Campaign Puts Giuliani and Ailes in Uncharted Territory

By RUSS BUETTNER
New York Times

Roger Ailes and Rudolph W. Giuliani have been pulling for each other for nearly two decades.

Mr. Ailes served as the media consultant to Mr. Giuliani’s first mayoral campaign in 1989. Mr. Giuliani, as mayor, officiated at Mr. Ailes’s wedding and intervened on his behalf when Mr. Ailes’s company, Fox News Channel, was blocked from securing a cable station in the city.

This year, they were tablemates at the White House correspondents dinner, which Mr. Giuliani attended as a guest of Fox’s parent company, News Corporation.

Now these allies and friends find themselves on largely uncharted political turf. Mr. Giuliani, 63, is a leading Republican candidate for president. Mr. Ailes, 67, as head of Fox News, runs the pre-eminent media outlet for likely voters in a Republican primary.

Whether their friendship would ever affect coverage — Fox insists it has not and will not — it is nonetheless the sort of relationship that other campaigns have noted and are watching, though none wanted to speak publicly for fear of offending Fox News.

So far this year, one political journal found, Mr. Giuliani has logged more time on Fox interview programs than any other candidate. Most of the time has been spent in interviews with Sean Hannity, an acknowledged admirer of the former mayor, according to the data compiled by the journal, known as The Hotline.

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