The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine

by David Brock

  Notes

  Introduction: Not Necessarily the News

  1. Eric Hananoki, “Cruise Ship Confession: Top Fox News Executive Admits Lying On-Air About Obama,” MediaMatters.org, March 29, 2011, mediamatters.org/blog/201103290006.

  2. Eric Hananoki, “FoxLeaks: Bill Sammon’s October Surprise,” MediaMatters.org, February 1, 2011, mediamatters.org/blog/201102010022.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Fox & Friends, Fox News, October 28, 2008; Hananoki, “Bill Sammon’s October Surprise.”

  6. Bill Sammon, “Obama Affinity to Marxists Dates Back to College Days,” FoxNews.com, October 28, 2008; Hananoki, “Bill Sammon’s October Surprise.”

  7. Joe Strupp, “Veteran D.C. Bureau Chiefs Rip Sammon: ‘This Isn’t Journalism,’ ” MediaMatters.org, March 31, 2011, mediamatters.org/blog/201103310026.

  8. Howard Kurtz, “Obama a Socialist? Fox News Exec Said So, but Didn’t Believe It,” Daily Beast, March 29, 2011, www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011–03–29/obama-a-socialist-fox-news-exec-said-so-but-didnt-believe-it.html.

  9. Natalie Gewargis, “ ‘Spread the Wealth’?” Political Punch (blog), ABC News, October 14, 2008, blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/spread-the-weal.html.

  10. The Live Desk, Fox News, October 14, 2008; Hananoki, “Bill Sammon’s October Surprise.”

  11. Strupp, “Veteran D.C. Bureau Chiefs Rip Sammon.”

  12. Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg, “First Thoughts: Obama’s Good, Bad News,” First Read (blog), NBC News, August 19, 2009, firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/08/19/4431138-first-thoughts-obamas-good-bad-news.

  13. Mark Howard, “Study Confirms Watching Fox News Makes You Stupid,” Alternet, October 15, 2010, www.alternet.org/media/149193/study_confirms_

  that_fox_news_makes_you_stupid.

  14. David J. Lynch, “Economists Agree: Stimulus Created Nearly 3 Million Jobs,” USA Today, August 30, 2010, www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010–08–30-stimulus30_CV_N.htm.

  15. Brian Stelter, “Study: Some Viewers Were Misinformed by TV News,” Media Decoder (blog), New York Times, December 17, 2010, mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/study-some-viewers-were-misinformed-by-tv-news/.

  16. James O. Goldsborough, “The Media and Public Misconceptions,” San Diego Union-Tribune, October 13, 2003.

  17. Interview with Media Matters for America. Conducted by Joe Strupp. May 17, 2011.

  18. Michael Wolff, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (New York: Broadway Books, 2008), 346.

  19. Stefano DellaVigna and Ethan Kaplan, “The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 122 (August 2007): 1187–234.

  20. Nightline, ABC News, March 22, 2010, can be viewed at mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003230020.

  21. David Frum, “Waterloo,” Frum Forum (blog), March 21, 2010, www.frumforum.com/waterloo.

  22. Ibid.

  Chapter 1: Roger’s Rise

  1. David Carr and Tim Arango, “A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics,” New York Times, January 9, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010

  /01/10/business/media/10ailes.html.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Tom Junod, “Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America?” Esquire, January 18, 2011, www.esquire.com/features/roger-ailes-0211.

  4. “Nixon’s Roger Ailes,” Washington Post, February 13, 1972, www.scribd.com/doc/53543922/Roger-Ailes-I-Dont-Try-to-Fool-Voters.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President (1969; repr. New York: Penguin, 1988), 100.

  7. Ibid., 101.

  8. Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), 331.

  9. McGinniss, The Selling of the President, 102.

  10. Tom Junod, “Roger Ailes on Roger Ailes: The Interview Transcripts, Part 2,” Esquire.com, January 27, 2011, www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/roger-ailes-quotes-5072437.

  11. Ibid.

  12. “A Conversation with Roger Ailes,” The Kalb Report, C-SPAN, April 5, 2007, www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Aile.

  13. Junod, “Roger Ailes on Roger Ailes.”

  14. “Television: Mommy’s Boy,” Time, October 6, 1967.

