, 12:44 PM ET
As an opinion piece you make a decent (although at times statistically wrong- check your SEC filings again) argument but as objective journalism this is a joke (unless it is supposed to be some avant-garde piece that is within its narrative intentionally displays the slant of which you accuse Fox News; in which case, well done). VERY questionable to have Murdoch calling Ailes "crazy" by an unnamed source and with no context; this opening to your second page is at best whining and at worst fear-mongering (see prev. parenthetical):

"To watch even a day of Fox News – the anger, the bombast, the virulent paranoid streak, the unending appeals to white resentment, the reporting that’s held to the same standard of evidence as a late-­October attack ad – is to see a refraction of its founder, one of the most skilled and fearsome operatives in the history of the Republican Party."

You've done some great work Mr. Dickinson; this piece cheapens all of it.
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Cuck A. Too
May 28, 3:33 AM ET
"Their first production: an environmental-themed musical called Mother Earth. When the show flopped, folding after just a dozen performances in 1972, it nearly bankrupted Ailes. "

heh heh .... Mother Earth? The guy would sell his mother for a couple of bucks.

"Fox News was working ­directly with the Bush administration to coordinate each day’s agenda – as Bush’s own press secretary, Scott McClellan, later conceded. “We at the White House,” McClellan said, “were getting them talking points.”

It's basically a cynical Goebbelsian propaganda outlet for the unwashed & the uneducated. Ailes found that musicals about "Mother Earth" do not pay so he sold his soul to the other side, peddling disinformation, division and hatred. How much more evil can you get? In the end, just before he dies, he will see that he had wasted his life in the service of what is not real. total waste of a human life. and then he's gonna burn, for a long time.
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Josh McEachern
May 28, 1:54 AM ET
Would you have us believe that every other news source isn't liberal? Do you actually believe any news is unbiased and purely factual? Thank God for Fox News for being the one conservative outlet, the same reason it is criticized by the liberal society that we live in.
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null
May 28, 12:06 AM ET
John Stewart did a commendable job of exposing the hypocrisy rampant on "FAUX" network. He pointed out that the recent black rappers visit, trumpeted as an abomination to the White House, had been preceded by Johnny Cash/Bush "I shot myself with cocaine, then I shot my baby down" - "shot a man in cold blood just to see him die". Or that offensive Hannity who claims Ted Nugent "ya know what I'd do with this AK47" (referring to Hillary Clinton) as his close friend. Like Stewart said, it's way to easy to expose the jerks who spew pure garbage. Oh, did you know Sarah Palin is on the Fox payroll. Wow, what a shock.
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Bhal Afahr
May 27, 10:24 PM ET
There nothing like good, solid impartial journalism, and that's what this article is...NOTHING like good, solid impartial journalism.
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Susan Ory Powers
May 27, 9:31 PM ET
Good article, thorough. But would you please edit for grammar and punctuation before uploading? Several times you printed Ailes with lower case "a." A couple times other proper nouns were also begun in lower case. Professionalism should include not only perspective on content but also presenting your copy in a manner that indicates the knowledge of at least an eighth-grade education. While I appreciate the information on Ailes and Fox, indicating the network's lack of professionalism, seems you should be intent of not committing the same.
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Donald Negri
May 27, 7:56 PM ET
For those of you who claim ABC, CBS and NBC are "liberal biased", even if you're right (which a lack of examples would cast doubt on), these networks have a total of 22 minutes of "nightly news"....with only a fraction of that devoted to politics. And none of them have any weekday/weeknight shows comparable to Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly. Compare this with the 24/7 politics of Fox News and other cable news networks.

Furthermore, an analysis done over the past year of guests invited to appear on network Sunday shows showed more Republicans/Conservatives (pols, pundits etc) invited than Democrats/Progs/Liberals.

The problem Fox defenders have in their line of defense is that they have no defense when anyone with a brain looks at their claim.


