The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (73 page)

  
65.
After the show
Ibid.

  
66.
The next day at the office
Ibid.

  
67.
a 299-seat venue
Letter from Robert Cohen to Malt-O-Meal public relations, March 26, 1973.

  
68.
Ailes committed to raising
Certificate of Limited Partnership of Hot l Baltimore Company, March 16, 1973, Kermit Bloomgarden papers, Wisconsin Historical Society.

  
69.
he tapped
Author interview with Howard Butcher IV.

  
70.
Lanford Wilson and Marshall Mason
Author interview with Marshall Mason.

  
71.
Opening night came
Wilson,
The Hot l Baltimore
, 4.

  
72.
“Everything that went onto the stage”
Author interview with actress Conchata Ferrell.

  
73.
“The crazies”
Walter Kerr, “The Crazies Are Good to Listen To,”
New York Times
, March 4, 1973.

  
74.
A parade of notables
Author interview with Robert Cohen.

  
75.
He expressed keen interest
Author interview with Robert Cohen.

  
76.
graphic artist David Byrd
Biography on David Edward Byrd official website,
http://www.david-edward-byrd.com/biocontact-1.html
.

  
77.
Byrd did a graphic
Image of the poster for Circle on the Square production of
Hot l Baltimore
on Byrd official website,
http://www.david-edward-byrd.com/theatre7-4.html
.

  
78.
“They both complained”
Author interview with Robert Cohen.

  
79.
A few days after
Letter from Robert Cohen to Malt-O-Meal public relations, March 26, 1973. Cohen mentions the Benson & Hedges and Coca-Cola arrangements in this letter.

  
80.
While the hotel residents
Wilson,
The Hot l Baltimore
, 32, 33.

  
81.
“What a gorgeous”
Author interview with actress Mari Gorman.

  
82.
“We hardly saw Roger”
Author interview with Stephanie Gordon.

  
83.
Shortly after the show opened
Ibid.

  
84.
a pivotal scene
Wilson,
The Hot l Baltimore
, 32, 33.

  
85.
Making her way
Author interview with Stephanie Gordon.

  
86.
In 1973
,
Hot l Baltimore
www.villagevoice.com/obies/index/1973/
,
http://www.dramacritics.org/dc_pastawards.html
.

  
87.
generated a profit
Hot l Baltimore
balance sheet, Jan. 4, 1976, Kermit Bloomgarden papers, Wisconsin Historical Society.

  
88.
ABC
Wesley Hyatt,
Short-Lived Television Series, 1948–1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003), 232.

  
89.
Mari Gorman recalled Roger Ailes fondly
Author interview with Mari Gorman.

  
90.
Stephanie Gordon struggled
Author interview with Stephanie Gordon.

  
91.
Marshall Mason, who lives
Author interview with Marshall Mason.

  
92.
Conchata Ferrell, who went on
Author interview with Conchata Ferrell.

  
93.
In his own telling
Collins,
Crazy Like a Fox
, 30.

  
94.
His new employee
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

  
95.
In December 1973
Louis Calta, “News of the Stage,”
New York Times
, Dec. 9, 1973. “It’s a women’s show,” Ailes told Calta, “and deals with the sexual freedoms of today.”

  
96.
favorable review
Howard Thompson, “ ‘Ionescopade’ Shifts to the Cherry Lane,”
New York Times
, July 28, 1973.

  
97.
Ailes leaned on
Kermit Bloomgarden papers, Wisconsin Historical Society (finance notes for
Ionescopade
).

  
98.
Robert Kennedy Jr
. Author interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.

  
99.
A wealthy American businessman
Ibid.

100.
But a three-hour meeting
Kiki Levathes, “Robert Kennedy Jr. at 21,” New York
Daily News
, printed in
The Evening Independent
(St. Petersburg, Florida), Sept. 9, 1975.

101.
“We joked about Nixon”
Author interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.

