Roger Ailes was born in Warren, Ohio, in 1940. He graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in speech and communication. After working as an assistant at the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, Ailes became an assistant producer at the Republican National Committee. He was quickly promoted to producer, and he eventually became executive producer of The Mike Douglas Show
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While producing the show, Ailes discovered the young political analyst Pat Buchanan. When Buchanan began his own television career, Ailes was instrumental in helping him develop his signature style. Ailes then moved on to politics himself by working as a media adviser for California Governor Ronald Reagan.
He started his own production company, RMH Productions Inc., which produced television shows such as The Mike Douglas Show and Hollywood Squares. In 1976, Ailes returned to politics as Vice President of Communications at the Republican National Committee. He held this position until 1980 when he left to start his own television production company, Roger Ailes Communications Inc., where he produced "The Mike Douglas Show" and political shows for PBS and NBC.
In 1987, he launched Fox News Channel with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Under his leadership, Fox News grew into the most-watched cable news channel in the country. The network continues to attract millions of viewers each week with its news programming and entertainment shows about news topics such as Bill O'Reilly's O'Reilly Factor and The Five.