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Jack Mahoney
May 27, 6:27 PM ET
What I admire most about Fox News is that it has been able to present cowardice as bravery and perfidy as patriotism. Can anyone despise America more than those who wish to whip up religious strife worldwide, break middle-class unions, and take necessary food away from children, who really haven't done anything bad yet, even if one disapproves of their parents? Fox and the Neocons have succeeded in creating the world of their own nightmares. I guess we need to give them reluctant kudos, kind of like we do when a child makes a drawing using merde.
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Liam Doherty
May 27, 4:48 PM ET
Roger Stanley Anderson said:



" Fox is the only fair news network on television, all of the others are biased to the extreme radical left of the political spectrum. Fox presents both sides of every issue and has a number of liberal commentators. If Fox is biased in any way, it is towards Libertarism with John Stossel and Judge Napolitano. Libertarians are a long way from the Conservatives or the members of the Tea Party. "



Thank you for that. An otherwise dull Friday just became infinitely more fantastic due to this ridiculous utterance. It, in fact, reflects completely the reason for Fox's ' success.'

Millions of Americans who treat Freedom of Speech as the 11th commandment, have allowed a demonstrably subjective and overtly Republican meglomaniac to subvert the very tenets of their own constitution -- and he's not even American.

Ignoring fact and accuracy and instead pandering to the lowest common denominators of fear, racism, greed and envy -- Fox cuts its audience from a cloth of minds dulled by their reverence for cheap propaganda.

You get the media you deserve -- and you most assuredly deserve Fox Mr Anderson.
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James Thornton
May 27, 3:48 AM ET
Seeing it for what it is has more to do with perspective than IQ, i.e. do you recognize the system you are in?

Someone with a high IQ has more potential to notice the connections among things, and these connections can help to illuminate the system (help them see the big picture), but it does not guarantee it.

If the high IQ person doesn't see the connections, it could be because they are not motivated to look, they are focused on other things, or have yet to grasp the concept of levels of awareness.

This is similar to the difference between high IQ and genius.

Genius is the extreme form of insight. It's really not a measure of IQ, although a high IQ helps. I like to think of genius in terms of perspective and thus measure it by how rare and valuable a perspective is.

Getting to a rare perspective is usually a product of building up a mental framework and then seeing patterns in- and making associations or connections among seemingly unrelated phenomena. True genius is seeing associations among things previously unseen. A high IQ gives you more ability to build the mental framework needed to see these associations, and a genius has actually applied it.
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Anthony Swingruber
May 26, 9:15 PM ET
I'd love for those that call all other news networks not named Fox News "left" and "liberal" to provide some sort of basis for this statement. The term "liberal media" has been thrown around so frequently for so long (as a brilliantly executed strategy) that conservatives aren't even obligated to provide evidence for its existence, as if its existence is supposed to be excepted as common knowledge.

News organizations are hierarchal institutions in which those at the top insist their editorial vision be dominant within the news that their organization delivers. This is clearly the case in the Roger Ailes / Rupert Murdoch run Fox News so it's no big shocker that Fox News promotes a right wing point of view.

Keeping in mind this fact that all news organizations are hierarchal institutions, I'd be interested to hear explanations as to how exactly all other networks are left leaning and liberal.
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Phil Nye
May 26, 9:01 PM ET
Hey Slappy, I'll let you in on a little secret: Comedians are almost exclusively left wing b/c conservatives have no imagination and no sense of humor.

These failings make them almost fundamentally incapable of crafting a good joke. For example listen to Beck's awful radio show. He sure thinks he's funny until a REAL humorist like Jon Stewart shows up hilariously trashes him.