  15. Letter from Roger Ailes to H. R. Haldeman, February 9, 1971, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  16. Ron Ziegler, Memorandum for H. R. Haldeman, re: Roger Ailes appearance on CBS morning news show, March 14, 1970, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  17. Letter from Jim Allison, Jr., deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, to Roger Ailes, May 25, 1970, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  18. Letter from Jon M. Huntsman to Roger Ailes, May 21, 1971, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  19. Letter from H. R. Haldeman to Roger Ailes, June 2, 1971, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  20. Talking Paper, Roger Ailes Meeting, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Roger Ailes, Confidential Report–Television, November 1968, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  23. Roger Ailes, Confidential Report to Bob Haldeman re: White House Television, December 1969, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  24. Roger Ailes, Confidential Report to Bob Haldeman re: White House Television, 1971, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  25. “A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News,” unsigned, undated memo, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Stanhope Gould, “Coors Brews the News,” Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1975, 17–29.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Ibid.

  39. Kerwin Swint, Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes (New York: Union Square Press, 2008), 60.

  40. Gould, “Coors Brews the News.”

  41. Swint, Dark Genius, 72.

  42. David Beckwith and Richard Stengel, “The Republicans: The Man Behind the Message,” Time, August 22, 1988, www.time.com/time/

  magazine/article/0,9171,968180,00.html.

  43. David Brock, “Roger Ailes Is Mad as Hell,” New York, December 8, 1997.

  44. Swint, Dark Genius, 47.

  45. Beckwith and Stengel, “The Republicans.”

  46. Ibid.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Bernard Weinraub, “Campaign Trail; A Beloved Mug Shot for the Bush Forces,” New York Times, October 3, 1988.

  49. Deposition of Roger E. Ailes, Transcript of Proceedings of Federal Election Commission, August 29, 1991.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Joe Klein, “A Rudy Awakening,” New York, October 16, 1989.

  53. Howard Kurtz, “Giuliani Ad in N.Y. Yiddish Paper Links Dinkins and Jackson,” Washington Post, September 29, 1989.

  54. Ina Jaffe, “Giuliani Struggled with Issue in First Campaign,” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, September 12, 2007, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14304913.

  55. Swint, Dark Genius, 40.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Ibid., 41.

  58. Sam Roberts, “Giuliani Ads Remain Harsh in Last Days,” New York Times, November 4, 1989, www.nytimes.com/1989/11/04/nyregion/giuliani-ads-remain-harsh-in-last-days.html.

  59. Howard Kurtz, “With Ailes’s Aid, Convict Becomes ‘Willie Horton’ of N.Y. Campaign,” Washington Post, October 20, 1989.

  60. Ibid.

  61. Swint, Dark Genius, 118.

  62. Ibid.

  63. David R. Runkel, ed., Campaign for President: The Managers Look at ’88 (Dover, Mass.: Auburn House, 1989), 136.

  64. Michael Wolff, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (
New York: Broadway Books, 2008), 282–83.

  65. Rush Limbaugh, “Rush and Roger Ailes Speak at Boy Scouts Awards Dinner,” RushLimbaugh.com, November 11, 2009, www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2009/11/11/rush-and-roger-ailes-speak-at-boy-scouts-awards-dinner.

  66. “Nixon’s Roger Ailes.”

  67. Roger Ailes, “Candidate + Money + Media = Votes,” Town Hall of California, June 8, 1971, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

  68. The Rush Limbaugh Show, EIB Network, January 20, 2009, www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2009/01/16/limbaugh-i-hope-obama-fails.

  69. Mark Silva, “Palin: Obama’s Terrorist … Pallin’ Around,” The Swamp (blog), Chicago Tribune, October 4, 2009, www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/

  2008/10/palin_obamas_terrorist_pallin.html.

  70. Steven Beardsley, “Fox News Founder Roger Ailes Jabs Mainstream Media, Health Care Reform During Ave Maria Speech,” Naples Daily News, April 26, 2010, www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/apr/26/fox-news-founder-roger-ailes-jabs-mainstream-media/.

  71. Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 207.

