Fox News Blueprint Found in Nixon Files

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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June 30, 2011

Fox News Blueprint Found in Nixon Files

Gawker uncovered an amazing document written by Fox News chief Roger Ailes in 1971 when he served as a consultant to President Richard Nixon. The plan was buried within Nixon's presidential archives and explains how Republicans could circumvent the "prejudices of network news" and deliver "pro-administration" stories to television viewers.

Most interesting is why television was seen as the preferred medium: "Today television news is watched more often than people read newspapers, than people listen to the radio, than people read or gather any other form of communication. The reason: People are lazy. With television you just sit -- watch -- listen. The thinking is done for you."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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June 30, 2011