Roger Ailes, the Fox News’ high-profile CEO, realizes that the Republican Party has a serious demographic problem, most notably when it comes to Latino voters. But Ailes told The New Republic that he’s on the case.
Mitt Romney lost the Latino vote by nearly 50 points, and now almost everyone agrees that the Republican Party needs to improve with Hispanic voters to have a shot at the White House in 2016. That could also be Ailes’s last year at Fox News: His contract expires then, when he’ll be 76 years old. So if Roger Ailes wants to see a Republican win what may be his last presidential election as a major player, he’ll need to try to make conservatism more palatable to Latinos. Which, of course, he will.
“The fact is, we have a lot — Republicans have a lot more opportunity for them,” Ailes says. “If I’m going to risk my life to run over the fence to get into America, I want to win. I think Fox News will articulate that.”
Yes, Ailes accidentally used the word “we” when talking about Republicans, before correcting himself.
Ailes then went on to get things substantially wrong, like a true Foxbot. Ailes went on to the tired talking point that Latinos are natural Republicans because they’re religious and family oriented — unlike liberals, who I guess are all atheists who hate their families.
“This has been the subject of considerable research, and there’s ample evidence to the contrary,” Benen points out. “Indeed, most polls suggest most Latino voters support center-left candidates because they are, in fact, center-left voters.”
You wonder if this is just another case of Republicans believing their own propaganda. After all “anti-faith” and “anti-family” are the way that the AFox and Republicans portray liberals,
In any case, Ailes’ Freudian slip didn’t really let any cats out of any bags. He merely confirmed — albeit accidentally — what everyone already knew: Fox News is the GOP press office. “Not to put too fine a point on this, but since when is it the job of a cable news network to help persuade a voting constituency that one political party is good for them?” Benen asks.
Since the day Fox News went on the air, I suppose.