102.
After Kennedy signed
Levathes, “Robert Kennedy Jr. at 21.” See also “A Kennedy in Africa,”
Broadcasting
, April 1, 1974.
Broadcasting
reported that Kennedy agreed to do an untitled wildlife series of twenty-six half hour episodes with Ailes, but only one TV special was made.

103.
The pair traveled
Author interview with
Last Frontier
writer and producer Tom Shachtman.

104.
“I had a lot of laughs”
Author interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.

105.
On April 25
Mel Gussow, “Theater—‘Ionescopade,’ ”
New York Times
, April 26, 1974.

106.
After fourteen performances
Dan Dietz,
Off Broadway Musicals, 1910–2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010), Entry 773.

107.
In April
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield. Garrett’s appointment was announced in May. See Louis Calta, “News of the Stage” (“Kelly Garrett in ‘Mack & Mabel’ ”),
New York Times
, May 12, 1974.

108.
David Merrick’s $850,000 production
Ellen Stock, “Mack & Mabel: Getting the Show off the Road,”
New York
, Oct. 7, 1974.

109.
two female leads
Ibid.

110.
Garrett was performing
Ibid.

111.
Ailes pushed Garrett
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

112.
“That one broke my heart”
Stock, “Mack & Mabel: Getting the Show off the Road.”

113.
The embarrassing public setback
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

114.
“As far as I’m concerned”
Ellen Stock, “Mack & Mabel: Getting the Show Off the Road.”

115.
After he returned
Richard Esposito, “Giuliani Adviser’s ’74 Gun Charge,”
Newsday
, Oct. 23, 1989. According to Esposito, the date of the arrest was November 10, 1974. See also Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 31.

116.
When news of the arrest surfaced
Esposito, “Giuliani Adviser’s ’74 Gun Charge.” “My understanding is that Ailes was over in Africa doing a documentary with Bobby Kennedy Jr. and was carrying a gun over there for protection,” Giuliani’s deputy campaign manager Ken Caruso told Esposito. “He came back to the United States and had this gun in his film equipment, and went out in Central Park.” Esposito reported, “Caruso said Ailes took the equipment belt out and strapped it around his waist, unaware that the gun was still in it.” See also Todd Purdum, “Amid the Shouts, Dinkins Remains Calm,”
New York Times
, Oct. 26, 1989.

117.
It felt like an excuse
Author interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.

118.
Ailes pleaded guilty
Esposito reported that after being charged with a felony, Ailes pled guilty to a misdemeanor and was given a conditional discharge.

119.
Ailes called a young acquaintance
Author interview with an acquaintance of Roger Ailes in the 1970s.

120.
Violence never solves
Grove, “The Image Shaker; Roger Ailes, the Bush Team’s Wily Media Man.”

121.
It was advice
Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.

122.
Ailes kept others at a distance
Author interviews with friends of Roger Ailes in the 1970s.

123.
her lapdog, Squeaker
Jack O’Brian, “Gal from Santa Fe,”
Spartanburg
(South Carolina)
Herald
, July 26, 1974,
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19740726&id=yXosAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TcwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4122,4508433
.

124.
McGinniss was in a similar situation
Joe McGinniss,
Heroes
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976), 152 and passim.

125.
Joe and Nancy made their home
Author interviews with Joe McGinniss and Nancy Doherty.

126.
“Do I ever get nervous”
O’Brien, “Gal from Santa Fe.”

127.
“Roger and I didn’t talk”
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

128.
“After a visit from Roger”
Author interview with Nancy Doherty.

129.
“He was eating”
Author interview with Joe McGinniss.

130.
“He took Watergate”
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

131.
In the fall of 1974
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield. Charles M. Madigan, “Governor Candidates Will Take to the Air,” United Press International (printed in
The News-Dispatch
, Jeannette, Pennsylvania), Aug. 12, 1974. See also John J. Kennedy,
Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests from 1950–2004
(Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2006), 100–101.

132.
Lewis lost
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission website (biographical entry for Milton Shapp),
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/1951-present/4285/milton_j__shapp/471867
.

