The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine
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Having joined Fox’s management as Washington, D.C., deputy managing editor in the summer of 2008, Bill Sammon was promoted to Hume’s job overseeing “editorial content in the Washington bureau”15 in February 2009. It was a behind-the-scenes change that would dramatically affect Fox’s coverage of politics.
Numerous Fox employees say that during his tenure, Bill Sammon has consciously tilted coverage rightward. Sources suggest that Roger Ailes often calls the Washington bureau with requests to cover certain stories with a conservative bent. Hume, because of his stature, was able to resist these entreaties. Sammon, on the other hand, happily relays these orders, which are often journalistically questionable, directly to the bureau’s reporters.
“[There is] more pressure from Sammon to slant news to the right or to tell people how to report news, doing it in a more brutish way,” said a source with knowledge of the situation. “There is a point at which it is no longer reporting, but distorting things.”16
Things had been different under Hume’s leadership. According to this source, Hume believed that the mainstream media had been ignoring conservative points of view, and he worked to include them in his coverage. But he remained dedicated to a journalistic ethic that didn’t allow Fox News journalists to “ignore points of view and ignore facts.” To do this would just be repeating the sins that Fox News, in Hume’s eyes, was created to address, and would be “straying away from being a legitimate news reporter.”17
The network has paid a price for Sammon’s leadership, as other seasoned journalists have departed from the increasingly partisan network. When previously attacked for journalistic malpractice, Fox had often cited White House correspondent Major Garrett as an example of a hard-nosed, incorruptible journalist—and most members of the Beltway media agreed. But in the summer of 2010, just as Fox inherited a front-row seat in the White House Press Briefing Room, Garrett took a pay cut to leave the network for a job at National Journal, acknowledging that he had been a “conscientious objector” in the bitter war between the White House and his former network.18
Tom Fiedler cites the blurring of the line between opinion and news at Fox as a liability for its reporters. “The problem that they labor under is that Fox itself doesn’t respect the line between Fox News and Fox, the broader commentariat. You end up with the anchors on the Fox morning program, for instance, who traffic entirely in commentary and opinion. They are lumped in the same general stew [with reporters]. The result is that their credibility is greatly damaged.”19
Sammon’s desire to alter Fox’s news reporting to match his ideology was demonstrated in another series of leaked e‑mails, outlining his directions to producers during the politically contentious health care debate in the fall of 2009. In a memo with the subject lines “friendly reminder: let’s not slip back into calling it the ‘public option,’ ” Sammon provided the following list of instructions:
1. Please use the term “government-run health insurance” or, when brevity is a concern, “government option,” whenever possible.
2. When it is necessary to use the term “public option” (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation’s lexicon), use the qualifier “so-called,” as in “the so-called public option.”
3. Here’s another way to phrase it: “The public option, which is the government-run plan.”
4. When newsmakers and sources use the term “public option” in our stories, there’s not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct.20
The guidelines provided by Sammon match the recommendations of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who had told Sean Hannity on Fox two months earlier that “if you call it a ‘public option,’ the American people are split,” but “if you call it the ‘government option,’ the public is overwhelmingly against it.”21 For health care professionals and journalists, “public option,” of course, had been widely accepted as the term to describe this component of Barack Obama’s proposal for health care reform since before his election.
The impact of the e‑mail can clearly be seen in Fox’s coverage at the time. On October 27, not a single journalist on Fox’s highest-rated news show, Special Report, made reference to the health care legislation without following Sammon’s orders. Host Bret Baier spoke about the public option three times, calling it “government-run health insurance”22 or a “government-run health insurance option.”23 Baier had previously used the term “public option”24 on air several times in the weeks leading up to Sammon’s order.
In contrast, during George W. Bush’s administration, Fox aggressively adopted any euphemism—however Orwellian—dictated by the White House. “Suicide bombers” became “homicide bombers,” and the warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens became the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” Of course, with President Obama in office, the network no longer found it necessary to parrot the White House’s preferred expressions. As another leaked memo from Sammon shows, Fox News staffers were now encouraged to be highly skeptical of White House language:
From: Sammon, Bill
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:04 AM
To: 169-SPECIAL REPORT; 069-Politics; 036-FOX.WHU; 054-FNSunday; 030-Root (FoxNews.Com);
050-Senior Producers; 051-Producers
Subject: It’s a bank tax, not a “financial crisis
responsibility fee”
Just as we refrained from adopting such administration euphemisms as “man-caused disaster” and “overseas contingency operation,” so too should we resist parroting the phrase du jour, “financial crisis responsibility fee.” As far as I can tell, this is a bank tax, plain and simple. It appears to have little if anything to do with the repayment of TARP loans, despite Valerie Jarrett’s assertion to the contrary on Fox and Friends this morning:
“What we’re saying is every single penny of TARP money that was put out and lent out to the taxpayers will be paid back by the financial institutions. That’s what the law provides. If you go and look at the actual law that was passed, it says that the financial institutions will be responsible for paying back the TARP money. And they should honor that commitment.”
