Ailes lectures young journalists

Fox News chief Roger Ailes offered more than a few words of advice in a room filled mostly with young journalists, starting with a recommendation that elicited at least a few eye rolls: “I think you ought to change your major.”

Too many aspiring journalists want to affect politics or are on a mission to “change the world or save the world,” the chairman and chief executive officer said, speaking before a few hundred people in UNC’s Carroll Hall. The talk was part of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series. “If you want to bring world peace or save starving children – both very noble goals – the way to affect that as a journalist is to investigate why the United Nations is so ineffective at doing either of those even though they get 22 percent of their budget from the American taxpayers,” Ailes said. “They seem to have trouble bringing peace, and they seem to have trouble feeding people, so we need to question that.” He defended Fox News, often a target of criticism for what some see as a conservative bent, countering that while many of the talk shows that appear on the channel feature conservative-minded hosts, the “hard journalism” is unbiased. Those who have qualms with Fox News, he said, are often satisfied with the reporting from outlets like CNN, NPR and the New York Times, which he suggested have a liberal slant.