The Head of the GOP

New Yorker Magazine has an interesting profile of Roger Ailes (h/t Ritholtz):

Ailes had hired Beck in October 2008 to reenergize Fox’s audience after Obama’s election, and he’d succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest hopes, tapping deep wells of resentment and igniting them into a vast, national conflagration. The problem was that it had almost engulfed Fox itself. Beck was huge and uncontrollable, and some of Fox’s other big names seemed diminished by comparison and were speaking up about it. Beck seemed to many to be Fox News’s id made visible, saying things,Obama is a racist, Nazi tactics are progressive tactics, dredged from the right-wing subconscious. These were things that weren’t supposed to be said, even at Fox, and they were consuming the brand. Ailes had built his career by artfully tending the emotional undercurrents of both politics and entertainment, using them to power ratings and political careers; now they were out of his control.

It is amazing what this man has been able to accomplish with Fox News.  I don't know what makes people tune in and believe what they hear, but they sure do.