58. Just a few months earlier Ken Auletta, “The Pirate,” New Yorker, Nov. 13, 1995.
59. A day after Murdoch’s announcement “Battle of the Cable Stars: Turner Unfazed by Murdoch All-News Network Challenge,” Los Angeles Times, Times Wire Services, Nov. 30, 1995.
60. “From CNN’s earliest days” Turner and Burke, Call Me Ted, 336.
61. One reporter asked CNBC/Dow Jones, “NBC Holds News Conference to Announce New 24-Hour News Channel.”
62. “Fuck them” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 17.
63. “I remember Dan Quayle” Author interview with a former America’s Talking producer.
64. Vanity Fair Marie Brenner, “Steve Forbes’s Quixotic Presidential Quest,” Vanity Fair, Jan. 1996.
65. When The Washington Post Howard Kurtz, “CNBC’s Roger Ailes, Talking a Fine Line,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1995.
66. Ten days later Liz Smith, “Roger’s a Free Man,” Newsday, Dec. 11, 1995.
67. “We both realized” Author interview with former General Electric chairman Jack Welch.
68. On January 9 NBC separation agreement with Roger Ailes.
69. A week later, dozens Scott Williams, “Roger Ailes Out at CNBC,” Associated Press, Jan. 18, 1996.
70. “Now look” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 21.
71. “When Roger came out” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 22.
72. “It’s an awkward day” Ibid.
73. What Wright did not say Author interview with Robert Wright.
74. Tom Rogers left Richard Katz, “NBC’s Rogers Takes Post as Primedia’s CEO,” Variety.com, Sept. 28, 1999, http://www.variety.com/1999/biz/news/nbc-s-rogers-takes-post-as-primedia-ceo-1117756095/. See also Michael Singer, “Tom Rogers Named New CEO of TiVo,” CNET News, June 27, 2005, http://news.cnet.com/Tom-Rogers-named-new-CEO-of-TiVo/2100-1040_3-5764357.html.
75. David Zaslav followed Rogers Paula Bernstein, “Zaslav Is Wired to Replace Rogers as NBC Cable Chief,” Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 5, 1999. See also Ana Campoy, “Discovery Communications Names David Zaslav CEO,” Marketwatch, Nov. 16, 2006, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/discovery-communications-names-david-zaslav-ceo.
76. In 2011 Christina Rexrode and Bernard Condon, “Typical CEO Made $9.6 Million Last Year, AP Study Finds,” Associated Press, May 25, 2012.
77. In the weeks before his departure Author interview with former executives at CNBC.
78. The New York Daily News Richard Huff and Douglas Feiden, “Ailes Quits CNBC, Ch. 4 GM Steps In,” New York Daily News, Jan. 19, 1996.
79. Earlier that fall Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 22–23. See also Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
ELEVEN: THE AUSSIE AND THE MIDWESTERNER
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.
78. In all, eighty-two Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
79. That spring John Motavalli, “Fox vs. CNBC? Now That Would Be a Grudge Match,” New York Times, March 6, 2003.
80. “Our view” Stephen Battaglio, “Peacock Unruffled by Fox News $10 Cable Bid,” Hollywood Reporter, May 7, 1996.
81. On Friday, May 31 Letter from attorney Justin Manus to NBC executive vice president for employee relations Edward Scanlon, May 31, 1996.
82. Several days later Letter from NBC general counsel Richard Cotton to Justin Manus, June 4, 1996.
83. The system reached “Time Warner Closes Merger with Cablevision Industries,” PR Newswire, Jan. 4, 1996.
84. In early June Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”
85. After the lunch Letter from Rupert Murdoch to Gerald Levin, June 4, 1996.
86. FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky Mark Landler, “An Accord That Could Help Murdoch,” New York Times, July 18, 1996.
87. On the morning of June 24 Bill Carter, “TCI Reaches Deal with Fox to Carry All-News Channel,” New York Times, June 25, 1996.
