Fox News Launches with Rupert Murdoch Funding and Roger Ailes Leadership
Rupert Murdoch launched Fox News Channel on October 7, 1996, with Roger Ailes as CEO, explicitly designed as a conservative propaganda outlet disguised as news. The network’s ‘Fair and Balanced’ slogan masked its partisan agenda, while Murdoch paid cable companies $10 per subscriber to carry the channel, eventually reaching 17 million homes. Internal memos later revealed Ailes directed coverage to favor Republicans and attack Democrats from day one.
Key Actors
Sources (3)
- The Making of Fox News: How Murdoch and Ailes Built an Empire (2019-03-20)
- How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory (2011-05-25)
- The Birth of Fox News (2017-05-18)
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