Roger Ailes: Maybe I’ll Give Hillary Clinton A Show On Fox News Channel
A new Newsweek interview with Roger Ailes has this interesting quote:
There was this, for instance, from the man who conferred cable stardom on Sarah Palin: “I’d like to hire Hillary Clinton. She looks unhappy at the State Department. She’d get ratings.”
Hillary on Fox. Now that would be something that would make more than a few heads explode.
This is only surprising for those who think one dimensionally, of Fox as solely a right redoubt.
And what makes Roger Ailes think she would be interested in any way?
Besides, the “Clinton Brand” is much bigger than FOX.
I’d love to see it happen, honestly. I still would have my issues with the editorial slant that they would take in their news reporting, but I think one of the things that drives me nuts about Fox News is that they intentionally enscone their viewers in an echo chamber of reinforcement. Back when they pretended that they needed to have token liberals you ended up with people like Alan Colmes playing the snide remark counterpart to Hannity, and now they’ve decided to forgo the counterpoint all together.
For Fox to put someone on the air who was not only a liberal but also competent and knowledgeable in debate, politics, and current events would earn a tip of the hat from me. I would just hope that they didn’t try to make it into another polemical prime time shoutfest and instead actually try to raise the general level of awareness of the TV viewers.
Not a bad idea. But doubtful that she would want to.
Personally, I think Bill as a host would be far more interesting (and potentially entertainingly unpredictable :D)
Ailes is a very good businessman. Hillary would bring in mondo ratings and thus vast sums of ad dollars. 1 + 1 = 2.
Back in the 2008 primaries the Clinton people said they liked going on Fox more then the other networks because Fox seemed more fair then the other networks. All the other networks were more like “when are you going to quit the race because you know Obama will win?” kind of stuff.
I hope Clinton is smart enough that Ailes, if he offers her a show at all, would just sandbag her. Put her in a terrible slot, under promote her, tip off other producers on Fox to steal her guests. Then trumpet the fact that liberal ideas just don’t catch on with the viewers as much as conservative ones.
After all, Fox as a corporation was donating serious coin to the Republican Party until they were outed. To me, this seems an obvious ploy to sabotage a Democrat.
Or he could be saying something to make himself seem more reasonable than he has shown him to be. File this under “talk is cheap” or “I’ll believe it when I see it”.
Besides I doubt he could handle an employee having a better security detail than he has.