The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (71 page)

    
1.
On his first full day
Roger Ailes expense report filed with the Richard Nixon presidential campaign, Aug. 21, 1968.

    
2.
Until then, he would be
Stephen E. Ambrose,
Nixon, Vol. 2: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972
(Los Angeles: Premier Digital Publishing, 2013), ebook.

    
3.
“We are going to win”
The American Presidency Project, Richard Nixon acceptance speech (transcript), Aug. 8, 1968,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25968
.

    
4.
Shortly after the convention
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

    
5.
McGinniss followed Ailes to Chicago
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 64–67.

    
6.
“The subliminal message”
Memo from Roger Ailes to Leonard Garment and Frank Shakespeare, Sept. 27, 1968.

    
7.
a “balanced” group
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 64.

    
8.
“Two would be offensive”
Ibid.

    
9.
“Let’s face it”
“Nixon’s Roger Ailes,”
Washington Post
.

  
10.
“I agree with Frank”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 66.

  
11.
At
The Mike Douglas Show
Author interviews with
Mike Douglas
producers.

  
12.
“The audience”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 66.

  
13.
At 9:00 p.m
. “Nixon in Illinois” (DVD of Chicago campaign broadcast), Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  
14.
It was Treleaven’s idea
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 68.

  
15.
“If the material”
Memo from Roger Ailes to Leonard Garment and Frank Shakespeare, July 6, 1968.

  
16.
Thus he
Perlstein,
Nixonland
, 331.

  
17.
Years later
Ailes and Kraushar,
You Are the Message
, 82.

  
18.
“Mr. Nixon is strong now”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 73.

  
19.
Nixon would tape
E. W. Kenworthy, “ ‘The Richard Nixon Show,’ ”
New York Times
, Sept. 22, 1968.

  
20.
Nixon made a four-second taped appearance
Diane Werts, “You Bet Your Bippy That ‘Laugh-In’ Is Back,”
Newsday
, Feb. 7, 1993.

  
21.
Ailes had already developed
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 72–76.

  
22.
On September 18
Ibid., 97.

  
23.
“He never forgot I was writing”
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

  
24.
“We’re doing all right”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 97.

  
25.
“Nixon gets bored”
Ibid., 98–103.

  
26.
The Philadelphia taping
Ibid., 103–5; “Nixon in Pennsylvania” (DVD of Philadelphia campaign broadcast), Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  
27.
He questioned
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 106–11.

  
28.
After the taping
Kenworthy, “ ‘The Richard Nixon Show’ on TV Lets Candidate Answer Panel’s Questions.”

  
29.
“Mr. Nixon came off”
Memo from Roger Ailes to Leonard Garment and Frank Shakespeare, Sept. 27, 1968.

  
30.
“Boy, is he going”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 111.

  
31.
On September 30
R. W. Apple Jr., “Humphrey Vows Halt in Bombing if Hanoi Reacts; a ‘Risk for Peace,’ ”
New York Times
, Oct. 1, 1968.

  
32.
Shakespeare
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 134.

  
33.
“My honest opinion was”
“Nixon’s Roger Ailes,”
Washington Post
.

  
34.
Ailes gave a candid interview
Robert Windeler, “Nixon’s Television Aide Says Candidate ‘Is Not a Child of TV,’ ”
New York Times
, Oct. 9, 1968.

  
35.
Ten days later
Crocker Snow Jr., “Nixon in Boston Tonight,”
Boston Globe
, Oct. 17, 1968. See also McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 129.

  
36.
On October 25
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 133.

  
37.
Kevin Phillips
Kevin P. Phillips, “The Emerging Republican Majority” (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1969).

  
38.
On Sunday, Nixon reversed
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 136–37.

  
39.
To blow off steam
Ibid., 148. See also Garment,
Crazy Rhythm
, 135.

  
40.
“It’s going to be a dull”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 149.

  
41.
The Humphrey telethon
White,
The Making of the President 1968
, 456, McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 136–37.

  
42.
“That’s crazy”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 156.

  
43.
Rick Rosner
Author interview with former
Mike Douglas
producer Rick Rosner.

  
44.
Throughout the evening
Arlen J. Large, “Mr. Nixon on TV: ‘Man in the Arena,’ ”
Wall Street Journal
, Oct. 1, 1969.

  
45.
After breakfast
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 160–61; author interview with Joe McGinniss.

  
46.
Ailes had arranged for Marje
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 162.

  
47.
A slew of
White,
The Making of the President 1968
, 456, 458.

  
48.
Then, triumph
Ibid., 459–61.

  
49.
Ailes watched
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 164.

  
50.
“I saw many signs”
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak,
Nixon in the White House: The Frustration of Power
(New York: Random House, 1971), 33–34.