Consider these facts:
The banking industry has repaid two-thirds of the TARP loans, with interest, and has four more years to repay the rest.
As Major Garrett rightly points out, most of the current TARP deficit is linked to taxpayer bailouts of GM, Chrysler, Fannie and Freddie, all of which ARE EXEMPT FROM THE NEW BANK TAX.
In other words, the two institutions that are arguably the most responsible for triggering the recession in the first place, Fannie and Freddie, are exempt from the “financial crisis responsibility fee.”
Even after all TARP monies are repaid in full, the bank tax will remain in place, costing banks billions for the indefinite future.
The administration says it would be “unseemly” for the banks to pass along these taxes to consumers (rather than cut bonuses), but does not PREVENT the banks from doing so.
If the administration wants to try and conflate the repayment of TARP loans with the imposition of a bank tax, that’s their political prerogative. As journalists, we must be careful to factually parse these important issues. Words mean things.
Discuss.
Bill Sammon’s orders were clear—language offered by the administration was not to be repeated on air. That day, reporting on President Obama’s proposal, Bret Baier told his audience, “One Republican’s reaction to the financial crisis responsibility fee. Most people are calling it the bank tax.”25
By Sunday, “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee” had been eliminated from the Fox lexicon, with Brit Hume, who retained some hosting duties at the network, artfully expounding during an interview with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, “Let me turn, if I can, quickly to the proposal that the president made this week in which the banks that received TARP funds, rescue funds, whether they paid them back with interest or not, and some banks that didn’t receive TARP funds, would pay a new fee cal
led—which is being labeled a bank tax by some.”26
Sammon’s e‑mails were not the first time Fox News’s partisan bias had been exposed in leaked internal memorandums. In 2004, a series of e‑mails from John Moody, then Fox News’s senior vice president for news, were given to the filmmaker Robert Greenwald and became central to his film Outfoxed. The Moody memos consisted of daily talking points and directions for Fox News hosts and producers to follow.
On May 9, 2003, Moody weighed in on the fight over judicial nominees, writing, “Nominees who both sides admit are
[qu]alified are being held up because of their POSSIBLE, not demonstrated, views [on] one issue—abortion. This should be a trademark issue for FNC today and in [th]e days to come.”
On April 6, 2004, Moody directed journalists covering the Iraq War to “not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking out loud why are we there?”
On June 3, 2003, Moody pressed Fox employees to praise George W. Bush, writing, “[Th]e president is doing something that few of his predecessors dared undertake: [pu]tting the US case for mideast peace to an Arab summit. It’s a distinctly
[sk]eptical crowd that Bush faces. His political courage and tactical cunning ar[e] [wo]rth noting in our reporting through the day.”
On April 26, 2004, Moody expressed the opposite sentiment about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, writing, “Ribbons or medals? Which did John Kerry throw away after he returned from Vietnam? This may become an issue for him today. His perceived disrespect for the military could be more damaging to the candidate than questions about his actions in uniform.”27
In all, more than thirty leaked memos laid out a pattern of conduct by network executives forcing their political views on reporters. Moody, responding in The Washington Post, dismissed “the implication that” he was “controlling the news coverage” and claimed that “people are free to call me or message me and say, ‘I think you’re off base.’ Sometimes I take the advice, sometimes I don’t.”28
In 2009, with a straight Republican lineup in prime time and Bill Sammon and Glenn Beck ensconced within the network, Ailes could set out to fundamentally alter Fox’s role in American politics. No longer would it simply be infotainment for the conservative base. Fox could now become a political vehicle designed to advance an ideological agenda.
On March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into office during a time of incomparable economic chaos. Three and a half years earlier, Black Tuesday had sent the economy spiraling into depression, and there was no end in sight. Unemployment was high, banks were failing, mines were closing, and farmland had dried up.
The country was demanding action, and Roosevelt entered the White House with an unparalleled level of political capital. In his first hundred days, Congress passed every law that Roosevelt asked for in order to get the nation back on track. Every president’s first hundred days in office since have been measured against FDR’s.
Barack Obama was inaugurated amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and had a similar mandate for change. Many in the media alluded to Roosevelt’s first hundred days, suggesting that the beginning of the Obama presidency might bring a similar period of reform, or, at the very least, the customary “honeymoon period” that usually immediately followed an election. But Obama’s first hundred days would be different. Rush Limbaugh made headlines when he declared, days before Obama’s inauguration, “I hope he fails,”29 and Fox News was determined to make the radio host’s desire a reality.
