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I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings.

Roger Ailes

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Roger Ailes
Age: 77 †
Born: 1940
Born: May 15
Died: 2017
Died: May 18
Businessperson
Politician
Television Producer
Warren
Ohio
Roger Eugene Ailes
Palin
Hot
Ratings
Sarah
Rating
Hired

More quotes by Roger Ailes

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The thing you always have to remember is, you look at people and they might look like a failure but there's often a narrow thing they do very well.
Roger Ailes
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There's something about the American people: They have such an innate sense of fairness that the red light goes on and the bells go off the second you approach that line. Any kind of personal attack is verboten. You shouldn't do it it's not worth it.
Roger Ailes
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Obama's the one who never worked a day in his life. He never earned a penny that wasn't public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time.
Roger Ailes
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They [NPR] are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don't want any other point of view. They don't even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.
Roger Ailes
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Television and I grew up together.
Roger Ailes
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I've found increasingly less effectiveness with the man-on-the street type of stuff that was very standard fare for years. It can still be effective, but it's got to be done well.
Roger Ailes
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Almost everything I do is related to my ability to hire good people. I don't take much of the credit myself. I think I have a good eye.
Roger Ailes
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When the media gets into creating their own product and then deciding to cover it, they are becoming part of the process and, therefore, could be damaged.
Roger Ailes
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Phrase it in an interesting way don't phrase it in a mean or unfriendly way. Bob Dole said that if there's anything he would have done differently, he would have said [to George Bush] Start telling the truth about my record instead of Stop lying about my record. Frankly, had he done that, life might be different for Bob Dole today.
Roger Ailes
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Candidates rarely win battles with the media, and unless you really know what you're doing you should not tangle with them. The exception is when you know this is a search-and- destroy mission on the part of the media and your case is very strong, you are very articulate, you know what you're trying to accomplish - and you have no alternatives.
Roger Ailes
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You can get people the qualifications But you can't teach them the qualities they're going to need. You can't teach integrity, a drive for excellence, refusal to quit under pressure. It's too late to build that into people you're going to hire.
Roger Ailes
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Just because somebody else likes a candidate doesn't necessarily mean everybody else will like him.
Roger Ailes
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I don't have any focus groups on talent and programming. If I need five people in a mall to be paid $40 to tell me how to do my job, I shouldn't do my job.
Roger Ailes
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I only understand friendship or scorched earth.
Roger Ailes
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You cover the bad news about America. You do. But you don't get up in the morning hating your country. And so, until somebody shows me lines at the border trying to get out, I think there's some good news.
Roger Ailes
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Everybody who's in the news business today was influenced in a positive way by Walter Cronkite. He had ability, humility and integrity, a rare combination.
Roger Ailes
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Growing up in Ohio and just being kind of an average guy from flyover country - my dad was a factory guy - I try to put things on a screen that reflect reality. I don't mind if people want to argue with that, or think that's crazy.
Roger Ailes
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If you are a good communicator, be unique: put yourself in your own commercials and do something a little different. To the extent you can focus on what it is you want to change, what it is you know how to change, and what it is you think will make life better for other people, you're going to do better.
Roger Ailes
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One of the reasons I'm in this business is because I have absolute respect for the people who say, You know what? I think I can make this a little better and I'm willing to get in and try. Because, I'll tell you, there are a hell of a lot of reasons to stay away from running for office today.
Roger Ailes
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If you want to get unpaid media coverage, you had better be quotable. It's an interesting problem, because very few candidates are quotable.
Roger Ailes