When On His Game, Roger Ailes Had Few - If Any - Peers

The death of Roger Ailes takes from us one of the towering figures in American news — just when we needed him most. He built in Fox News one of the great engines of our democracy, helping move our debate toward the center against the leftward flood of the establishment press. He understood, he redeemed the truth of Colonel McCormick's famed adage — that the real bastion of a free press is the thirty percent profit margin, and thousands of great journalists were emboldened as a result.