133.
After the defeat
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

134.
“Whenever he can”
Author interview with a senior Fox executive.

135.
Creating the Fox News
Author interview with a friend of Roger Ailes.

    
1.
In May 1974
Minutes of TVN board meeting of May 21, 1974.

    
2.
Harvard MBA
Robert Reinhold Pauley résumé, recorded in Robert Reinhold Pauley papers.

    
3.
As the president
Jeff Byrd, “Robert Pauley ’42 Remembers Radio Days,”
Tryon Daily Bulletin
, Sept. 10, 2004.

    
4.
Goldwater supporter and a John Bircher
Author interview with a person close to the late Robert Pauley.

    
5.
a local plan
Ibid. See also Drew Pearson, “Fluoridation Battle Dividing New Canaan; DAR Leading Foe,”
Sunday Herald
, April 2, 1948,
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2229&dat=19580420&id=h2MmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KQAGAAAAIBAJ&pg=2395,2064825
.

    
6.
After being pushed out
Brian Stelter, “Robert Pauley, Former Head of ABC Radio, Dies at 85,”
New York Times
, May 13, 2009.

    
7.
United Press International
“TVN Inc. to Weaken Networks’ Hold on Television News,”
Gallagher Report
, March 19, 1973.

    
8.
In 1972
Robert Pauley memo to John Shad, April 9, 1973. “I disclosed the existence of News, Inc., which company I founded in early 1968.… In January of 1972, Joseph Coors of Adolph Coors Company called me and said that he had learned of News, Inc. and its objectives,” Pauley wrote to Shad.

    
9.
“All three networks slant the news”
Testimony of Joseph Coors, U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, hearings on nomination of Joseph Coors, 84th Congr., 1st session, 104.

  
10.
Coors certainly shared Russell Kirk’s lament
Russell Kirk,
The Conservative Mind
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1953), 4.

  
11.
He committed
Memo from Robert Pauley to John Shad, April 19, 1973.

  
12.
Coors was also funding
Stephen Isaacs, “Coors Beer—and Politics—Move East,”
Washington Post
, May 4, 1975.

  
13.
“We were discussing”
Author interview with Jack Wilson.

  
14.
Their goal was to launch
John O. Gilbert, “The Story Behind Television News Inc.,”
Backstage
, March 23, 1973.

  
15.
The press release
“New Television News Service for U.S. Broadcasters Announced,” Shaw Elliott Public Relations (press release), Jan. 22, 1975.

  
16.
Two weeks before
Robert Pauley memo to Jack Wilson, May 2, 1973. “That is one reason why I am happy you are going to be in Washington and that I insisted that Joe have a line in or cassettes on a daily basis. We are dealing here with some what of a vertical situation, that is, the product of Network training. It is up to us to shape changes as time goes by.”

  
17.
William F. Buckley Jr
. Letter from Robert Pauley to William Buckley, Oct. 10, 1973.

  
18.
“I have suggested”
Undated letter from Robert Pauley to Pat Buchanan.

  
19.
He asked Wilson
Confidential memo from Robert Pauley to Jack Wilson, May 2, 1973.

  
20.
When TVN finally launched
Memo from Dick Perkin to Jack Wilson, May 11, 1973. “As you know, most of our activity this week is tied into the start-up on May 14,” Perkin wrote.

  
21.
“There will be days”
Dan Baum,
Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty
(New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 112.

  
22.
In one, he complained
Memo from Jack Wilson to Joseph Coors and Robert Pauley, June 27, 1973.

  
23.
In another
Memo from Jack Wilson to Joseph Coors and Robert Pauley, June 28, 1973.

  
24.
“Why are you covering”
Stanhope Gould, “Coors Brews the News,”
Columbia Journalism Review
, March/April 1975.

  
25.
At another board meeting
Robert Pauley’s notes from TVN board meeting of Dec. 18, 1973.

  
26.
Paul Weyrich
Jack Shafer, “Fox News 1.0,”
Slate
, June 5, 2008.

  
27.
“I’ve had no influence”
Stephen Isaacs, “Coors Bucks Network ‘Bias’—Sets Up Alternative TV News to Offset Liberals,”
Washington Post
, May 5, 1975.

