105. Ailes loved Fuller’s suggestion Ibid.
106. Ailes, reprising his role Dickinson, “How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory.”
107. “I find this to be” C-Span, “Dan Rather Interview of George Bush,” C-Span Video Library, Jan. 25, 1988, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Geo, accessed Sept. 24, 2013.
108. “Go! Go!” Dickinson, “How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory.”
109. “It’s not fair” C-Span, “Dan Rather Interview” (portion begins around 7:00).
110. He got the time and place Richard Stengel, “Bushwhacked! Dan Rather Sets Sparks Flying in a Showdown with the Vice President,” Time, Feb. 8, 1988.
111. “Well, I had my say” Cramer, What It Takes, 853–54.
112. The CBS switchboard Stengel, “Bushwhacked!” At a breakfast at the 21 Club attended by Manhattan media and political leaders held shortly after the election, Ailes bumped into Dan Rather and practiced a bit of stagecraft. According to one attendee, Ailes hustled up to Rather as he was getting coffee at the buffet. “We oughta be seen having a conversation. Everyone will be surprised,” Ailes said. He wanted people to think the two had made peace since Bush dismembered him. Rather, amused by the scheme, played along.
113. On the campaign trail Stengel, “Bushwhacked!”
114. “Lee Atwater said” Author interview with Craig Fuller.
115. On February 8 “Republican Caucus History,” Des Moines Register, http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/data/iowa-caucus/caucus-history-gop/.
116. On Tuesday morning Cramer, What It Takes, 882.
117. “I said, look” Author interview with Tom Messner.
118. With laughably poor Cramer, What It Takes, 889–90.
119. Bush rejected it Ibid.
120. He called his wife Ibid., 886.
121. By Thursday Ibid., 890.
122. That night, Ailes played Ibid., 888–89.
123. George W. Bush Ibid., 889.
124. “The press is gonna say” Ibid., 897.
125. “This is your business” Ibid.
126. The campaign put big money Ibid., 898.
127. On Tuesday, February 16 E. J. Dionne, Jr., “Bush Overcomes Dole’s Bid and Dukakis Is Easy Winner in New Hampshire Primaries,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 1988.
128. On primary night Cramer, What It Takes, 902–3.
129. “He responded with” Author interview with Janet G. Mullins Grissom.
130. Five weeks later William M. Welch, “Dole Bows Out of Republican Race,” Associated Press, March 29, 1988.
131. On Thursday, May 26 Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 299–300.
132. The son of Christopher B. Daly, “Dukakis: Son of Greek Immigrants Runs for White House,” Associated Press, Feb. 2, 1988.
133. His brand Bob Drogin, “Dukakis Draws Heavy Crowds, Money, Press,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1987.
134. Ailes watched Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 300.
135. “If you learned” Ibid., 301.
136. Ailes had consulted Ibid., 360.
137. At a campaign retreat Cramer, What It Takes, 998–99.
138. “We’re gonna have to” Author interview with a source familiar with the conversation.
139. Polls showed Cramer, What It Takes, 998.
140. “Well, you guys” Ibid., 999.
141. On June 9 Ibid., 1010.
142. “Michael Dukakis on crime” Ibid., 1011.
143. Ignoring the slick Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 362.
144. Ailes also tapped Author interviews with Tom Messner and Sig Rogich.
145. While only fifteen Paul Taylor, “Campaigns Take Aim Against Consultants; Incumbents’ Tactic May Deter Later Attacks; Some See Other Motives,” Washington Post, Feb. 15, 1990.
146. To attack Dukakis Miller Center, “Interview with Sigmund Rogich,” University of Virginia, March 8–9, 2001, http://millercenter.org/president/bush/oralhistory/sigmund-rogich.
147. The ad’s centerpiece Museum of the Moving Image, “The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952–2012,” http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988.
148. To hammer Miller Center, “Interview with Sigmund Rogich”; author interview with Sig Rogich.
149. The warning was Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 363.
150. The proposed ad Ibid., 361.
151. Ailes told his team Ibid., 362.
152. “He didn’t give” Author interview with former Bush campaign spokesperson Sheila Tate.
153. “Roger had an uncanny ability” Author interview with former Secretary of State James Baker III.
154. He called Dukakis “Election ’88: Waving the Bloody Shirt,” Newsweek, Nov. 21, 1988.
155. “You’re the reason” Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 361.
156. “Weekend Passes” Museum of the Moving Image, http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988.
