www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20079078
Giuliani, chief of Fox News approach new turf Friends for nearly 20 years, two find themselves in uncharted waters Image: Rudy Giuliani Jim Cole / AP Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani talks about his health care plan during a speech in Rochester, NH, on Tuesday.
Rudolph W Giuliani have been pulling for each other for nearly two decades. Mr Ailes served as the media consultant to Mr Giuliani's first mayoral campaign in 1989. Mr Giuliani, as mayor, officiated at Mr Ailes's wedding and intervened on his behalf when Mr Ailes's company, Fox News Channel, was blocked from securing a cable station in the city. This year, they were tablemates at the White House correspondents dinner, which Mr Giuliani attended as a guest of Fox's parent company, News Corporation. Now these allies and friends find themselves on largely uncharted political turf. Mr Giuliani, 63, is a leading Republican candidate for president.
Whether their friendship would ever affect coverage -- Fox insists it has not and will not -- it is nonetheless the sort of relationship that other campaigns have noted and are watching, though none wanted to speak publicly for fear of offending Fox News. So far this year, one political journal found, Mr Giuliani has logged more time on Fox interview programs than any other candidate. Most of the time has been spent in interviews with Sean Hannity, an acknowledged admirer of the former mayor, according to the data compiled by the journal, known as The Hotline. Fox executives say the items on Mr Giuliani have been driven by his news value, by his status as a front-runner, not by his relationship with Mr Ailes. "I can't remember his ever saying anything, one way or the other, about our coverage of the Giuliani campaign," Brit Hume, the anchor who coordinates much of Fox's political coverage, said of Mr Ailes. "And I am under no injunctions, restrictions, encouragements or directions of any kind as to how that campaign should be covered." Yet the relationship between Mr Ailes and Mr Giuliani is the sort that led Mr Ailes to grouse about CNN during the Clinton administration. Rick Kaplan, the president of CNN at the time, and President Clinton were established friends. Mr Ailes, asserting the cable channel's coverage of the president was altogether too warm, called it the "Clinton News Network." Mr Ailes declined to be interviewed for this article, as did Mr Giuliani, whose campaign would not answer specific questions about the relationship. But aides to both men acknowledge they have been friends for more than 20 years.
Ronald Reagan, they developed into the kind of friends who lend one another help, trade accolades and attend each other's weddings. They grew close enough so that when Mr Ailes was hospitalized in 1998, Mr Giuliani showed up at his bedside bearing gifts: a book about New York landmarks and an issue of Wine Spectator. Today they see each other infrequently, according to aides, who said Mr Ailes did not offer Mr Giuliani any sort of political advice. In 2002, Mr Ailes was criticized for having offered advice to President Bush months before in the form of a note that suggested how to respond to the Sept. Critics suggested that Mr Ailes, as a news executive, had crossed a line. Mr Ailes said he was only expressing his outrage over the attacks on his country. "I did not give up my American citizenship to take this job," he said at the time. For much of his career, Mr Ailes's job was, indeed, to counsel politicians.
Harvard University, and author of "Out of Order," a book about the relationship between the news media and politics. But the value of television appearances to politicians, he said, has never been in doubt. "The more coverage you get, the easier it is to stay up in the polls. It's a cycle that the second- and third-tier candidates just tear their hair out about." When Mr Ailes and Mr Giuliani met, Mr Giuliani had recently finished a tour as a top-level official in the Justice Department. "I had found myself at several dinners with Roger, including at his house, and each time we would wind up talking about how much we liked Ronald Reagan, and how much we agreed with his policies," Mr Giuliani wrote in his book, "Leadership." "He had been part of Reagan's campaign team and I had worked with Reagan in Washington. The two joined forces in the 1989 mayoral campaign, when, Mr Giuliani later said, Mr Ailes helped him overcome his stiffness in front of cameras so as to "connect with people" rather than launch into a "dissertation." "Roger explained that every time a candidate is given a microphone, he's getting $100,000 worth of publicity," Mr Giuliani wrote in his book. After he became mayor, Mr Giuliani spoke at a reception in 1994 when Mr Ailes was introduced as the new president of the new CNBC business news network. The mayor listed for the crowd gathered in the Rainbow Room Mr Ailes's many accomplishments as a producer of television comedy specials and documentaries, including the Emmy Award-winning "Television and the Presidency." "I am personally gratified to see that Roger has reached a new pinnacle in a remarkable career, because Roger has played an important role in my own career," Mr Giuliani said, according to a draft of his speech.
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