Ailes told me he met with Palin in his Manhattan office, serving chicken sandwiches and giving her parents and daughter Piper a tour of the Fox studios. Palin told him she’ll decide on a White House bid this summer. Denying a New York magazine report that he called the former Alaska governor an idiot, Ailes marveled at the frenzy surrounding her tour of historic sites: “She’s so smart she’s got the press corps running up the whole East Coast behind her bus.”

As for Anthony Weiner, the Brooklyn Democrat being pilloried over an underwear photo mysteriously sent to a young woman from his Twitter account, Ailes told his newsroom to “move on” unless there were new developments. “The media’s had enough giggles over Mr. Weiner and his name,” Ailes says. “Sometimes the families take a bigger hit than the person that people are trying to destroy.”