157. In August, Ailes had boasted Stengel, “The Man Behind the Message.”
158. And the Horton ad Joe Conason, “Roger & He,” New Republic, May 28, 1990.
159. Roger Stone said that Author interview with Roger Stone.
160. “I know Roger very well” Martin Schram, “The Making of Willie Horton,” New Republic, May 28, 1990.
161. “Roger detected” Author interview with Sheila Tate.
162. That night Ibid.
163. “That was his idea” Ibid.
164. In August Stengel, “The Man Behind the Message.”
165. “He threatened to kill” Author interview with Janet G. Mullins Grissom.
166. Staffers noted Author interview with Roger Stone.
167. He told the press Stengel, “The Man Behind the Message.”
168. His weight ballooned Ibid.
169. Craig Fuller recalled Author interview with Craig Fuller.
170. He was also known Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 191.
171. Tom Messner recalled Author interview with Tom Messner.
172. “When he would have” Author interview with Sig Rogich.
173. Leaks sent Ailes Author interviews with Sig Rogich and Tom Messner.
174. A week and a half Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 422.
175. “It was a hard ad” Author interview with Janet G. Mullins Grissom.
176. By mid-October, Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 422.
177. From the time Dukakis Ibid., 420.
178. In the campaign’s most memorable Museum of the Moving Image, http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988.
179. “I sat there mute” Author interview with former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
180. “Wedge issues” Author interview with Roger Stone.
181. “Here’s a man” Author interview with Craig Fuller.
182. In late October Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 398.
183. Bush won Ibid., 422.
184. Ailes’s marriage to Norma Author interview with friends of Roger Ailes.
185. “My wife has made the case” Howard Fineman and Peter McKillop, “Roger Ailes: I Have to Take the Heat,” Newsweek, Nov. 6, 1989.
186. In 1983, Ailes’s father Author interview with Roger Ailes’s brother, Robert Ailes Jr.
187. “New York’s master of” Fineman and McKillop, “Roger Ailes: I Have to Take the Heat.”
188. “political terrorism” Vlae Kershner, “Campaign Insider,” San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 10, 1990.
189. He offered a $100,000 reward Barbara Demick, “Bush Campaign Role in Ads Probed; New Light Cast on Willie Horton Flap,” Houston Chronicle, Feb. 4, 1992.
190. “TO IMPLY COLLUSION” Conason, “Roger & He.”
191. In July 1989 Baer, “Roger Rabid.”
192. In the fall of 1989 Kerwin Swint, Dark Genius: The Influential Care
er of Legendary Political Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes (New York: Sterling, 2008), 39.
193. Ailes continued to stoke “Good Night, Gracie,” Newsday Magazine, Dec. 17, 1989.
194. At another point Howard Kurtz, “Giuliani Presses Dinkins’s Connection to Jackson as Campaign Intensifies,” Washington Post, Sept. 30, 1989.
195. Jackson had called New York Laurence McQuillan, United Press International, Feb. 27, 1984.
196. Dinkins attacked Swint, Dark Genius, 41.
197. On the night of October 23 Vivienne Walt, “Ailes Faces Assault Complaint,” Newsday, Oct. 26, 1989; Joe Klein, “Gandhi vs. Gumby: Can’t Anybody Here Run This Town?,” New York, Nov. 6, 1989.
198. “We were screaming” Author interview with activist Kathy Ottersten, who at the time and in news reports was known as Kevin Ottersten.
199. At the time, Sergeant Walt, “Ailes Faces Assault Complaint.”
200. “I attempted to file” Author interview with Kathy Ottersten.
201. On the Sunday before Joe Klein, “Willie Ailes,” New York, Dec. 4, 1989.
202. Giuliani lost Kenneth Jackson, Lisa Keller, and Nancy Flood, eds., The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 511.
203. Ailes’s candidate Peter Kerr, “The 1989 Elections: The Governor-Elect; Transition and Insurance Come First, Florio Says,” New York Times, Nov. 9, 1989.
204. In the fall of 1989 Fineman and McKillop, “Roger Ailes: I Have to Take the Heat.”
205. Lee Atwater’s sudden diagnosis Richard Benedetto, “Atwater Has a Benign Brain Tumor,” USA Today, March 7, 1990.
206. In May 1990 Charles R. Babcock, “Willie Horton Political Ads Become Issue in Ohio Race,” Washington Post, May 26, 1990.
