The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (78 page)

    
1.
Less than two weeks after
Scott Williams, “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-Hour TV News Channel,” Associated Press, Jan. 30, 1996. See also Bill Carter, “Murdoch Joins a Cable-TV Rush into the Crowded All-News Field,”
New York Times
, Jan. 31, 1996; and
Washington Post
, “Ailes to Run Murdoch’s New Network,” Jan. 31, 1996. The
Times
reported that the channel was not yet named, while the
Post
said it was to be called the Fox All News Network or Fox News.

    
2.
But the tabloid saga
Author interviews with CNN executives, anchors, and producers.

    
3.
In a break from
Howard Kurtz, “The Little Network with Big Names,”
Washington Post
, July 12, 1996. See also John Carmody, “The TV Column,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 18, 1997.

    
4.
“The appetite for news”
Williams, “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-Hour TV News Channel.”

    
5.
“entrepreneurial spirit”
Jane Hall, “Murdoch Will Launch 24-Hour News Channel,”
Los Angeles Times
, Jan. 31, 1996.

    
6.
“We’re not starting up”
Paavo Thabit, “Roger Ailes to Head Fox’s New Venture,” United Press International, Jan. 30, 1996.

    
7.
“I don’t think people”
Richard Huff and Tom Lowry, “It’s Roger and Rupert: Murdoch Taps Ailes to Head News Venture,” New York
Daily News
, Jan. 31, 1996.

    
8.
Ailes said that it
Gary Levin, “Murdoch Makes News; Confirms Ailes Hire to New News Web,”
Daily Variety
, Jan. 31, 1996.

    
9.
“I left politics”
Thabit, “Roger Ailes to Head Fox’s New Venture.”

  
10.
Murdoch’s grandiosity
For Murdoch’s career, see William Shawcross,
Murdoch: The Making of a Media Empire
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992); Thomas Kiernan,
Citizen Murdoch
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986); Michael Wolff,
Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch: The Man Who Owns the News
(New York: Random House, 2008); Andrew Neil,
Full Disclosure: The Most Candid and Revealing Portrait of Rupert Murdoch Ever
(London: Macmillan, 1996); Ken Auletta, “The Pirate,”
New Yorker
, Nov. 13, 1995.

  
11.
In Britain
William Shawcross,
Murdoch: The Making of a Media Empire
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 113, 128–29.

  
12.
in Australia
Jenny Hocking, “How Murdoch Wrote the Final Act in Gough Saga,”
Melbourne
(Australia)
Sunday Age
, Aug. 26, 2012. See also Philip Dorling, “Getting Gough; Murdoch Files—‘He Was a Partisan Political Player Working with Fraser,’ ”
Melbourne
(Australia)
Age
, Nov. 19, 2011.

  
13.
And in New York
Jennifer Preston, “Murdoch’s Denials of Political Favors Hard to Swallow in New York,” “City Room” (blog),
New York Times
, April 27, 2012,
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/Murdochs-denials-of-political-favors-hard-to-swallow-in-New-York/
. In an October 4, 2010, interview with the documentary filmmaker Neil Barsky, Koch recalled Murdoch’s influence: “It was interesting how I found out. I was home. I usually left my house at 6:30 in the morning to get on my … political transportation, we called it the ‘beastmobile,’ it was a sort of a large camper, I don’t even know what it … and it broke down in front of my house. So, the guy who was driving it called me to say ‘Don’t come down, I’ll call you when it’s ready.’ So instead of leaving at 6:30, I’m still in the house at 7:00. The phone rings, and the voice said, ‘Is Congressman Koch there?’ and I, being somewhat suspicious, said, ‘Who’s calling?’ And he said, ‘Rupert.’ And I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know any Rupert. Rupert’s not a Jewish name, who could this be?’ So, I said, ‘Rupert who?’ and he said, as I recall, ‘Rupert Murdoch.’ ‘Oh yes, Rupert! How can I help?’ ‘Congressman, the
Post
will be endorsing you today in a front-page editorial and I hope that it helps you.’ I said, ‘Rupert, you’ve just elected me.’ And that was the major conversation.”

