Propaganda

3. When a man you like switches from what he said a year ago, or four years ago, he is a broad-minded person who has courage enough to change his mind with changing conditions. When a man you don't like does it, he is a liar who has broken his promise. FRANKLIN P. ADAMS (1861-1960).

9. If you could master one element of personal communications that is more powerful than anything we’ve discussed, it is the quality of being likable. I call it the magic bullet, because if your audience likes you, they’ll forgive just about everything else you do wrong. If they don’t like you, you can hit every rule right on target and it doesn’t matter. ROGER AILES, You Are The Message, 1988.

23. Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way. JEAN ANOUILH (1910-1987), The Lark, 1955.

153. People on the whole are very simpleminded, in whatever country one finds them. They are so simple as to take literally, more often than not, the things their leaders tell them. PEARL S. BUCK (1892-1973), What American Means to Me, 1943.

Roger Ailes is essentially saying that people base their opinions of others on whether they already like them or not. He says, "if your audience likes you, they’ll forgive just about everything else you do wrong," showing that he thinks that likeability is more crucial when attempting to persuade someone of something. For instance, someone that a person is friends with might be honest and caring, but makes many mistakes. In this case, the original person is likely to pardon their friend's mistakes. However, one might know a person who is absolutely brilliant but does not have a good personality. Ailes would argue that their good ideas would be blocked by their personality. He overall believes that the image of a person is often more important in persuasion.