On the day of Obama’s swearing in, Glenn Beck, in his second day on Fox News, was ready to pass judgment on the new president. “Mr. President, I want to believe. I want to trust, I want to hope for change,” Beck said. “But I am really failing to see how this is any different.”30
On day two, Sean Hannity reached his own verdict on the Obama administration. “He’s not going to succeed,” Hannity proclaimed. “Socialism has failed.”31
On day three, Fox News contributor and conservative radio host Laura Ingraham informed Fox News viewers that, under Obama, “our country is less safe today.”32
On day four, Beck lied to his audience, telling them that “Obama declared the end to the war on terror.”33
Fox News’s coverage of the Obama administration’s first weekend was not any better. On Saturday, former Arkansas Governor, presidential candidate, and Fox News host Mike Huckabee asked, “Is this the change America voted for?”34 On Sunday, Brit Hume remarked, “You can’t break all your campaign promises.”35
The examples above are just a small sample of the dozens of attacks leveled at President Obama during his first week in office. Over the next hundred days, the rhetoric would heat up steadily. On day eight, Beck asked Fox’s audience, “Do you want socialism or not?”36 And by day eleven, he had concluded that the country was, in fact, on a march toward socialism.37 Not to be outdone, Sean Hannity declared that Obama’s presidency represented the end of capitalism.38
On the seventeenth day of the president’s term, Bret Baier mused, “Some are wondering if the honeymoon is already over.”39 On Fox News, it never began.
As the first months of Obama’s presidency progressed, the differences in coverage between Fox News and other networks continued to emerge. Fox became a breeding ground for Republican talking points. This link grew so tight that Fox began airing Republican press releases verbatim, presenting them as original reporting with no citation.
On the February 10 edition of Happening Now, host Jon Scott decided to “take a look back at the [stimulus] bill, how it was born, and how it grew, and grew, and grew.”40 As part of his presentation, Scott cited seven news reports using on-screen graphics. Each of the articles he cited, as well as the on-screen text, came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. If this coincidence was not enough evidence to prove that Scott had lifted his work from GOP sources, one of the graphics indicated that a Wall Street Journal report that the stimulus package could reach “$775 billion over two years” was published on December 19, 2009. This obvious error—December 19, 2009, would not arrive for another nine months—was also contained in the GOP release Scott had taken his report from.
Then, in early April, as Scott was interviewing Republican Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, seven on-screen graphics labeled “FOXfact” were lifted straight from an op-ed Ryan had published in that day’s Wall Street Journal:
Ryan op-ed: “The Republican budget achieves lower deficits than the Democratic plan in every year.”
FOXfact: “GOP Budget: Achieves lower deficits than Dem plan in every year.”
Ryan op-ed: “Under our plan, debt held by the public is $3.6 trillion less during the budget period.”
FOXfact: “GOP Budget: Debt held by public $3.6 trill less during budget period.”
Ryan op-ed: “Our budget gives priority to national defense and veterans’ health care.”
FOXfact: “GOP budget gives priority to natl defense & vet health care.”
Ryan op-ed: “We do these things by rejecting the president’s cap-and-trade scheme.”
FOXfact: “GOP budget rejects President’s cap-and-trade scheme.”
Ryan op-ed: “Our budget does not raise taxes, and makes permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax laws.”
FOXfact: “GOP budget doesn’t raise taxes; makes permanent ’01 and ’03 tax laws.”
Ryan op-ed: “Capital gains and dividends are taxed at 15%, and the death tax is repealed.”
FOXfact: “GOP Budget: Capital gains & dividends taxed at 15% & death tax repealed.”
Ryan op-ed: “The budget permanently cuts the uncompetitive corporate income tax rate.”
FOXfact: “GOP budget permanently cuts corporate income tax rate.”41
Not only were these “FOXfacts” essentially a transcription of an opinion piece written by the Republican leader, but Fox News didn’t even bother to remove the slanted language—like
“president
’s cap-and-trade scheme” or a reference to the “death tax”—from their list of “facts.”
Again in April, during an interview with Republican Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana, Fox host Bill Hemmer mentioned four supposedly “wasteful” projects funded by the stimulus bill. At the conclusion of the segment, Hemmer seemed to take credit for the research that uncovered the projects. “We told our viewers we’re keeping track of the stimulus money,” he said. “And that’s what the intention of this was.”42
Hemmer was “keeping track of the stimulus money” with the help of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s website, where each of the examples he mentioned was prominently displayed. At no point did Hemmer acknowledge that the research he cited came from an unambiguously partisan source.
As a veteran of three successful presidential campaigns, Roger Ailes understood that the beginning of the Obama administration was critical to the long-term success of the president’s agenda. The network needed to make a stand against Obama’s first signature piece of legislation, a stimulus package designed to boost the economy.
There was widespread agreement on the need for action to get the economy moving again, and the president even crafted his plan in a way that should have satisfied conservatives—with an $800 billion cap on its cost and a significant portion of the stimulus coming in the form of tax cuts. In fact, many liberal economists publicly argued that the package was too small.
But the attacks coming from Fox News were rarely based on reality. For example, Dick Morris told viewers of The O’Reilly Factor that the stimulus bill “won’t work” because “two hundred billion of it is just money to the state. That just stops taxes from going up, but it doesn’t stimulate anything.”43 Economist Mark Zandi contradicted these claims, telling Congress that “aid to financially-pressed state governments” is “an economically potent stimulus.” Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office noted that cash infusions to states can produce a greater “cumulative impact on GDP”44 than tax cuts, the preferred policy of Morris and O’Reilly.