  
51.
“I remember my dad”
E. G. Marshall, “Television & the Presidency,” Part 13, 1984,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky30KChtz_Y
.

  
52.
“This is it”
McGinniss,
The Selling of the President
, 162.

  
53.
“may have made that up”
William Safire, “The Way Forward,”
New York Times Magazine
, Sept. 2, 2007. In November 1968, a
New York Times
reporter tracked down a Deshler girl with such a sign and the paper ran a story about her, accompanied by an Associated Press photo of her holding the sign. See Anthony Ripley, “Ohio Girl, 13, Recalls ‘Bring Us Together’ Placard,”
New York Times
, Nov. 7, 1968. Safire later wrote, “When I asked Dick Moore years later if he had really spotted that girl or whether he had imagined the sign that day, his eyes took on a faraway look.” William Safire,
Safire’s Political Dictionary
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 83.

  
54.
“I decided that after the campaign”
Harris,
Mike Douglas
, 122.

  
55.
Ailes and McGinniss
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

  
56.
Even before the campaign was over
Author interview with Philadelphia lawyer Ronald Kidd.

  
57.
He called it REA Productions
Articles of Incorporation filed with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of State, Corporation Bureau, Oct. 28, 1968.

  
58.
At a Pennsylvania Society dinner
Author interview with Howard Butcher IV.

  
59.
In Philadelphia
Junod, “Roger Ailes on Roger Ailes: The Interview Transcripts, Part 2.”

  
60.
“Roger was very determined”
Author interview with Howard Butcher IV.

    
1.
In November 1968
Memo from Roger Ailes to unnamed Nixon advisers, Nov. 1968.

    
2.
In the winter of 1969
Roger Ailes letterhead from the time. Ailes told Chafets that he drove up to New York in a snowstorm. Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 37.

    
3.
“Roger was going”
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

    
4.
“At night”
Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.

    
5.
One of his first assignments
Roger Ailes letter to Jack Rourke, Jan. 8, 1969.

    
6.
Jack Rourke
“Passings: Jack Rourke, 86; Producer of Sam Yorty’s Show,”
Los Angeles Times
, Oct. 21, 2004.

    
7.
On January 8
Letter from Roger Ailes to Jack Rourke, Jan. 8, 1969.

    
8.
“I saw RN”
Letter from Jack Rourke to Roger Ailes, Dec. 30, 1968.

    
9.
Spiro Agnew
Letter from Roger Ailes to Jack Rourke, Jan. 8, 1969.

  
10.
In late January
Letter from Roger Ailes to Jack Rourke, Jan. 29, 1969.

  
11.
Lucy Winchester
Biographical note on Nixon social secretary Lucy Winchester, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum,
http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/textual/central/smof/winchester.php
.

  
12.
“I’m glad”
Letter from Jack Rourke to Roger Ailes, Aug. 1, 1969.

  
13.
“I regret to report”
Author interview with Lucy Winchester.

  
14.
In early March
Letter from Dwight Chapin to Roger Ailes, March 10, 1969; letter from Dwight Chapin to Nixon secretary Rose Mary Woods, March 10, 1969.

  
15.
On March 14
President Richard Nixon’s Daily Diary, March 14, 1969. They met from 12:55 to 1:05 p.m.

  
16.
A few days later
Letter from H. R. Haldeman to Roger Ailes, March 27, 1969. “This is just a note to acknowledge your March 18 letter,” Haldeman wrote Ailes. “I have contacted Rogers Morton and informed him of your interest in being of assistance to any Congressmen or Senators seeking guidance on arrangements for television appearances.”

  
17.
To that end
Letter from H. R. Haldeman to Rogers Morton, March 26, 1969. On
April 3, 1969, Haldeman wrote Ailes, “I have received word from the Honorable Rogers Morton the other day that he had discussed your participation in future events with Herb Klein and Harry Treleaven. Congressman Morton requests that you be in contact with Harry Treleaven at the Republican National Committee after April 15 to try and develop fully your future relationship with the RNC.”

  
18.
Morton signed Ailes up
Letter from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman, June 8, 1970. “For the past year my company has had a small consultancy contract of $12,000.00 with the Republican National Committee,” Ailes wrote. “Can you advise me if there is any chance of getting it renewed?”

  
19.
In May
H. R. Haldeman,
The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House
(New York: Putnam, 1994), 75.

  
20.
in June
Memo from Nixon aide Stephen Bull to Carson Howell, June 30, 1969.