  
14.
“If you are an arch-conservative”
Shawcross,
Murdoch
, 208.

  
15.
In the spring of 1985
Reginald Stuart, “Murdoch, ABC Deals Approved,”
New York Times
, Nov. 15, 1985.

  
16.
But for the deal
Shawcross,
Murdoch
, 212.

  
17.
NBC Entertainment president
Bill Carter, “By One Key Monetary Measure, Fox Could Push Past Both CBS and ABC This Fall,”
New York Times
, March 31, 1997.

  
18.
A year before
Turner and Burke,
Call Me Ted
, 244–45.

  
19.
In 1992
Deborah Hastings, “Van Gordon Sauter Named President of Fox News,” Associated Press, July 13, 1992.

  
20.
In 1994, Murdoch secured distribution
Edmund L. Andrews, “Fox TV Deal Seems to Face Few Official Barriers,”
New York Times
, May 24, 1994.

  
21.
“The American press”
Thomas Kiernan,
Citizen Murdoch
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986), 145.

  
22.
When he shipped off
Shawcross,
Murdoch
, 38. On page 22 of
Citizen Murdoch
, Kiernan has the bust on a windowsill.

  
23.
When he was nineteen
Michael Wolff,
Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch: The Man Who Owns the News
(New York: Random House, 2008), 21.

  
24.
John F. Kennedy
Kiernan,
Citizen Murdoch
, 75.

  
25.
Murdoch, though modest
John Menadue,
Things You Learn Along the Way
(Melbourne: David Lovell, 1999), 105, available at
http://www.johnmenadue.com/book/Menadue.pdf
.

  
26.
Cavan, his forty-thousand-acre estate
Michael Wolff, “The Secrets of His Succession,”
Vanity Fair
, Dec. 2008. See also Menadue,
Things You Learn Along the Way
, 105.

  
27.
On the ski slopes
Andrew Neil, “Murdoch and Me,”
Vanity Fair
, Dec. 1996.

  
28.
Murdoch’s brush with bankruptcy
Shawcross,
Murdoch
, 350–70.

  
29.
“Murdoch loved”
Menadue,
Things You Learn Along the Way
, 97.

  
30.
Murdoch, for one, loathed
Neil, “Murdoch and Me.”

  
31.
“You can say what”
Ibid.

  
32.
After Murdoch bought
Ruth Ryon, “Hot Property: Rupert Murdoch Buying Stein House,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 15, 1986. See also Wolff,
Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch
, 297.

  
33.
“They wouldn’t recognize one”
Andrew Neil,
Full Disclosure: The Most Candid and Revealing Portrait of Rupert Murdoch Ever
(London: Macmillan, 1996), 162.

  
34.
“We will be the insurgents”
Federal News Service, National Press Club (transcript), Feb. 26, 1996.

  
35.
The most critical review
Bill Carter, “Murdoch Joins a Cable-TV Rush into the Crowded All-News Field,”
New York Times
, Jan. 31, 1996.

  
36.
After reading the
Times
article
Collins,
Crazy Like a Fox
, 69.

  
37.
In March 1995
“Joseph F. Peyronnin Named President of Fox News,” Associated Press, March 28, 1995.

  
38.
Peyronnin hired
Author interview with former Fox News staffers. See also “Fox News Picks Emily Rooney,”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, Sept. 6, 1995.

  
39.
In the fall of 1995
“Fox Hires Producer for Sunday Morning News Show,”
Chicago Tribune
, Nov. 23, 1995.

  
40.
Eventually, Peyronnin
Scott Williams, “Fox News to Launch Sunday Show,” Associated Press, April 3, 1996.

  
41.
“Mitch Stern was the enemy”
Author interview with Emily Rooney.

  
42.
Stern, whose performance
Author interview with a former CNBC executive.

  
43.
In December, they presented
Author interview with a former Fox News executive.

  
44.
“I’ve been trying”
Auletta, “Vox Fox.”