  72. Timothy Noah, “Roger Ailes Strikes Back,” Slate, November 18, 2002, www.slate.com/id/2074145/.

  73. Bill Carter and Jim Rutenberg, “Fox News Head Sent a Policy Note to Bush,” New York Times, November 19, 2002, www.nytimes.com/2002/11/19/politics/19ROGE.html.

  74. Alex Koppelman and Erin Renzas, “Rudy Giuliani’s Ties to Fox News,” Salon, November 16, 2007, news.salon.com/2007/11/16/regan.

  75. Russ Buettner, “Fox News Chief, Roger Ailes, Urged Employee to Lie, Records Show,” New York Times, February 24, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/nyregion/25roger-ailes.html.

  76. Morning Joe, MSNBC, June 21, 2010, can be viewed at mediamatters.org/mmtv/201006210002.

  77. Eric Boehlert, “Fox News Insider: ‘Stuff Is Just Made Up’ ” MediaMatters.org, February 10, 2011. Interview with Media Matters, mediamatters.org/blog/201102100007.

  78. Wolff, The Man Who Owns the News, 345.

  79. Tim Dickinson, “How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory.” Rolling Stone, May 25, 2011, www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-20110525#ixzz1gGiXGg5o.

  80. John Cook, “Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Can’t Stop Calling the Cops,” Gawker, April 29, 2011, gawker.com/5797078/fox-news-chief-roger-ailes-cant-stop-calling-the-cops.

  81. John Cook and Hamilton Nolan, “Roger Ailes Caught Spying on the Reporters at His Small-Town Newspaper,” Gawker, April 18, 2011, gawker.com/5793012/roger-ailes-caught-spying-on-the-reporters-at-his-small+town-newspaper.

  82. Ibid.

  83. Ibid.

  84. John Cook, “Roger Ailes Continues to Ruin His Adopted Home,” Gawker, May 10, 2011, gawker.com/5800439/roger-ailes-continues-to-ruin-his-adopted-home.

  85. Ibid.

  86. Wolff, The Man Who Owns the News, 346.

  Chapter 2: The Path to the Top

  1. Transcript of news conference as shown in Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, Carolina Productions, 2004, www.outfoxed.org/docs/outfoxed_transcript.pdf.

  2. Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (New York: Dutton, 2003), 62.

  3. Kerwin Swint, Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes (New York: Union Square Press, 2008), 172.

  4. Mark Lander, “Giuliani Pressures Time Warner to Transmit a Fox Channel,” New York Times, October 4, 1996, www.nytimes.com/1996/10/04/nyregion/giuliani-pressures-time-warner-to-transmit-a-fox-channel.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

  5. Scott Collins, Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN (New York: Penguin, 2004), 101.

  6. Clifford J. Levy, “Lobbying at Murdoch Gala Ignited New York Cable Clash,” New York Times, October 13, 1996, quoted in ibid.

  7. Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 104–105.

  8. Ibid., 70.

  9. Ibid., 119.

  10. Ibid., 143.

  11. Ibid., 155.

  12. Seth Ackerman, “The Most Biased Name in News: Fox News Channel’s Extraordinary Right-Wing Tilt,” Extra! (published by FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), July/August 2001, www.fair.org/index.php?page=1067.

  13. Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 158.

  14. Martha T. Moore, “Bush Cousin Helped Fox Make Call,” USA Today, November 14, 2000, quoted in Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 159.

  15. “Election Night 2000 Coverage by the Networks,” hearing before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, February 14, 2001, energycommerce.house.gov/107/

  hearings/02142001Hearing216/print.htm.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Jane Mayer, The Talk of the Town, “Dept. of Close Calls George W.’s Cousin,” The New Yorker, November 20, 2000, 36.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 170.

  20. Ibid.,170.

  21. “CNN on Its Use of the Word ‘Terrorist,’ ” CNN.com, September 30, 2001, archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/30/terrorist/.

  22. David Bauder, “Fox News Overtakes CNN in Ratings,” Associated Press, January 29, 2002, www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=3889, quoted in Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 188–189.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Interview with Media Matters for America conducted by Joe Strupp, May 16, 2011.

  Chapter 3: A “Terrorist Fist Jab”?