  
21.
The next month
http://nixonfoundation.org/2012/09/roger-ailes-recalls-the-moon-landing/
. “I was watching the feed from the moon and I realized we could have the first inter-planetary split screen,” Ailes told Bill Hemmer in a 2012 interview. “The problem was that there was no way to predict which way Armstrong would be standing and facing.” After having monitors placed on both sides of the president’s desk, Ailes cued Nixon which way to look. On the screen, it appeared as if Nixon and Armstrong were facing each other. “That was my contribution,” Ailes recalled.

  
22.
“He felt”
Memo from Haldeman aide Larry Higby to H. R. Haldeman, Aug. 6, 1969.

  
23.
“The White House”
Mary Wiegel, “Apollo 11 to Star on Earth,”
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 13, 1969.

  
24.
Sheraton Gibson Hotel
Jack Rourke letter to Roger Ailes, Aug. 1, 1969. The letter was mailed to the hotel. See also Fred Ferretti, “Nixon TV Adviser on Standby Call; Roger Ailes Flew in from Ohio for Briefing at U.N.,”
New York Times
, Sept. 21, 1969. Ferretti writes of Ailes, “He maintains an apartment here as well as others in Washington and Philadelphia, has a hotel room in Cincinnati, and a house in New Jersey.”

  
25.
“Yesterday’s premiere”
Lawrence Laurent, “Wholey Does His Thing,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 19, 1969.

  
26.
“Roger would say”
Author interview with liberal TV personality Dennis Wholey. Despite their political differences, Wholey and Ailes got along well. “I didn’t see eye-to-eye with him,” Wholey said, “but I recall him having a presence, having a strong sense of humor, and having a great sense of confidence.” Wholey was also struck by Ailes’s bluntness. In one conversation, Ailes confronted Wholey about his excessive drinking. “Only two people I can recall ever called me on my drinking. Roger was the first,” Wholey said. “As I recall, he said, ‘You certainly like to drink, don’t you?’ And I replied, ‘Yes, I like to drink!’ ” Ailes stared back at him. “He said, and this was the point that scored with me, ‘That’s a good way to lose a career.’ I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ He said, ‘If you get caught in any kind of an incident, disorderly conduct’—specifically he mentioned drinking and driving—’that’s a way to totally lose a career.’ ” Ailes’s advice stayed with him even as his alcohol problems worsened. It was not until the early 1980s when Wholey thought he had run another car off the road, that he got himself into rehab. “It’s amazing how few people step up to the plate to say you have a problem,” he says. “Roger recognized it way back.”

  
27.
“Your new show”
Letter from Lucy Winchester to Roger Ailes, Sept. 23, 1969.

  
28.
When Nixon addressed
Ferretti, “Nixon TV Adviser on Standby Call.”

  
29.
In July
Joe McGinniss, “The Selling of ‘Selling of the President,’ ”
Los Angeles Times
, Jan. 4, 1970. McGinniss’s excerpt appeared in the August 1969 issue of
Harper’s
.

  
30.
Then, a few weeks before
Large, “Mr. Nixon on TV: ‘Man in the Arena.’ ”

  
31.
Four days
Letter from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Oct. 2, 1969.

  
32.
Marvin Kitman
Marvin Kitman, “The Selling of the President 1968,”
New York Times
, Oct. 5, 1969.

  
33.
A few days later, Haldeman
Letter from H. R. Haldeman to Roger Ailes, Oct. 1969.

  
34.
“That was the thing”
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

  
35.
When McGinniss appeared
McGinniss, “The Selling of ‘Selling of the President.’ ”

  
36.
Only a few
Roger Ailes letter to Jack Rourke, Oct. 23, 1969.

  
37.
“His career was started”
Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.

  
38.
The week before
Lawrence Laurent, “Virginia TV Gets School Film Contract,”
Washington Post
, Oct. 4, 1969. “Ailes Leaves ‘Wholey’ in Contract Dispute,”
Broadcasting
, Sept. 29, 1969.

  
39.
By the end of 1969
Memo from Richard Nixon to H. R. Haldeman, Dec. 1, 1969.

  
40.
A few days before Christmas
Letter from H. R. Haldeman to Roger Ailes, Dec. 19, 1969.

  
41.
confidential seven-page proposal
Letter from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman, Dec. 1969. In a Jan. 7 letter to Roger Ailes, Haldeman thanks him “for the material you sent me on December 30.”

  
42.
On January 7
Memo from H. R. Haldeman to Richard Nixon, Jan. 7, 1970.

  
43.
Ailes was hired
Memo from Nixon aide Lawrence Higby to John Brown, Jan. 22, 1970.

  
44.
“If he is hired”
Memo from Dwight Chapin to H. R. Haldeman, Jan. 10, 1970.