  
28.
Ronald Waldman
Letter from Robert Pauley to TVN board member Ronald Waldman, reiterating Waldman’s concerns, Aug. 13, 1973.

  
29.
“Let’s not get labeled”
Robert Pauley letter to Everett Barnhardt, Adolph Coors Company, July 1, 1974.

  
30.
In February 1974
Gould, “Coors Brews the News.”

  
31.
By the spring, Coors seized
TVN board minutes, May 21, 1974.

  
32.
“I hate all those network people”
Baum,
Citizen Coors
, 113.

  
33.
In short order
Gould, “Coors Brews the News”; “Slimmed-Down TVN Says It’s Alive and Well: Spokesman Talks of Expansion Despite Personnel Reductions,”
Broadcasting
, Nov. 18, 1974.

  
34.
In July 1974, Ailes delivered
Minutes of TVN board meeting of July 23, 1974.

  
35.
four months later
Variety
, “TVN Gets Shot for What Ailes It: St. John Return,” Nov. 20, 1974.

  
36.
“He didn’t know anything”
Author interview with CNN cofounder Reese Schonfeld.

  
37.
“He took on a role”
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

  
38.
“Ran 1968 Nixon campaign”
Handwritten notes of Robert Pauley on an agenda for a July 23, 1974, Television News board of directors meeting.

  
39.
“Their politics”
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

  
40.
“Roger Ailes has quickly given”
Report from Jack Wilson to the TVN board, Nov. 27, 1974.

  
41.
The week of Thanksgiving
Memo from Roger Ailes to Jack Wilson, Nov. 25, 1974.

  
42.
“Roger Ailes has suggested”
Memo from TVN cofounder Richard Perkin to Jack Wilson, Nov. 1974 (no day specified).

  
43.
a profile of Kelly Garrett
Gould, “Coors Brews the News.”

  
44.
TVN Enterprises
In its Sept. 8, 1975, issue,
Broadcasting
ran a full-page ad with the title “TVN Enterprises Presents The Last Frontier.” The ad identified TVN Enterprises as the distributor of the film and as a division of Television News Incorporated.

  
45.
Reese Schonfeld, TVN’s vice president
Author interview with Reese Schonfeld.

  
46.
In the winter
Gould, “Coors Brews the News.”

  
47.
In its first year, TVN
TVN financial statement, Dec. 30, 1973. See also handwritten notes of Bob Pauley from the Sept. 25, 1975, TVN board of of directors meeting.

  
48.
Western Union and NASA
“Satellite Launched by Western Union for Communication,”
New York Times
, April 14, 1974.

  
49.
on January 9, 1975
Letter from Jack Wilson to Robert Pauley, Jan. 16, 1975.

  
50.
“I want to find out”
Gould, “Coors Brews the News.”

  
51.
He talked with Art Rush
Roger Ailes report to TVN Board of Directors, June 2, 1975.

  
52.
Joyce Brothers
Memo from Roger Ailes to Jack Wilson, November 25, 1974.

  
53.
Paul Keyes
Roger Ailes report to TVN Board of Directors, June 2, 1975.

  
54.
Around this time
Report from Roger Ailes to TVN board, June 2, 1975.

  
55.
On his West Coast swing
Letter from Jack Wilson to Richard Nixon, June 7, 1975.

  
56.
Wilson hired Bruce Herschensohn
Variety
, “Nixon Aide Joins TV News Agency,” Feb. 19, 1975.

  
57.
$200-per-day
Bruce Herschensohn Private Papers, Pepperdine University.

  
58.
“It is not [Eric] Sevareid”
Ibid.

  
59.
From his apartment on Virginia Avenue
Ibid.

  
60.
“the disguise of neutrality”
Letter from Bruce Herschensohn to Jack Wilson, March 23, 1975.

