• Gawker, Thursday, June 30, 2011 3:45 PM

This post from Gawker, analyzing a 1970 memo now in the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, contends that "Republican media strategist Roger Ailes launched Fox News Channel in 1996" as part of a "a nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the 'prejudices of network news' and deliver 'pro-administration' stories to heartland television viewers."

We're fascinated by how the document shows "Ailes' role as a forceful advocate for the power of television to shape the political narrative," and the steps he took along the way to promote this agenda -- including working on Television News Service, "a right-wing news service," in the early 1970s.

Gawker argues a line of descent to Fox News from TVN's mandate "to inject a far-right slant into local news broadcasts by providing news clips that stations could use without credit-and at a fraction of the true costs of production." Not sure we agree with the end logic here.

Read the whole story at Gawker »