Have fun laughing at Dennis Miller's obscure references. I'll take Bill Maher any day of the week.
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John Calendo
May 26, 8:46 PM ET
Looks like somebody got their chain yanked at Fox News. Look at all these suspiciously well written defenses of the Fox News propaganda machine. It's their good spelling that gives them away. The Fox New viewership, which posts regularly on the Republican website America Speaking Out, are wildly illiterate, obsessed with abortion, and regularly ascribe their political views to the Bible. The more sobers comments here are being posted by Fox staffers, not Fox viewers. Congrats Rolling Stone for making the sticked pig squeal.
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Mitchell Faulk
May 26, 6:47 PM ET
The Fox News politcal party? You have got to be kidding. NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC are all completely in the tank for Obama and would not dare report one story that portrayed him in any kind of negative light. It would do the same for the DNC. They are the ones that are contributing to the fear and paranoia in politics today. For decades all we had were the liberal elites and their network news outlets. Now, Fox news comes along to appeal to the majority of people that have known they were being propagandized by the alphabet media. Fox presents news in a manner different than what has been forced upon us for decades and the liberal left literally has a massive stroke. I see democrats and liberals on Fox news all the time...they are actually giving their opinions. You would never see anything like it on the other networks. Fox news is successful because they appeal to the majority of the viewers. Sorry you are on the losing side of morals, truth and integrity in the media.
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Liam Mech
May 26, 6:06 PM ET
To all the Fox apologists. You say MSNBC is so radical left which I admit they do lean left, but you know they are the first people to criticize Obama when he does something wrong. Think back to all the times you watched Fox, did you ever see them criticize a republican? I haven't, if anything they make excuses for them. You can say MSNBC leans left, and maybe CNN does a little too. But Fox leans so far right its a joke. CNN although leans left it is the closest to the middle as you get. Shepard is the only moderately sane one on fox.
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Dwight Avatar Bobson
May 26, 6:01 PM ET
Your use of the misnomered Fox News is an oxymoron. Murdock has an umbrella corp. named Fox. Within it there is an entertainment division. Within that there is a department named News corp. The entertainment show named Fox News is just that, a show for entertainment, along with generating the largest audience that will generate the most profits. The Fox News entertainers are contract performers who will say and do anything and everything that will boost their ratings so they too can profit from their daily performance. These performers are not employed to be journalists or do anything associated with traditional news. Their job is to make money. That's it! Roger's job is to help them make money so he too can maximize his salary. When panhandling hate and fear, the content is of no importance as long as it generates the appropriate emotional reaction in those who thrive on prejudice and hate. And that's all I have to say about that.
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null
May 26, 6:00 PM ET
Hey Tim! Has there been a history of mental health issues in your family?
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Austin Rozzell
May 26, 5:08 PM ET
Attention all God fearing Right Wing Americans, This is your Lord and Master , the republican- tea bag party, you must only think what we tell you to think, we will tell you what you should think, through our "how to think propaganda arm called Fox News ", you should not question what you see or hear. You must take it as Gospel because God only speaks to Fox News, if you do not watch fox news you are un-American, we have your neighbors watching you, it is for your own good and the protection of the Right wing of america. You must do as you are told, you no longer have freedom because free will and free thought is not the way of capitalism. You must pay for that, if you dont we will use the IRS and hunt you down you atheist commie pinko f@g. To all females, we OWN your womb, if a white male injects his seed into you, you are now the property of the state, you no longer have any right to control your body, as that we will control it for you, by the power of the holy bible I compel you, if you think, you are un-American, we will think for you, for we know better than you, because we say we do, now shut the he'll up and go to Walmart and buy more ammo so that the right wing of america can begin the violent take over of any one who does not agree with what you are told to think. Only the right wing of america talks to god and god said every one else is wrong, this was confirmed by a fox news report that we will write and you are to believe. Now go watch a car race or wresting but only if it is on the fox channel as that all other channels are un-American.
We will tell you what you think about what we have just said.
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Austin Rozzell
May 26, 5:07 PM ET
Attention all God fearing Right Wing Americans, This is your Lord and Master , the republican- tea bag party, you must only think what we tell you to think, we will tell you what you should think, through our "how to think propaganda arm called Fox News ", you should not question what you see or hear. You must take it as Gospel because God only speaks to Fox News, if you do not watch fox news you are un-American, we have your neighbors watching you, it is for your own good and the protection of the Right wing of america. You must do as you are told, you no longer have freedom because free will and free thought is not the way of capitalism. You must pay for that, if you dont we will use the IRS and hunt you down you atheist commie pinko f@g. To all females, we OWN your womb, if a white male injects his seed into you, you are now the property of the state, you no longer have any right to control your body, as that we will control it for you, by the power of the holy bible I compel you, if you think, you are un-American, we will think for you, for we know better than you, because we say we do, now shut the he'll up and go to Walmart and buy more ammo so that the right wing of america can begin the violent take over of any one who does not agree with what you are told to think. Only the right wing of america talks to god and god said every one else is wrong, this was confirmed by a fox news report that we will write and you are to believe. Now go watch a car race or wresting but only if it is on the fox channel as that all other channels are un-American.
We will tell you what you think about what we have just said.
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Daniel Pfeiffer
May 26, 5:07 PM ET
Wow, the FOX News lovers who posted here must be hoping to get on the payroll - so much anger, so much of the time, and mostly pointed in the wrong direction. If any of these posers, I mean posters, had the love of country they claim, they would be denouncing FOX News for what it is - paranoia-inducing, crazy-making BS that is wholly un-American. Still looking for the radical group that is trying to destroy the U.S.? Grab a mirror.
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Roger Stanley Anderson
May 26, 4:38 PM ET
FOX NEWS is the only moderate network on Television. All of the others vary from radical left-wing to Marxist/Atheist/Communist. FOX presents all points of view, liberal, Conservative and especially Libertarian with Judge Napolitano and John Stossel. FOX is the only network who does not spin the news. FOX is not just fair and balanced, it is informative.