  
45.
Ailes told Chapin
Memo from Dwight Chapin to Lawrence Higby, Jan. 27, 1970.

  
46.
A Nixon insider, Ziegler
Jessica Garrison, “Ron Ziegler, 63; Press Secretary Remained Loyal to Nixon Throughout Watergate,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 11, 2003.

  
47.
On February 4
Memo from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman, Feb. 4, 1970.

  
48.
new press briefing room
James S. Brady Briefing Room, White House Museum (historical note),
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/west-wing/press-briefing-room.htm
.

  
49.
That same day, Ziegler
Memo from Ron Ziegler to H. R. Haldeman, Feb. 4, 1970.

  
50.
A few weeks later
Memo from Ronald Ziegler to Dwight Chapin, April 7, 1970.

  
51.
Ailes submitted three candidates
Memo from Roger Ailes to White House, undated.

  
52.
“Roger wanted me”
Author interview with Robert LaPorta.

  
53.
The White House brought LaPorta in
Memo from Ronald Ziegler to H. R. Haldeman, Feb. 26, 1970. In an author interview, LaPorta recalled, “Ziegler was very cold to me. It was not a very long interview.”

  
54.
After another candidate
Memo from Roger Ailes to Lawrence Higby, March 3, 1970; memo from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman, April 29, 1970.

  
55.
In mid-March
Memo from Ronald Ziegler to H. R. Haldeman, March 14, 1970.

  
56.
drugstore magnate
St. Petersburg Times
, Times Wire Services, “Eckerd’s Moves Hint Nixon’s Fighting Kirk,” Feb. 28, 1970,
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19700228&id=uM5aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=InwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3405,6023454
.

  
57.
“Ailes is involving himself”
Memo from Ronald Ziegler to H. R. Haldeman, March 14, 1970.

  
58.
When Taft debated
Nyhan, “Roger Ailes: He Doctors a Politician’s TV Image.”

  
59.
the
Toledo Blade
George Jenks, “Heat Level Rises as Rhodes, Taft Engage in Third Debate,”
Toledo
(Ohio)
Blade
, April 28, 1970.

  
60.
A few days after the debate
Kent State University’s May 4 Task Force, chronology of events that took place May 1–4, 1970,
http://dept.kent.edu/may4/chrono.html
. See also Richard Reeves,
President Nixon: Alone in the White House
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 213.

  
61.
At a press conference
Perlstein,
Nixonland
, 486.

  
62.
Kent State, Bob Haldeman later wrote
David Butler, “The Case Against ‘Operation Menu,’ ”
Newsweek
, April 30, 1979, citing H. R. Haldeman,
The Ends of Power
(New York: Times Books, 1978).

  
63.
Knickerbocker
Letter from Robert Ailes Jr. to H. R. Haldeman, June 11, 1970. “Roger is staying at the Knickerbocker Hotel for an indefinite period,” his brother wrote. “When Roger is not at the hotel he can be reached via The Real Tom Kennedy Show at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.”

  
64.
Even though he was still married
Marjorie Ailes divorce filing, “Lunatics, Drunkards, Divorces: 1977–1978,” Delaware County Courthouse, Media, Pennsylvania.

  
65.
“All I knew”
Author interview with TV personality Tom Kennedy.

  
66.
The taping of the premiere
Recap of premiere episode of
The Real Tom Kennedy Show
,
http://www.game-show-utopia.net/realtomkennedy/realtomkennedy.htm
.

  
67.
In late May
Letter from Republican National Committee deputy chairman Jim Allison Jr. to Roger Ailes, May 25, 1970.

  
68.
A White House memo
Memo from Nixon aide Gordon Strachan to H. R Haldeman and Herbert Klein, Nov. 13. 1970.

  
69.
A
Boston Globe
profile
Nyhan, “Roger Ailes: He Doctors a Politician’s Image.”

  
70.
After an unsuccessful attempt
Letter from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman, June 8, 1970.

  
71.
Ailes fired off an angry letter
Letter from Roger Ailes to Jim Allison, Aug. 26, 1970.

  
72.
“The press is the enemy”
Jonathan Aitken,
Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed
(New York: Random House, 2010), 143.

  
73.
On June 3, 1969
Memo from H. R. Haldeman to Herbert Klein, June 3, 1969.

  
74.
A few hours later
Memo from Herbert Klein to H. R. Haldeman, June 3, 1969.

  
75.
“I have discussed television balance”
Memo from Herbert Klein to Richard Nixon, Oct. 17, 1969.