207. the FEC was deadlocked Demick, “Bush Campaign Role in Ads Probed.”
208. “I’m not the candidate” Baer, “Roger Rabid.”
209. On Tuesday, October 9 Ed White, “Martin Media Adviser Calls Simon ‘Slimy,’ ‘Weenie,’ ” Associated Press, Oct. 9, 1990.
210. Martin lost U.S. Government Printing Office, “Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1990,” April 29, 1991, http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1990election.pdf.
211. In 1988 Ailes and Kraushar, You Are the Message.
212. “When you control” Ibid., 111.
213. “You can learn” Ibid., 112.
214. In the summer of 1988 Californians Against Unfair Tax Increases, agreement with Ailes Communications Inc., July 1, 1988, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gri44a00, Bates no. 87699641.
215. last at least for five years Thomas Collamore, email conversation with Craig Fuller, June 29, 1994, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/upq91a00/pdf, Bates. no. 2047915175A.
216. His first assignment “Tobacco Group on Hotseat for Failure to Honor Advertising Contract,” Business Wire, Sept. 6, 1988.
217. At the time, it represented David S. Wilson, “2 Ballot Issues Raise Question: Is Smoking Becoming Taboo?,” New York Times, Oct. 25, 1988.
218. In one memo, Ailes wrote Ailes Communications Inc., “Creative Strategy to Defeat the Tobacco Tax Initiative,” June 29, 1988, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/jsy44b00/pdf, Bates no. TI02450986.
219. “We have no obligation” Ibid., Bates no. TI02450989.
220. One ad portrayed Ailes Communications Inc., “Medical School,” script, Aug. 30, 1988, available at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ljz54c00/pdf, Bates no. 87700232.
221. One commercial portrayed David S. Wilson, “2 Ballot Issues Raise Question: Is Smoking Becoming Taboo?,” New York Times, Oct. 25, 1988.
222. Prop 99 supporters’ Mark A. Stein, “Deception Seen in Anti-Cigarette Tax Ads,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 28, 1988.
223. His biggest role Ibid.
224. In November 1988 “Final Election Vote Returns,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 9, 1988.
225. “The antismoking zealots” Andy Plattner, “Big Tobacco’s Toughest Road: Invigorated Activists and Lawmakers Launch New Attacks on Smoking,” U.S. News & World Report, April 17, 1989.
226. In 1987, Reagan’s FCC Steve Rendall, “Rough Road to Liberal Talk Success: A Short History of Radio Bias,” Extra!, Jan./Feb. 2007.
227. More than seven million Catherine Hinman, “Rush to Judgment: Radio Talk Show Host Rush Limbaugh Has Opinions on Just About Everything, Including a Big One of Himself,” Orlando Sentinel, June 15, 1991.
228. In 1991, after bumping into each other Chafets, Roger Ailes, 61–62.
229. The GOP paid him Baer, “Roger Rabid.”
230. In August 1990 Roger Ailes, letter to New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, Aug. 17, 1990, http://edge-cache.gawker.com/gawker/ailesfiles/ailes11.html, accessed Sept. 26, 2013.
231. “In the field” Rogers Ailes, letter to New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, Nov. 16, 1990, http://edge-cache.gawker.com/gawker/ailesfiles/ailes12.html, accessed Sept. 26, 2013.
232. Bushworld put out feelers Author interview with a member of the Bush campaign team.
233. “He was thinking about” Author interview with a source familiar with the conversation.
234. On December 6, 1991 “Financial News,” PR Newswire, Dec. 6, 1991.
235. consulting for Paramount Television See, generally, the Bradley Prizes, “2013 Recipients: Roger Ailes,” Bradleyprizes.org, http://bradleyprizes.org/recipients/roger-ailes, accessed Oct. 22, 2013.
236. At the 1992 Democratic convention Author interview with Bob LaPorta.
237. One writer who ran into Author interview with an associate of Roger Ailes.
238. In 1992, he lined up Thomas Hardy, “Election-Year Board Games Try to Capture the Real Thing,” Chicago Tribune, May 18, 1992.
239. In August, he traveled Harry Berkowitz, “GOP Pit Bull Roaming Convention; Adman Ailes Says He’s There for Fun,” Newsday, Aug. 20, 1992.
240. To advance around the board Golden Games, “Risky Strategy: The Game of Campaign Capers,” board game, Jim Bear Enterprises, Inc., 1991.