  
45.
Some paid cash
Bill Carter, “Networks’ New Cable Channels Get a Big Jump on the Competition,”
New York Times
, March 14, 1994.

  
46.
At America’s Talking
Bill Carter, “NBC Selling Microsoft a Stake in Cable Channel,”
New York Times
, Dec. 14, 1995.

  
47.
Ailes took Peyronnin
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
48.
Peyronnin went home
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
49.
“We had no news gathering operation”
Collins,
Crazy Like a Fox
, 70.

  
50.
Ailes told Murdoch
Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 70.

  
51.
In the end
Jessica Lee, “Two Experts Brought in to Polish Up the Speech,”
USA Today
, Jan. 29, 1992. See also Burt Solomon, “Speechwriters’ Soaring Rhetoric Flops with a Prosaic President,”
National Journal
, May 30, 1992.

  
52.
On April 3
“Sunday News Program Scheduled by Fox,”
New York Times
, April 4, 1996.

  
53.
On April 4
Joe Flint, “Fox Unveils ‘News Sunday,’ ”
Daily Variety
, April 4, 1996.

  
54.
Daily Variety
reported
Flint, “Fox Unveils ‘News Sunday.’ ”

  
55.
“Roger is acutely aware”
Author interview with a former senior executive at Fox News.

  
56.
As Stern remembered it
Author interview with former Fox Television Stations president Mitchell Stern.

  
57.
Though Tony Snow leaned
Howard Kurtz, “Fox News’s Snow to Become White House Press Secretary,”
Washington Post
, April 26, 2006.

  
58.
Worried that other networks
John Carmody, “The TV Column,”
Washington Post
, April 30, 1996.

  
59.
Only a quarter
John Carmody, “The TV Column,”
Washington Post
, April 30, 1996.

  
60.
In a tough write-up
Ibid.

  
61.
Two weeks before
John Dempsey, “NBC Ups Zaslav to Distribution Prexy,”
Daily Variety
, April 12, 1996.

  
62.
In Los Angeles
“Cyperspace; L.A. Hooks Up with 26,000 Cable Types,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 29, 1996.

  
63.
He bragged
Chuck Taylor, “NBC-Microsoft Channel May Not Be Available Here,”
Seattle Times
, April 30, 1996.

  
64.
Malone held stakes
Ken Auletta, “John Malone: Flying Solo,”
New Yorker
, Feb. 7, 1994.

  
65.
“We are the only players”
Scott Hettrick, “MSNBC Awaits Word from TW,”
Hollywood Reporter
, April 30, 1996.

  
66.
Andy Lack announced
“Bryant Gumbel to Join NBC Colleagues as a Host for Prime-Time Talk Program on MSNBC Cable,” PR Newswire, April 29, 1996.

  
67.
“We’re here persuading”
Taylor, “NBC-Microsoft Channel May Not Be Available Here.”

  
68.
“I went into their booth”
Author interview with Richard Aurelio.

  
69.
“I’m not going to tell you”
Kim Masters and Bryan Burrough, “Cable Guys,”
Vanity Fair
, Jan. 1997.

  
70.
“There’s a ritual dance”
David Lieberman, “Ailes Tackles Toughest Assignment,”
USA Today
, Sept. 23, 1996.

  
71.
In 1996
Richard Mahler, “Media Overload?,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 3, 1996.

  
72.
Murdoch flipped the equation
Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”

  
73.
“We had to put something on the table”
Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”

  
74.
As one former Ailes colleague
Author interview with a former Fox News executive.

  
75.
Less than a month
Bill Carter, “ABC’s All-News Cable Channel Is Shelved,”
New York Times
, May 24, 1996.

  
76.
Ailes gloated
David Lieberman, “Cap Cities/ABC Cuts Cord on Cable News,”
USA Today
, May 24, 1996.

  
77.
Dozens of CNBC and A-T executives
Author interview with a former Fox News executive. See also Brian Lewis, master’s thesis, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dec. 11, 1995, available at
https://coolcat.fdu.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=442618
.