CNN was started by radical left winger Ted Turner who is nothing more than a hippy who wants to overthrow the government. He hired only radical left-wing anchors and that has not changed today. There are a number of media watchdog websites who report every lie and every spin that CNN presents on a daily basis. CNN World is openly anti-American, much more than just biased.

MSNBC might as well be called the terrorist network. Their anchors are beyond belief. Fortunately no one watches them so their plan to collapse America into being just a part of their one world government is still a long way off.

ABC, CBS, NBC and Telemundo are all radical left-wing. There is not one Conservative anchor or newsman on any of their staffs. They all spin the news everyday in an effort to hypnotize the mindless sheep who watch them.

Does Rolling Stone have any Conservative columnists? Would Rolling Stone ever endorse a Conservative for any political office? Does Rolling Stone believe in the rule of law? Does Rolling Stone believe that we are a Republic whose citizens adhere to the Constitution?

Obviously the answers are no, no, no and no.
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Roger Stanley Anderson
May 26, 4:11 PM ET
Fox is the only fair news network on television, all of the others are biased to the extreme radical left of the political spectrum. Fox presents both sides of every issue and has a number of liberal commentators. If Fox is biased in any way, it is towards Libertarism with John Stossel and Judge Napolitano. Libertarians are a long way from the Conservatives or the members of the Tea Party.

CNN is very liberal started by the extremely radical Ted Turner. Their anchors vary from extremly liberal to Communist. MSNBC might as well be called the voice for worldwide terrorism and the destruction of America. All of the anchors and all of the commentators on ABC, NBC, CBS and TELEMUNDO are liberals. There are no Conservatives on any network news show.

In addition, all of the late night "so-called" comedians are left-wing. I suspect Letterman is a marxist at best. He is still blaming Bush for all of BO's screwups and trillion dollar mistakes. In total, Television is 95% radical left and 5% moderate leaning Conservative (FOX).

Rolling Stone fits in with all these left-wing propaganda machines. They would never consider hiring a Conservative columnist. Their goal is to present only liberal, radical left-wing propaganda to the mindless sheep who read their magazine or website.
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Jerry Grzeskiewicz
May 26, 2:16 PM ET
The author lists a series of highly contentious issues, and the proclaims all persons not in agreement with him to be stupid/racist/etc. Do you not realize how ridiculous it is for the left to calls for "adult conversations" (in their typical condescending way), and in the same breath call the holders of all opposing viewpoints "stupid"? I honestly don't think you do. Amazing.

