Roger Ailes is an enormously influential man in American life. He's the founder and head of the most profitable part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation: Fox News. This NYT profile of Ailes carries a rather extraordinary quote from Brit PR bloke Matthew Freud (who is married to Elizabeth Murdoch):
“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.”
Gosh - why don't you tell us what you really think, Matthew?
As the world's foremost Murdoch-watcher Michael Wolff explains, this is further evidence of a deep division within the Murdoch empire, between Ailes and the Murdoch kids, who are more liberal in outlook than Ailes or their Daddy:
Matthew Freud, a PR man of extraordinary craftiness, almost never gets
quoted. When he does, it means something. When he does, he’s doing it
at the behest and interest of the Murdoch family. What you heard was a declaration of war.
There are, practically speaking, now two factions inside of News Corp.,
Ailes and Fox News, and the Murdoch children—with Rupert caught between
them. Ailes is the big money maker inside of News Corp.—all the more
meaningful during a recession and when his boss, Rupert Murdoch, has
hitched his star to the newspaper business and the failing Wall Street Journal—and
Ailes’ power has risen accordingly. But he can’t last against the enmity of Rupert’s children.
I hope Michael Wolff is right, that the Murdoch kids will "win". Until that far-off day, however, we're all sof us around the world suffering from the inluence of Ailes et al.
It's Eli"s"abeth Murdoch, by the way. Not "z". Sorry, annoying, I know. Was trained as a sub-editor so often can't see the content/forest for the typos/trees.
Posted by: Lyle | January 16, 2010 at 04:26 PM