Posted on 10/29/2003 2:30:14 AM PST by jmcclain19
Here are some excerpts from a lengthy interview with Fox News Chief Roger Ailes
So are you in the news business, or are you in the programming and packaging business? And are those mutually exclusive?
Most people get their news from television. Look, there's a certain element of the melding with show business or entertainmentline blurring, as Don Hewitt says. Entertainment and news should always be separate, but you should walk right up to the line and get your toe on it. But just not get over it. Too much of what's going on today gets over it. So I don't have any problem with this that a lot of print people do.
What I'm asking you to do is get here, tell a story, and reach out to a point of view you don't agree with, and be sure that it's fair in that particular piece. If somebody asks you to do a story on abortion, it's very hard, because there are no pro-life women working in newsrooms anywhere in New York. So if a woman gets on that story, you're going to have trouble getting that story.
No pro-life women at all?
None. Well, there probably are, but they're undercover. They will never acknowledge it. I've been told by many women they'll never acknowledge that position in a job interview; they'd never get hired in a news organization.
So that particular story is a very difficult story to do for journalists because there are sincere people, from both sides, who have views on that. It's very hard to get that story done with the fairness that recognizes what many people believe to be a life and other people believe to be a woman's right to choose. That's a particularly tough story to do.
What do you think Fox News' contributions and innovations have been?
We've proved that we get larger audiences to cable news than anybody in American history, for one thing. We cover a broader spectrum than most people. We say it's fair and balanced. The American people don't actually believe we present more points of view. Everybody knows that Ralph Nader got more airtime here than any place else when he ran for president.
And we present broad views. We don't eliminate it. Bias has to do with the elimination of points of view, not presenting a point of view. So we don't. That's somewhat stunning to some of the people in the business. We treat all points of view with respect. I saw the guy from the Green Party on last night. He had 15 minutes to sell the Green Party.
We've changed fewer shows than any network in history. This is our seventh anniversary. And no brand in cable has ever come in and taken down a frontrunner from behind. MTV created a great brand. History created a great brand. CNN created a great brand. Nobody ever came on the scene in a genre and overtook the first position. Fox was the first one to do that.
We also have a very high morale and a very low turnover here. That is very helpful in running a news organization. When I left NBC, 82 people left the NBC systemeither CNBC, NBC or America's Talking. Eighty-two people in something like four months left to come here, and there was no network here.
So if Fox News is fair and balanced, then why do so many other people not believe it?
Because they're getting their ass beaten.
It's not just CNN. It's not just competition.
Look, we're doing something that is forcing themincluding the New York Times and the LA Timesto examine how their journalism's being presented.
When the editor of the LA Times sends a memo to his desk [about an abortion story], which basically says, 'I know we're all liberals, but shouldn't we be a little more fair and balanced about this issue', that memo gets leaked. Well, in 50 years of journalism, they never thought to be fair and balanced before we get on the scene.
Now, suddenly, they're putting it in their internal memos? You never heard the words "fair and balanced" in 50 years of television journalism? Because they thought they were fair and balanced but the American people didn't. And now, somehow, we're being criticized for bringing it up? Sorry. We're making a major contribution.
Well, no. People don't criticize you because they think you are actually fair and balanced. It's because they think that you're not.
We're saying "fair and balanced" when, in fact, [other journalists] still believe they're right. They still think that not presenting two points of view is a good idea. If they could point to one story, one news story, where we've eliminated a second point of view, I would listen to them. They can't.
So you think the New York Times and the LA Times are comfortable being liberal?
Well, they've become advocacy journalism. You either do it, or you don't. And they do it. [Former New York Times Editor Howell] Raines clearly was driving an agenda. I called Howell. I forget the story. It was their Afghanistan coverage. There was some stuff ... that wasn't true. We had guys on the ground, and so I called him up and said, "Howell, You're going to get an award for fiction here." He said, "I'm hanging up." I said, "You don't seem to have a sense of humor, Howell." He said, "I don't have one about journalism." So then, later, when Jayson Blair happened, I sent a note and just said, "Maybe it's time to develop a sense of humor about journalism."
If you think they're comfortable being advocates, why do you get your back up if somebody says you run a right-wing, Republican network?
I don't at all. I don't at all. As a matter of fact, I've been quoted as saying, "Please keep doing that; it's driving viewers to us every day." The more they call us that, the more viewers watch us, because the American people think the rest of the media is too liberal.
If we were doing something fraudulent, the American people would turn us off. They'd just turn us off. They're not stupid. Most injuries in journalism are caused by journalists falling off their egos onto their IQs. The concept that journalism knows and the public knows nothing and they're idiots is wrong.
Now, those people who believe that they were appointed to journalism to help these stupid masses get through life have a right to do that. And the public gets a right to decide whether they buy that paper or watch that show.
What is Fox News not doing enough of?
We keep looking at trying to figure out how to do more long-form, which is very expensive. We're working on a special on education; we're working on a special on the environment. I believe there are issues that are longer, broader that television doesn't do very well, because we tend to live for the moment or everybody chases the Laci Peterson case or they move to the next event.
Journalism has a bias for pictures and mistakes and attacksprint and television. If people give you a picture, give you a mistake, or give you an attack, I guarantee you, there will be a lot of real news, during that 24 or 48 hours, that won't get covered. I'm interested in the environment, and nobody covers it well. I frankly think neither party does a very good job at it. The Democrats demagogue it; the Republicans ignore it.
So we don't do a good job of covering that. But it's the budget. I'm living with 25% to 30% of the people CNN has. It's a resource issue. It's a time issue. It's a public-focus issue. It's how to make that interesting. We have an obligation to the form. We tend to follow things, rather than lead. And part of that is just the nature of the business.
" Most injuries in journalism are caused by journalists falling off their egos onto their IQs."
We are not yet to the point where they are accountable.
CNN, NYTimes bitter because THEY ARE (THEY'RE) getting 'their asses beaten'
That's a keeper.
My son is being subjected to CNN's news in his public school classroom. He's expressed disgust about this more than once (my 13 year old is bright and well taught by his mother!). Fox News needs to EXPAND to offer classroom news services! I don't trust CNN to keep their politics out of their stories -- they never have before -- and I'd be the first to suggest to the school district that picking up the Fox feed would be the way to go.
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