Roger Ailes: Fox News Is On A 'Course Correction' Away From Far Right

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has given one of his typically candid interviews to Newsweek. The interview was published Monday.

For a man who first made his name as a media guru for Richard Nixon, Ailes is often surprisingly forthcoming about Fox News and his opinions. In previous interviews, he has called NPR executives "Nazis" (he later apologized), said he didn't mind if people thought Glenn Beck was fired from the channel, and admitted that he wants both Bill and Hillary Clinton to join Fox News.

Behind the scenes, Ailes is reported to have clashed with Sarah Palin and told Beck to cool his more controversial rhetoric.

Monday's interview offered up more of Ailes' unvarnished opinions about his network and his employees. He made a big admission to Newsweek, saying that he has made a "course correction" at Fox News, veering it away from the hard-right line it took in the earlier days of the Obama administration. (Ailes offered a preview of this strategy in January, when he told Russell Simmons that he had ordered his anchors and pundits to "tone it down" in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting.) Beck's departure, as well as a more nuanced approach to his most famous pundit, Sarah Palin, have been part of that strategy, Ailes said.

He also spoke openly about many of his anchors, saying that Bill O'Reilly "hates" Sean Hannity because he's jealous of his radio success (and thus confirming years of rumors about the animosity between the two).

Ailes also called Hannity "predictable" and said that he sometimes has to have a word with Shepard Smith when Smith says things that may not go over well with the Fox News crowd. (He didn't say whether he was referring to Smith's seemingly pro-union comments about the Wisconsin protests, or his saying that the killing of Osama bin Laden was illegal and that American foreign policy is on a dangerous path.)

Read the full interview, including news about Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry's relationship with Ailes, here.

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Comments

[leggs67]

01:35 PM on 10/02/2011

He changing his perceived agenda for purely commercial reasons. He still isn't interested in honest unbiased reporting. A leopard can never change it's spots though. I don't even trust him as far as I can see him.

[stopnlisten]

12:45 PM on 10/02/2011

Shifting left? He smells money....only reason.

[RepublicanDepression]

04:04 AM on 10/02/2011

Despite this, Republicans here will still claim that Fox News has been fair and balanced.

[Andrea Blackwell]

07:14 AM on 10/01/2011

I wonder if my young cousin watched Faux News.
No force in heaven or earth could keep that boy from joining the Army after 9-11.
He was killed in Iraq.

(Now you know someone else who lost a family member in that farce.)

Then there's those who lost their livelihoods due to their financial 'advice'.

Ailes, I don't know what ails him, but I think he needs to pray, and pray HARD.

[Andrea Blackwell]

12:20 AM on 10/01/2011

Please stand by for the longest retraction in TV history.
But do not, by any means, hold your breath.

CNN, et al....is there anything you'd care to get off your chests?

[sfsoma]

04:03 PM on 09/30/2011

Haven't noticed any change in the tone on FOX News. Ailes must be slipping in his old age. Perhaps other forces are actually in control now.

[murphysgirl]

03:46 PM on 09/30/2011

Ailes said FOX has toned down since the Giffords shooting?? They have a funny way of showing it!!

[Kenz300]

11:24 AM on 09/30/2011

Fuax Noise, the Koch brothers and the US Chamber of Commerce helped get the tea party going and their candidates get elected. Now the business community has seen what the deficit debacle has done to the economy and the stock market. A little buyers remorse.

These Republicans are too extreme.

[rainkitty]

01:10 AM on 09/30/2011

"No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pig*s. The creatures outside looked from pi*g to man, and from man to pi*g, and from pi*g to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
- George Orwell, Animal Farm

[Michael Zand]

12:07 PM on 09/29/2011

As I said in an earlier comment here that was moderated to oblivion, (I'm beginning to think the moderators are overwhelmed and they just randomly toss a certain number of comments without reading them) this is a retrenchment of the Republican Party. They know they can't win a general election with the current slate of dweebs and crazies so Ailes is trying to broaden the field for a "moderate" like Christie to make it through the primaries. That being said, it's time for the FCC to regulate Fox not as a "News" channel but as the propaganda arm of the Republican Party.

[Pat Padrnos]

09:11 AM on 10/02/2011

Michael - I have been having trouble getting my comments printed. I believe at least 15 yesterday were not published. A couple got through - but no idea why the others ones went "poof". None of the comments were inflammatory - don't get it. Makes taking the time to do them a total waste.
I agree Ailes is trying to broaden the field - but I think he is a bit late on trying to tone down the hate rhetoric on FOX.
He has nurtured his "klan" so well they don't know how to tone it down. And - quite frankly - I have yet to see a mellowing on their views.
He has backed many divisive people. And - occasionally - totally inept. Cannot help but wonder what he thinks of Palin's latest circus act.

[rgblue]

08:33 AM on 09/29/2011

Mr. Ailes,
are you finally getting sick of spreading all that infectious hatred around our beautiful country? I certainly hope so! Your stupid news channel has brain-washed and ruined some of my best friends and favorite relatives. And it really p***es me off!

[Pat Padrnos]

09:16 AM on 10/02/2011

I have had the same experience with friends and relatives. Totally amazing and so sad. I know in my family, I am the most liberal leaning of everyone. That being said, I don't understand how they can swallow such racist, homophobic and down right ignorant rantings from the FOX News folks. The people I speak of are also avid G Beck followers and absolutely believe his conspiracy theories.

[TexianLife]

08:12 AM on 09/29/2011

FOX News, aka INSANE Asylum

[wdw808]

11:57 AM on 09/29/2011

so don't watch it

[toocoolfoschool1234]

08:35 PM on 10/01/2011

More importantly we have to make sure that less intelligent / more gullible people are not watching it.

[ladybugg22]

08:02 AM on 09/29/2011

Will he also move them away from lying?

[the grange gorman]

07:58 AM on 09/29/2011

and the phone hacking scandal comes to the US in 3,2,1............................

[wdw808]

11:59 AM on 09/29/2011

so watch what you put on an electronic format.......laughing

[toocoolfoschool1234]

08:36 PM on 10/01/2011

What?

[nosmiley]

03:43 PM on 10/04/2011

It's already here as a result of the no need for a warrant , that Bush abd Cheney pushed through. They have your number,........and mine.

[huffingtor]

07:14 AM on 09/29/2011

Just a propagandist spouting propaganda, move along folks, nothing to see here.