88. “There’s a huge diversity” Ken Auletta, “John Malone: Flying Solo,” New Yorker, Feb. 7, 1994.
89. Ailes denied Carter, “TCI Reaches Deal with Fox.”
90. As important, Malone “Rumors Dog News Station Debut,” Bergen Record, July 16, 1996. See also Elizabeth Sanger, “Cable News Sweepstakes; Time Warner, Fox in Negotiations as MSNBC Debuts,” Newsday, July 16, 1996; and Hiawatha Bray, “Network Official Reveals Higher Level of Competition,” Boston Globe, July 16, 1996.
91. A few weeks after Jeffrey Daniels, “Murdoch Has the Whole New World in His Hands,” Hollywood Reporter, July 18, 1996.
TWELVE: OCTOBER SURPRISE
1. “People are going to be on television” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 130–31.
2. At 9:00 a.m. “Television; Electronic Eye Candy Dominates Hip Debut,” Boston Herald, July 16, 1996; MSNBC’s On-Air Launch, 1996 07–15 (video), YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSS2s-4PrNQ.
3. Jodi Applegate “ ‘Today’ Taps Applegate,” Daily Variety, April 3, 1996.
4. On the day of the launch Jane Hall, “Upstarts Hope to Make News of Their Own,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1996.
5. “MSNBC,” he had told USA Today David Lieberman, “Malone, Murdoch Forge All-New Cable Deals,” USA Today, June 25, 1996.
6. As NBC took out Gary Levin and John Dempsey, “MSNBC Clears 1st Hurdle at Bow,” Variety, July 15, 1996–July 21, 1996.
7. Ailes assigned Scott Ehrlich Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
8. “It was a no-brainer” A
uthor interview with Robert Ailes Jr.
9. two days later, when MSNBC David Hinckley, “Imus Gets to Don a High Profile on MSNBC,” New York Daily News, July 18, 1996.
10. On Thursday, July 18 Jonathan Storm, “TV Critics Get a Posh Peak at New Season. They’re Plunked in Classic Cars. Serenaded by Sheryl Crow. It’s All Part of the Selling of Shows,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 15, 1996.
11. The assembled reporters received printouts John Carmody, “The TV Column,” Washington Post, July 19, 1996.
12. “We’re not going to consider” Chuck Taylor, “Fall TV—Fox Will Jump into the ‘Very Competitive’ All-News Arena,” Seattle Times, July 19, 1996.
13. Gone was the hype Williams, “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-Hour TV News Channel.”
14. “We have not claimed” Richard Huff, “Aiming to Outfox CNN, MSNBC,” New York Daily News, July 19, 1996.
15. “If you couldn’t give me” Stephen Battaglio, “Fox News Net Will Debut Oct. 7,” Hollywood Reporter, July 19, 1996.
16. “It’s a very competitive climate” Ibid.
17. Unlike MSNBC, which had Peter Johnson, “NBC Spells Out Format for Cable News Channel,” USA Today, April 18, 1996.
18. “There is no status” Greg Braxton, “Fox News Announces Oct. 7 Launch of Cable Channel,” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1996.
19. “Roger is a political animal” Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
20. The construction of studio space This paragraph is based on author interviews with Fox News executives.
21. Bahman Samiian See résumé at http://www.bahmansamiian.com/resume.pdf.
22. “We had to do more” Author interview with a former Fox News staffer.
23. MSNBC had recently hired Doug Nye, “Larry, Curly and Moe: ‘Moidering the Competition for a Long Time,’ ” Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 9, 1996.
24. “Well I know your background” Lawrie Mifflin, “Media: Broadcasting; At the New Fox News Channel, the Buzzword Is Fairness, Separating News from Bias,” New York Times, Oct. 7, 1996. The dialogue between Kennedy and Ailes was recounted by Ailes to Mifflin.
The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--and Divided a Country Page 61