Click to enlarge photos.By Marcus E. Howard
MDJ Staff Writer
KENNESAW - Fox News Channel is broadcast into more than 90 million homes, according to News Corporation, which owns the New York City-based cable news channel.
Whether you're a diehard fan or a reluctant watcher, the news channel and its founder, Roger Ailes, have been influential to the political dialogue in America, says Kennesaw State University political science Professor Kerwin Swint.
Swint is the author of the recently published book, "Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes," which is the first book written about Ailes.
Over the weekend, C-SPAN cameras taped Swint discussing the book at Barnes & Nobles on Barrett Parkway.
A longtime Republican political consultant, Ailes was hired in 1996 by News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch to create the news channel. Swint said the success of Fox News can be traced to Ailes formatting the enthusiasm and confrontational style of talk radio - which had a built-in conservative audience - to television.
"(Ailes) thinks that traditional news reporting is boring," Swint said.
"The interest is in the interaction of ideas, discussions, free-flowing talks about political issues. And that's how he's tried to program Fox News."
Swint said many of the personalities on Fox News, such as Bill O'Reilly, have backgrounds in tabloid news television shows such as "Inside Edition" and "A Current Affair."
"Ailes appreciated the performance ability of these people as he watched them and came to know some of them as he was doing media consulting in the early '90s," Swint said.
It is the entertainment tone of Fox News that Swint believes allows the network to temper its news coverage with what he feels is a politically conservative agenda.
"It's the mix of confrontation, discussion, interactivity and entertainment that allows them to slip in a political message and guide the news in a political direction, which (Ailes') audience enjoys," Swint said.
Ailes is a man driven by a desire to win, he said. In the book, he discusses the billboard across the street from archrival CNN's Atlanta headquarters on which Fox News strategically posted an advertisement of its better ratings.
Swint agrees with the accusation by many on the political right who say most news reporters are liberal. However, Swint said that Fox News is different in that the management of the channel, and not simply an individual reporter's personal viewpoint, is intentionally driving a political bias in its reporting of the news.
"That's sort of surrendering to the notion that it's OK to play politics with the news," Swint said.
"From what I've researched, there is a systemic bias there, on the part of management, where management does dictate a certain political direction. And that's different from what the other news organizations do. It's intentional, it's there in everything they do, and you can see the real product of that come out in the reporting."
A recent example of the channel's political bias, said Swint, is the comment made in June by a program co-host about the fist bump between presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, before he gave his primary election victory speech. E.D. Hill later apologized for her remarks.
"The reporting was, 'Why can't they just shake hands or hug? Is that some kind of terrorist handshake or some kind of overt symbol of some kind?'" Swint said. "Now that's over the top, but there are things like that, that you can see consistently from month to month."
Swint earned his doctorate from Georgia State University and is a former political consultant. At KSU, he specializes in mass media and electoral politics.
"Dark Genius," published by Union Square Press, was released on June 5 and has already gained the political scientist entry onto radio and television shows across the nation.
Swint said he interviewed many people familiar with the cable news channel during his research for the book. Ailes declined to be interviewed, he said.
"His spokesperson got back to me, and Roger Ailes is a funny guy, he's got a sense of humor and people love him for who he is. And he apparently said he finds himself to be neither dark nor genius. And would prefer not to work on the project."
mhoward@mdjonline.com
Comment on this Story
Posted Comments
Some would say Fox is biased. Others might realize that Fox is one of the few media outlets willing to allow facts into the news and not just a bunch of speculation and what ifs.
This book of Swint's seems to me to be some sort of justification for the "Fairness Doctrine" - which is neither fair nor a doctrine. He honestly says that the other news groups don't participate in bias???? Good Lord! Everyone knows that they do in favor of liberals and democrats! They've done it for years and years, so it's no secret. Now after Fox News appears on the scene to ATTEMPT to bring balance to both sides, they get lambasted at every turn. Where is the fairness in Dr. Swint's expository book?
Often, "Barry" and I are not entirely on the same page. In this case, however, Barry is exactly right. Left-of-center bias has been prevelent in the US media since the 50s (and the historically inaccurate days of Joe McCarthy). Walter Cronkite got away with "...and that's the way it is" for a good number of years, but by the time the press had had enough of Mr. Nixon, all bets on fairness were off. Since then, if one is not left leaning in main-stream media circles, one doesn't have a job for long. Thousands of examples are available. Fox News was simply a route to a market that had been abandoned by the MSM and coastal elites. This was not political shrewdness. It was, however, business genius. Don't confuse the two. Most people do, primarily including the left. Fox has worked based entirely on the general public (middle-American) dissatisfaction with the MSM and elite, non-journalistic outlets. Comments welcomed. Bring it on.
To Ken R.: Welcome aboard! Sorry we don't always agree, but glad when we do!