Categories: OLD Media Moves

How Trump helped build the Fox Business Network

Maxwell Tani, Andrew Kirell and Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast write about how Donald Trump’s advice helped build Fox Business Network.

Tani, Kirell and Suebsaeng write, “Prior to the Fox Business Network’s debut in 2007, late right-wing cable-news chief Roger Ailes consulted with then-reality-TV star Trump on how it should look and feel, according to former Fox executives. The two maintained their relationship well into the 2016 campaign, during which the disgraced and ousted Fox News chief briefly advised Trump, the executives and a source close to Trump said.

“As longtime friends, Ailes and Trump spoke often, and during this period a frequent topic of conversation was the Fox CEO’s plans for the business network, which sought to rival CNBC, which Ailes had revamped as its president in the early 1990s.

“Trump was patched into conference calls to discuss how Fox Business should take shape, what it should focus on, and what top talent should be given marquee treatment, the former executives said.

“According to one source, Trump advised Ailes to angle the network more toward news, entertainment, and politics instead of only business coverage. It was Trump’s decade-old vision for Fox Business that would, especially during the Trump presidency, become reality.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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