Page 16 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

ALIEN AND
5
G.
Jim
SOURCES: SEDITION ACTS OF 1798 Profile in Conflict, 1970; "Vice-President Agnew
Lucas, Agnew:
Resigns, Fined for Income Tax Evasion," New York Times, October 11, 1973, p. 1.
Michael W. Singletary
AILES, ROGER (1940- ) is a political communications consultant turned
broadcaster—or perhaps it is the other way around. He began his broadcasting
career as a student at Ohio University by doing an early morning radio show.
Upon graduation in 1962, he went to work for KYW-TV in Cleveland. At KYW,
he worked on the Mike Douglas Show, one of the first television talk shows.
In three years he was promoted to producer.
While at KYW in 1968, Ailes met Richard Nixon, then a candidate for pres-
ident. Nixon was upset that he had to resort to television to get elected. Ailes
convinced Nixon that television was here to stay and that Nixon would lose if
he didn't learn how to use it. Nixon hired Ailes as his media adviser. Ailes
proposed a series of media events to shape Nixon's image as a serious, yet
caring person. One of these media events was a television program called "Man
in the Arena," featuring Nixon going head-to-head with a group of inquiring
citizens in spontaneous give-and-take. The participants had, in fact, been hand-
picked, and the programs were, to a large extent, staged.
Nixon won the election, and Ailes found himself in demand as a political
consultant, but he kept his hand in television. In the 1980s, he was executive
director of a show featuring Tom Snyder and Rona Barrett. He assisted presi-
dential candidates Ronald Reagan and George Bush. For Reagan, he developed
strategies to get voters to see past Reagan's age. He helped Bush shed his wimpy
image and reportedly urged Bush to counterattack in his interview with Dan
Rather about Iran-Contra. Ailes denied any connection with the Willie Horton
ad, perhaps the most controversial ad of a highly negative campaign. It was, in
fact, done by a political action committee, and by law Ailes, as a member of
the Bush campaign staff, could not have been involved.
Ailes refused to help Bush with his reelection campaign in 1992. Instead, he
sought to help Rush Limbaugh turn his radio talk show into a television pro-
gram. In 1993 he became president of CNBC, NBC's cable venture. He left that
job in 1996, when the cable channel merged with Microsoft to start MSNBC.

SOURCES: "Ailes Out at CNBC," Broadcasting and Cable, January 22, 1996; New
York Times Magazine, January 2, 1995; 1989 Current Biography Yearbook.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS OF 1798. These acts restricted naturalization
of aliens and public criticism of the federal government. Conflict with France
over blocking passage of U.S. ships set the stage for these acts. French govern-
ment officials demanded bribes from American representatives to let ships pass.
The press reported this but withheld the names of the French officials, identi-