At the time of Roger Ailes’ appointment to CEO of Fox News in 1996, CNN dominated American news networks. Often taking the position of neutrality, CNN was Americans’ source for unbiased news and stories. That impartiality may have all but fully dissolved by now, but how did we get here? An article from the BBC titled, “Roger Ailes and the dawn of hyper-partisan television,” takes a dive into just how divided Americans’ are over Ailes and Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born billionaire media tycoon, founder of News Corp, sought to disrupt the political landscape of America with his newly created Fox News network. In doing so, Murdoch brought in Ailes, formerly employed by the Regan, Nixon, and HW Bush administrations, to change the function of news from unbiased delivery of information to one aimed at spreading a particular ideology. As Ailes soon learned, evident by record-setting audiences, “much of the American public didn’t want information from their television news, they wanted confirmation.” This theme of vindication over wisdom has unfortunately found its way into the philosophies of many, if not all, American news outlets and is no more clearly demonstrated than by the intense period of political polarization we find ourselves in today. To learn more about Ailes, Fox News, and the alternate reality it paints for viewers on a near hourly basis, click the link below.
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 