CH 12. The Chapter on Fox: Franken falsely claims Roger Ailes co-directed
On page 61 (paperback, p. 65) of Lies Franken falsely claims Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes co-directed the infamous 1988 “Willie Horton attack” TV ad during the Bush-Quayle presidential campaign.
Ailes worked for the Bush camp in the election, but he had nothing to do with the ad; and neither did official Bush-Quayle organizers. The notorious piece was produced by an outside third party called the National Security Political Action Committee.1
Despite Frankens claim to work hard to get facts straight, he seemly did not investigate this issue at all, as the non-affiliation of Ailes to the ad is easy to find and not disputed by any mainstream liberal source (Salon.com for instance, which reported that the ad had “no provable ties to the Bush campaign” and “according to the official books, they had absolutely nothing to do with it.”2)
The false statement has no footnote or endnote.
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Notes:
1 A Brown University study found at http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/independentads.html [Note: Although the tone of this study is not very sympathetic to the Bush camp or to the concept of independent expenditures, the main point is proven. From the study: “In the end, a majority of FEC [Federal Election Commission] Commissioners concluded there had been no illegal coordination between the two campaigns. In the eyes of the federal agency, the NSPAC’s Horton expenditures were legal and independent of Bush.”]
2 Jake Tapper, “The Willie Horton Alumni Association,” August 25, 2000, http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/25/horton/index.html [Note: The official title of the “Willie Horton” ad was “Weekend Passes.” This is not to be confused with the official Bush-Quayle ad criticizing Dukakis’ furlough program, “Revolving Doors,” which made no mention or image of Horton.]