  
61.
He proposed that TVN producers
Bruce Herschensohn’s proposed script of Feb. 17, 1975.

  
62.
Herschensohn viewed his television proposal
Bruce Herschensohn Private Papers, Pepperdine University.

  
63.
On April 30
Bruce Herschensohn private papers, Pepperdine University.

  
64.
Anchor Bob Sellers
Author interview with former Fox News anchor Bob Sellers.

  
65.
The dish to receive
Schonfeld,
Me and Ted Against the World
, 40.

  
66.
at a choreographed rollout
Author interview with Reese Schonfeld.

  
67.
bicentennial film
Letter from Bruce Herschensohn to Jack Wilson, July 6, 1975.

  
68.
By September 1975
Handwritten notes of Bob Pauley from the Sept. 25, 1975, TVN board of directors meeting.

  
69.
After his father died
Author interview with Jack Wilson.

  
70.
During a board meeting
Notes of Robert Pauley on Sept. 25, 1975, TVN board of directors meeting.

  
71.
A few days later
TVN press release, Sept. 29, 1975.

  
72.
On October 3
Letter from Jack Wilson to Richard Nixon, Oct. 3, 1975.

  
73.
Ailes did not wait
Pauley’s handwritten notes from TVN board meeting of Sept. 25, 1975. Ailes and John McCarty would have a longtime connection. McCarty’s son, Michael, went on to own a pair of eponymous restaurants in Santa Monica, California, and Manhattan frequented by media heavyweights. Ailes was given the head table at Michael’s New York outpost.

  
74.
“He believed all news”
Author interview with Barbara Pauley.

  
75.
Reese Schonfeld founded
Reese Schonfeld,
Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Founding of CNN
(New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 46.

  
76.
In 1976
Ibid., 13.

  
77.
In December 1976
Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg,
Citizen Turner: The Wild Rise of an American Tycoon
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995), 169.

  
78.
hired Schonfeld
Schonfeld,
Me and Ted Against the World
, 13–14.

  
79.
In the spring of 1975
Kermit Bloomgarden Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society.

  
80.
Arnaud d’Usseau
C. Gerald Fraser, “Arnaud d’Usseau, 73, Playwright, Screenplay Writer and Instructor,”
New York Times
, Feb. 1, 1990.

  
81.
Ailes persuaded Coors
Letter from Roger Ailes to Joseph Coors, undated; letter from Roger Ailes to Kermit Bloomgarden, May 29, 1975. Ailes perhaps also turned to TVN as a source of funding for the Kennedy television special. Robert Pauley’s handwritten notes include a reference to Ailes’s wildlife documentary. “Kennedy show cost $120,000,” Pauley wrote in April 1975, indicating that the company may have invested in it.

  
82.
a throng of reporters
Laurie Johnston, “Notes on People,”
New York Times
, Sept. 3, 1975.

  
83.
“I hope his mom”
Author interview with Stephen Rosenfield.

  
84.
In November 2005
Matea Gold, “Fox News Displays a Green Side,”
Los Angeles Times
, Nov. 12, 2005.

  
85.
“Those guys were absolutely convinced”
Author interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.

  
86.
A few months later
“Climatologist to Do Fox News Interview,”
Richmond
(Virginia)
Times Dispatch
, May 20, 2006.

  
87.
“Roger believes”
Author interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.
Ionescapade
creator and director Robert Allan Ackerman echoed Kennedy’s dislike of Fox News. In the fall of 2003, Bill O’Reilly and other prominent Republicans raised hell over a CBS miniseries about Ronald Reagan directed by Ackerman. The series had not yet aired, but portions of the script had leaked. “The right wing went completely ballistic,” Ackerman said, recalling that executives at the network “were starting to
get all sorts of death threats.” Under pressure, CBS CEO Les Moonves killed the series. As a compromise, a shortened version aired on CBS’s cable channel Showtime. “I was so disgusted by it,” Ackerman said. “We were forced to tell everyone it was put on the way we wanted it, but it wasn’t true. That was it for me,” he said. “I made one film after that.”