One other thing... with regard global warming, Yes, the planet's climate is changing. It's perpetually changing....always has, always will. At any given time it's warming or cooling. Flip a coin. Preparing for that is one thing... I would call that prudent. But trying to bring an end to modern civilization because Algore thinks a ~110 PPM (Part Per Million) increase of CO2 is going to destroy the planet is something else all together.
Provide evidence from replicable, genuinely scientific studies - rather than hopelessly flawwed, meaningless models which can very easily be manipulated to "support" whatever conclusion the model's designers & interpretters (often the same person or group) desire - and then we can talk. Unitl then, save your breath.
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Zac Hixon
May 26, 2:06 PM ET
Facts have a liberal bias
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Nosoy Peropuedoserporunpoco
May 26, 2:02 PM ET
Wow...really? Rolling Stone magazine...come on, articles like this make you look mighty dumb. Focus on music, please. Leave politics and attempts at real journalism to those that know how. It is a one-sided view. Can't blame Fox for doing their job. BUT Fox is not shy to confront BS when it sees it. Fox does not need Obama. Have you seen attempts at interviews with that guy? (I refuse to call him a President as I am ashamed of him) Obama is an ignorant. He behaves like the world should bow before him. He will never face anyone who might ask difficult questions. this is a useless article.
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Kenneth Glenn Koons
May 26, 1:58 PM ET
I think this is a bunch of baloney. I know this flack believes this MSM-Journo-List baloney but to think that Fox has grown in strength because they lie when for decades, the MSM was the only media we ever heard or saw. I wonder how old this doofus is. No one else ever covered Indie-Libertarian-Reagan Dem and or Pub events, news and ideology. Never. They made fun and this dope thinks Fox is the lying media outlet. What a biased bunch of baloney. Did Tim go to Berkeley? Talk about brainwashed. I am 72 sonny and have two MA's in political science and ethics. You would fail my history and literature class because you are a leftist brainwashed flacker. You have no stats that canbe proved. NONE. Oh, and I saw this on RCP which you don't read because your head is in an
Alinsky-Bama rant. Thank God fewer and fewer Americans believe the slop you regurgitate from the DNC playbook.
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Rosal Casilac
May 26, 1:23 PM ET
When John Stossel and Don Imus separately joined Fox News some time ago they both were amazed at how relaxed the workplace was, how free they felt to pursue the stories and news they wanted to, and how open the whole workplace was. Imus is a liberal and Stossel is a libertarian. They both were amazed too at how everyone got along even though some were from opposing parties. Stossel in particular mentioned how he was an outcast at ABC for many years and he got tired of bring the token "other party" guy. As far as I'm concerned, Fox is equal time against almost every other news gathering operation or magazine, most of which focus on the latest moves of movie stars or other vapid personalities, and totally ignore the destruction going on within this country due to bad management from all sides.
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Doug Long
May 26, 1:14 PM ET
Nice hatchet job Mr. Dickinson. You sound more like a campaign strategist than a journalist. I hope you're not a journalist to be honest, because there is little journalistic integrity in this piece.

I worked in the media for 20 years but retired when I realized my profession was abandoning its principles of objectivity and moving into ideological camps. As far to the right as FOX may lean the majority of national news media leans in the opposite direction. I've seen it. I've experienced it. Your article exemplifies it.

The media is the most effective way to shape public opinion and it has always been the target of those who would manipulate it or outright commandeer its most influential outlets to sway the minds of the public to their views. Frankly I don't have a problem with groups using media to try and do that, but I do have a problem with it being done covertly, under the guise of "Journalism" and the integrity it purports to hold. (See SPJ, RTNDA, NAB, standards and code of ethics).

Transparency in news today is no more transparent than what we see in our government. It's a murky, foggy environment and its sad.

I disagree with your assessment obviously, but more than that, I see you doing the same thing you accuse Roger Ailes of. Fear mongering. You just want everyone to fear anything from the right.
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Jerry Grzeskiewicz
May 26, 1:13 PM ET
Believe it or not, the Obamacare crafters did not name the death panels, "Death Panels". It is named the IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board), which will be a panel of unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats determining what payments government shall make for what services, thereby rationing care, as doctors will no longer receive compensation for certain procedures, to be determined by the all-powerful death panel IPAB.
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Joe Devlin
May 26, 1:07 PM ET
Dean, you are right on target and the two members of the extended Pelosi family who replied to your post are examples of the misinformed and brainwashed segments of our society. They talk of acceptance while slamming people of faith, they harp on peaceful dialogue while yelling "fascist", and they spew statements on "reason and logic" without bothering to raise a critical eye to their own party or ideology. If people like Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, and any other in the list of political reprobates are their examples of model leadership, then I'd say further discussion is a waste of our valuable time.
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Joe Devlin
May 26, 12:56 PM ET
Rolling Stone: A branch of the Obama White House media machine. A bunch of leftovers from Woodstock trying to tell us how it is a terrible thing to have one conservative voice in the media. What a bunch of dope smoking tools. They've become the very thing they rail against. Nothing but a part of the new McCarthyism.
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Kenneth David Hutson
May 26, 12:37 PM ET
I am a conservative and I recognize the bias/propaganda, but it is not like they never allow opposing views. Perhaps the greatest biases are the news and opinions ignored by the other networks. Why are you liberals so afraid, you have MSNBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, and PBS? Did I miss any? Oh, and Rolling Stone too.
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Dominic Mancuso
May 26, 9:28 AM ET
Always found it amazing how the supposedly enlightened and progressive liberals approach a debate of ideas. If anyone has a difference of opinion, they libs counter with name calling instead of facts. Then there is always the liberal's most timeworn argument; "you don't see it our way because you are obviously of lower intellect." It is quite telling that Rolling Stone, always a safe bet to toe the left wing line and carry the water for the Democrats, would quote none other than fired (for journalistic malfeasance no less) and disgraced Dan Rather. Is that the best you've got?
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John Hall
May 26, 8:24 AM ET
Many people ask "Why would anyone watch Fox? It's a Republican propaganda machine?" Exactly. Most people will go to the place where they will hear what they want to hear, factual or not.
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Richard Hicks
May 26, 7:49 AM ET
The liberal story is so weak that it cannot stand up to the scrutiny of one outlet out of dozens that isn't in the tank for it. The whining and caterwauling that goes on about Fox is truly embarrassing. Liberals are so used to being spun to by the other networks that an outlet that does not toe the line appears biased.