  1. Sarah Lacy, “Barack Obama’s Unlikely Supporter: Rupert ‘Fox News’ Murdoch,” Yahoo Finance Tech Ticker, May 29, 2008, finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/20951/Barack-Obama’s-Unlikely-Supporter-Rupert-‘Fox-News’-Murdoch?tickers-ws,msft,yhoo,nyt.

  2. David Carr and Tim Arango, “A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics,” New York Times, January 9, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/01

  /10/business/media/10ailes.html.

  3. Chris Matthews, Democratic National Convention coverage, MSNBC, July 28, 2004.

  4. Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, November 3, 2004, quoted in “Conservatives Complained That Swift Boat Vets Were Ignored; Now They Tout Impact,” MediaMatters.org, mediamatters.org/research/200411050002.

  5. InsightMag.com, January 17, 2007; “Timeline of a Smear,” MediaMatters.org, January 30, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200701300007.

  6. Eric Zorn, “Be Careful, Be Very Careful…” Change of Subject (blog), Chicago Tribune, January 9, 2007, blogs.chicagotribune.com/

  news_columnists_ezorn/2007/01/be_careful_be_v.html.

  7. Fox News Watch, Fox News Channel, January 20, 2007; “Timeline of a Smear.”

  8. Reliable Sources, CNN, January 21, 2009; “Timeline of a Smear.”

  9. Fox & Friends, Fox News Channel, January 22, 2009; “Timeline of a Smear.”

  10. Howard Kurtz, “Hillary, Obama and Anonymous Sources,” Washington Post, January 22, 2007, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/

  content/blog/2007/01/22/BL2007012200260_pf.html.

  11. The Situation Room, CNN, January 22, 2009; “Timeline of a Smear.”

  12. Ibid.

  13. Nedra Pickler, “Obama Debunks Claim About Islamic School,” Associated Press, January 25, 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007

  /01/24/AR2007012400371_pf.html.

  14. “Atari 2600,” Political Punch (blog), ABC News, January 26, 2009, blogs.abcnews.com/

  politicalpunch/2007/01/atari_2600.html.

  15. Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, January 29, 2007; “Morris Still Pushing Allegation That Clinton Camp Planted Obama Smear with Insight,” MediaMatters.org, January 30, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200701300009.

  16. Glenn Beck, Fox News Channel, December 30, 2009; Jeremy Schulman, “Coulter Brings Madrassa Lie Back to Fox News,” MediaMatters.org, December 31, 2009, mediamatters.org/blog/200912310001.

  17. The Big Story, Fox News Channel, February 28, 2007; “ ‘Madrassa’ Redux? Gibson Cited Dubious Tabloid Article to Smear Obama, Clinton,” Media
Matters.org, March 1, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200703010011.

  18. Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, February 28, 2007; “Hannity Guest on Obama’s Church: Its ‘Scary Doctrine’ Is ‘Something That You’d See in More Like a Cult,’ ” MediaMatters.org, March 1, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200703010012.

  19. “Ailes: ‘Obama Is on the Move. I Don’t Know if … Bush Called Musharraf and Said: ‘Why Can’t We Catch This Guy?’ ” MediaMatters.org, March 9, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200703100002.

  20. Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, August 24, 2007; “Hannity Refused to Disallow Ted Nugent’s Slurs Against Obama and Clinton,” MediaMatters.org, August 27, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200708270006.

  21. The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News Channel, August 28, 2007; “Fox Graphics Falsely Asserted Castro ‘Wants’ Clinton-Obama as ‘Dream Team,’ ” MediaMatters.org, August 29, 2007, mediamatters.org/research/200708290012.

  22. Fox & Friends, Fox News Channel, August 29, 2007; “Fox Graphics Falsely Asserted.”

  23. Fidel Castro, Granma Internacional, August 28, 2007; “Fox Graphics Falsely Asserted.”

  24. Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, March 2, 2008; “After Asking, ‘Do the Obamas Have a Race Problem of Their Own?’ Hannity Continued to Smear Barack and Michelle Obama,” MediaMatters.org, March 5, 2008, mediamatters.org/research/200803050004.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Ibid.

  27. “Ad Comparing Bush to Hitler Gets Heat,” FoxNews.com, January 6, 2004, www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107426,00.html.