241. “Politics was a 20-year habit” Berkowitz, “GOP Pit Bull Roaming Convention.”
242. “By that time” Author interview with James Baker III.
243. On the night of June 2 Paul D. Colford, The Rush Limbaugh Story: The Unauthorized Biography (New York: St. Martin’s, 1993).
244. Bill Clinton’s campaign Michael Kelly, “The 1992 Campaign: The Democrats: Clinton’s Staff Sees Campaign as a Real War,” New York Times, Aug. 11, 1992.
245. During the 1988 GOP convention Author interview with former NBC News producer Joe Angotti.
246. In the spring of 1990 Naftali Bendavid, “GOP Campaign Adviser Tries Broadcasting,” Miami Herald, May 18, 1990.
247. “It was an oldies station” Author interview with radio personality Greg Wyatt.
248. Ailes came up with Ibid.
249. “It’s just a fun thing” Bendavid, “GOP Campaign Adviser Tries Broadcasting.”
250. “He wanted to do” Author interview with Sig Rogich.
ACT III
NINE: AMERICA’S TALKING
1. In early 1993 Author interview with former NBC chairman Robert Wright.
2. he wanted to resign Geraldine Fabrikant, “Ex-Consultant to Bush Named to Head NBC,” New York Times, Aug. 31, 1993.
3. After NBC launched Bill Carter, “The Media Business: Television; NBC Walks into a Cable Minefield,” New York Times, April 10, 1989. See also Geraldine Fabrikant, “Surprise Pact by G.E. Unit to Buy FNN,” New York Times, Feb. 27, 1991; PR Newswire, “Court Approves CNBC’s $154.3 Million Bid for FNN Media Business,” May 9, 1991.
4. “Al was a great guy” Author interview with Robert Wright.
5. “One of the things” Ibid.
6. But when Ailes’s name Author interview with CNBC producers.
7. In interviews, he called Liz Trotta, “Roger Ailes Still Has Snap in His Political Jabs,” Washington Times, May 11, 1993.
8. “He always craved”
Author interview with a former colleague of Roger Ailes.
9. On July 8 Letter from Roger Ailes to former NBC Cable president Tom Rogers, July 8, 1993.
10. On July 25 Ken Parish Perkins, “Exploring the Mystery of Comedy,” Dallas Morning News, July 22, 1993.
11. Later that week Deirdre Donahue, “Chronicling Kennedy,” USA Today, July 29, 1993. In early July, Ailes offered McGinniss three days of private media training to help him combat the negative press reaction to the book. McGinniss and Ailes had been out of touch for years, but the controversy over his Kennedy book brought them back together. McGinniss called his old friend to commiserate about the Kennedys’ aggressive response to The Last Brother. McGinniss’s personal publicist had quit on him, explaining that Caroline Kennedy, who was also a client, threatened to pull all of her business if she stuck with him. “I was calling Roger up, asking for sympathy. He was always bitching about the Kennedys playing dirty and the Kennedys doing this and Kennedys doing that,” McGinniss recalled. “So I said, ‘Boy, I just had an experience with the Kennedys.’ Roger said, ‘Well, fuck them. You know what, here’s what I can do.’ He said, ‘You can come into my studio for three days and we’ll just work with the video cameras and the tape machines and I’ll be the prick host asking you all these terrible questions, and you’ll answer them and we’ll sit there and I’ll point out where your answers can be improved.’ ” McGinniss took Ailes up on his offer and camped out in Ailes’s Park Avenue South office. The two ordered in sandwiches for lunch as they worked on his responses. “No interview came close to being as penetrating, as hostile, and as pointed as Roger’s,” McGinniss later recalled. “Roger could have been Mike Wallace plus Tom Snyder. If he had gotten into that business, he could have been the nastiest interviewer on television.” When McGinniss offered to pay Ailes for his services or for dinner at Patsy’s, Ailes declined. “I said, ‘Roger, this is unbelievable of you.’ He said, ‘We can’t let the Kennedys push you around.’ Whether Simon & Schuster paid him, I don’t know. It never came up between him and me. He said, ‘I’m doing good right now, I’ll pick up the check.’ ” Author interview with Joe McGinniss.
12. on July 21 Daniel LeDuc, “Whitman Hires Ad Man Who Raised Ire with Willie Horton,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 21, 1993. See also Daniel LeDuc, “Controversial Ad Man Quits Whitman Camp,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 22, 1993.
The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--and Divided a Country Page 59