Who

The mastermind behind Fox News, Ailes is the Rupert Murdoch crony who is chairman of Fox News, Fox Business Channel, and Fox Television Stations, the company's network of three dozen owned-and-operated stations.

Backstory

Considering Ailes is the man who vaulted Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity to fame, it's probably not much of a surprise that his career started with Richard Nixon. Ailes was living in Cleveland and working as a producer on The Mike Douglas Show when Nixon showed up as a guest in 1967. The two bonded on set and Ailes later moved to Washington to join his campaign team, helping him craft his message and image in advance of the 1968 presidential election. Following Nixon's win, Ailes founded Ailes Communications, coaching politicians and businesses on how to use TV to their advantage. He also dabbled on the side as a theater and TV producer; strangely, one of his off-Broadway productions was a pro-environment show called Mother Earth.

Ailes earned his first big victory as a political consultant in 1984, when he helped Ronald Reagan defeat Walter Mondale. Four years later he came through for the GOP once again, helping architect George Bush's win against Michael Dukakis. Ailes hung up his hat as a political consultant in the early '90s. After helping pal Rush Limbaugh land a television show and then serving as the program's executive producer, in 1993 he was tapped by NBC's Bob Wright to head up the company's new business channel, CNBC. Two years later, he defected to News Corp. when Rupert Murdoch recruited him to launch Fox News. He's been aggravating liberals ever since, and has added several other News Corp. properties to his portfolio, including the company's collection of local TV stations and the Fox Business Channel, which launched in 2007.

Of note

Ailes is the man to thank for making Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Shepard Smith into the ubiquitous talking heads they've become. You can also give him credit for giving Oliver North a second act and ensuring that Geraldo Rivera's mustache has a home on cable TV. (He probably also deserves some thanks for unwittingly creating a cable persona for Stephen Colbert, too.) Ailes has done well for himself as part of the Murdoch empire: Fox News surpassed CNN as the No. 1 cable news network in January 2002 and has remained on top ever since, even though the wide margin it once maintained—Fox had nearly twice as many viewers as CNN during the election of 2004—has narrowed over the past year. (Paradoxically, even though more people watch Fox, more Americans say they trust CNN.)

Ailes success at Fox News led to a series of new responsibilities at the company. In 2005, he took over as chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group, the collection of more than 30 local stations that News Corp. owns and operates, and installed old pal Dennis Swanson as his No. 2. Ailes added yet another title to his business card when he was named chairman of the Fox Business Channel, which debuted in October 2007. Alas, the latter has been one of Ailes' biggest failures in recent years. Although News Corp. launched an aggressive ad campaign and promised to quickly overtake CNBC, ratings have been so dismal that the company has refused to release the channel's Nielson numbers.

Keeping score

Ailes earns a base salary of $5 million, plus stock options and performance-based bonuses. His contract also guarantees him access to News Corp.'s fleet of jets, a full-time car and driver, and "security services" for him and his family.

For the record

Ailes has plenty of friends on the right side of the aisle: Not only is Fox News the news source of choice for every Republican politico in Washington, it's also the official in-flight entertainment aboard Air Force I. (The network also seems to be a recruiting center of sorts: When George Bush needed a new press secretary, he looked no further than Fox News's Tony Snow.) Ailes' ties to the Republican leadership haven't earned him many friends in liberal media circles, not surprisingly. The Fox News chief has complained that he's been "thanked a lot in Wendy's, Appleby's, and Marriott hotels" but he's "never been thanked in Le Cirque."

Personal

The heavyset exec is married to his third wife, Elizabeth Tilson Ailes, who's 20 years his junior. He has a daughter, Shawn Ailes-Visco, from his first marriage. Ailes and his wife live Cresskill, New Jersey. The couple had vacation home in Florida until 2003, when Ailes sold the Singer Island condo to Fox Business's very own Neil Cavuto for $525,000.