I would suppose most of the readers of Rolling Stone would consider it a truly unbiaased outlet? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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Matt Flick
May 26, 7:35 AM ET
This is a really interesting article, but there are a TON of double spaces throughout the article. I counted five or six on Page 8 alone. Just letting you know.
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Essy John
May 26, 12:32 AM ET
"With its bare-bones news­gathering operation – Fox News has one-third the staff and 30 fewer bureaus than CNN – Ailes generates profit margins above 50 percent."

The agenda and the result speak for themselves. When a network is centred on creating controversy and partisanship, it is forced to abandon facts if possible or distort them to serve its own agenda. By definition therefore, the need to spend tons of money on staff on news gathering is rendered totally unnecessary and wasteful. It is not much different from the comparatively meagre cost of running the Madoff ponzi scheme and the amount of moneys the scheme raked in. So much about Fox News is myth and based on erroneous premises. Generally speaking, those who work for Fox News are so devoid of integrity they have no prospects of employment in the real world.
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Jan Qu
May 25, 6:20 PM ET
The problem I have with all these IQ jabs is that I know many many ppl who actually do have a high IQ, AND they fall for FOX news. I cannot understand it.
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Mark Garcia
May 25, 6:05 PM ET
wow! a puppet master with strings made of cash. ailes is the ultimate boss. don't just make your employees work for you. make them think like you to recruit the proletariat to promote your ideology. genius!
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Darrell Hampton
May 25, 5:44 PM ET
Is it me or has anybody else ever noticed that throughout the telling of their life stories all of these republicans "tried" to join the military? I think they are lying. All it took for me to join, during the Viet Nam War, was a walk down to the recruiter and they sent me straight to the Induction Center. As long as they had a warm body they really didn't care. In fact, during war time, recruiters sat in the courtrooms of America as the Judge tells the defendant that he has 2 choices, he can pick one of those Sergeants and go in the military or he can go to jail. They are lying to project an image that they are patriotic and they “tried“ to serve when the truth is they were chickenhawks cowards even back when they were young.!
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Jerome Zaccaro
May 25, 5:35 PM ET
Only the educated knows Fox news is not creditable.
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Patrick Thompson
May 25, 5:06 PM ET
Fox is entirely propaganda, but it takes double-digit IQ to realize it.
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Albert Siebenaler
May 25, 4:56 PM ET
Ps. My previous comment in response to Dean Cobb
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Leif Madsen
May 25, 4:56 PM ET
Tim,

Excellent, excellent work! Ailes is an evil genious. He went about controlling the message in exactly the right way (for him) - I thank goodness for you, Matt Taibbi & Rolling Stone in general for doing actual investigative journalism when it has all but disappeared. The truth of any matter really comes out when you follow the money - knowing who is the source of funding (left & right) identifies which agenda is being pushed. I hope this work helps take down the "power" of Ailes, Murdock & FOX "news" a notch or two. I work as an educator and my constant battle is against ignorance; I'm happy to see 'Stone fighting the good fight in the same regard ;>)

Thanks again Tim for an excellent, thoughtful articulation of a big media problem.
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Albert Siebenaler
May 25, 4:53 PM ET
OK, here we go….
A) Since when does a poll about something determine whether it's factually true. Let me just poll pre-schoolers on what the most healthy food is and find out, amazingly, that it’s lollipops!!

B) Glen Beck was like person number 75,000 to make that prediction about the Arab Spring, he was probably just the first to say it on Fox News.

