The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (75 page)

  
95.
This reality was confirmed
Cramer,
What It Takes
, 729.

  
96.
That morning
Newsweek
, Oct. 19, 1987.

  
97.
The press response
Cramer,
What It Takes
, 730–31.

  
98.
“Ab-so-lute-ly no!”
Mathews and Goldman,
The Quest for the Presidency
, 198.

  
99.
A few days before
Author interview with Craig Fuller.

100.
Rather was planning
Matthews and Goldman,
The Quest for the Presidency
, 198.

101.
“I knew if we were”
Author interview with Craig Fuller.

102.
Ailes met with Bush
Ibid.

103.
“All they have to do”
Mathews and Goldman,
The Quest for the Presidency
, 199.

104.
Fuller proposed a zinger
Cramer,
What It Takes
, 852.

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 Career 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.