The Romney That Roger Ailes Made
News that Rupert Murdoch has renewed Roger Ailes' contract as president of Fox News means the sly conflict and ratings hound could be shaping America’s political landscape for four more years.
News that Rupert Murdoch has renewed Roger Ailes’ contract as president of Fox News means the sly conflict and ratings hound could be shaping America’s political landscape for four more years.
Mitt Romney would be a different animal if Ailes wasn’t around, Guardian columnist Michael Wolff explains. Ailes’ use of the Fox airwaves to promote the tea party compelled Romney to pander to the conservative fringe early in the GOP nomination process while simultaneously making him appear like the only sane man on stage. Romney is now playing a role that, if he is elected president, he would be hard-pressed to escape as Ailes continued shaping the political opinions and mental habits of millions of Americans throughout Romney’s term.
Wolff explains how below.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Your support matters…Michael Wolff at The Guardian:
He’s established Fox News as the pre-eminent political world. When you watch it, you’re not just watching people who can influence power people, you’re watching the thrilling exercise of power. What you see – the malevolence, the disruption, the veiled subtexts – is the drama of dominance and submission.
Ailes, alone among news professionals, has understood the most important truth about modern news: nobody’s interested in politics, not in real politics anyway. It’s a buzz kill. Both Romney and Obama: buzz kills. Nonentities. But if you repopulate the political world with extremists, eccentrics, loudmouths and well-scripted voices, you have a show.
That’s what we have four more years of with Ailes firmly in place: parallel realities, with Fox having long since overshadowed, or even mostly replaced, actual political reality.
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Our addiction to empire is killing us. When will we recognize that this planet is big enough for every global citizen to have a patch of serenity?
Now that the Dakota Access pipeline protest has galvanized the Native American community, the Advance Native Political Leadership group wants to build a pathway to more government inclusion.
A look at the day's political happenings, including Mitt Romney denies his infamous "47 percent" remark and Eliot Spitzer weighs in on Anthony Weiner's latest round of illicit messages.
A look at the day's political happenings, including Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly renewing their gun control push and why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's catchy new campaign video against his Democratic Senate opponent is a big fail.
It’s as if they didn’t learn a thing from the 2012 elections. Republicans are on the same suicide mission as before--trying to block immigration reform, roll back the clock on abortion rights and stop gay marriage wherever possible. Why can’t Republicans learn?
The war of words between the site and the statistician appears to be escalating yet again after Politico co-founder Jim VandeHei accused Silver of getting "up on his high horse quite a lot" in an interview in New Republic.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.