C) Commodity prices predictions and fact-based news reporting are two very different things. Not to mention the awkwardness of his being paid for endorsements by a company (Goldline) that profits from him hocking gold.

D) Ah, the old, irrelevant, non sequitur George Soros reference…if I had a shiny gold coin for every time that reared its head I’d be set for the apocalypse!!!

E) Oh, and Van Jones too…add another doubloon to the pile!!

F) I love how someone is outed for being a “COMMUNIST” as if it’s a crime. Why is being far left criminal but being far right patriotic. I’d love to see a huge news story erupt about so-and-so being outed as a Tea Partier.

G) A better question you should be asking: How does someone have the nerve to say ‘don’t take my word for it. Do your own homework’ when they have been proven demonstrably wrong so many times by the most cursory ‘homework’?

H) Show me 3 distorted or made-up stories about the right wing reported as factual by main stream media. Because I can show you dozens of instances where Fox has reported as factual fake or distorted stories.

I) You seem to be using the internet incorrectly. 99% of the time when I hear something from the right wing media that I’m suspicious of (quite often) I find it’s bogus. Try Snopes.com or Factcheck.org, they actually use citations which you can follow up on.

J) No one else reports on this “news” until Fox reports on it because it’s not news and/or not true. They then only report on it because Fox has caused a stir with it and there is a story about the conflict that is being caused.
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Matthew Creation-station Noell
May 25, 3:16 PM ET
@Dean: Don't be such a tool, dude. "I can't tell you how many times I have found news on FOX that no one else reported until FOX put it before the public. " Oh, do you mean like the completely debunked Shirley Sherrod Smear? Or the completely debunked Acorn Smear? Or how about the completely debunked Planned Parenthood smear? Maybe the "New Black Panthers" kerfluffle? To steal a line from a poster on another blog:"Christ. Buy a dog and name it Clue. Then you will have one."
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Balking Points
May 25, 3:06 PM ET
...hey, let's just listen to Roger and the failed GOP, and go back to cut taxes / cut govt that we tried for the 3 decades of the Reagan/Bush era. In fact, let's get ANOTHER big tax cut to the wealthiest as we did in 1981 and 2001.

I mean, that worked SO well to deliver Trickle Down prosperity. Almost nobody is unemployed now. And the banks and oil drillers and health insurers, heck - they POLICED THEMSELVES!!! Get government out of the WAY by golly!

Abe Lincoln would have said;
"You can fool some of the people, ALL of the time"... ;^)

- Balkingpoints / www
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Chris Dosier
May 25, 2:58 PM ET
Considering this article has about 15-20 unattributed quotes or quotes from unidentified insiders, maybe Rolling Stone shouldn't be throwing stones in glass houses when it comes to bias in it's reporting.
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Jason Harris
May 25, 2:15 PM ET
If you truly watch all the networks, then you would have to be fully aware that Fox News edits press conferences to shape their narrative. In other words, if the conference was two minutes long, they'll start at 0:37 and continue to 1:12 to make their point, because showing 0:00 to 0:36 and 1:13 to 2:00 would lead viewers to different opinions.

If that's your opinion of unbiased news, luckily for you there's a network that will provide it to you.
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Dean Cobb
May 25, 1:55 PM ET
The liberal media is angry at FOX because the people of America know bais when they see it. The recent poll shows just how much FOX is trusted. You want bais and distortion? MSNBC is the king of that and the poll shows it. About Glen Beck. Has anyone checked recently or had the guts to admit he was right about the turmoil in the Mideast "cascading." Sure looks like it to me. He said buy gold when it was $600 an ounce. Now it is $1,500 an ounce. Hmmm, Fear mongering? I believe Old George Soros bought billions in gold. I believe it was Mr. Beck who outed Van Jones,an avowed COMMUNIST appointed by Obama as the Green Czar. Where were the other media giants? They were too busy extolling the virtues of Obama. When was the last time any LIBERAL reporter said "don't take my word for it. Do your own homework." Maybe never? I have watched all networks for a few years and FOX reports ALL the news while the others avoid anything negative about the left and play up,even make up, distort, or avoid positive news about conservatives. Thank God for the internet where one can check out news and see the real bais. I can't tell you how many times I have found news on FOX that noone else reported until FOX put it before the public.

(Okay)