The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (87 page)

  
89.
O’Reilly was regularly crowned
Howard Kurtz, “Out and a Bout,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 7, 2009. See also Kurtz, “Feud Fuels Bill O’Reilly’s Blasts at GE,”
Washington Post
, May 19, 2008; Keith Olbermann,
The Worst Person in the World: And 202
Strong Contenders
(Hoboken: John Wiley, 2006).

  
90.
Raising the stakes
See Kurtz, “Feud Fuels Bill O’Reilly’s Blasts at GE,” for each of O’Reilly’s comments regarding Immelt, the incident with the GE logo, and O’Reilly’s comments regarding Zucker.

  
91.
Ailes had warned Zucker
At the time it was reported that Roger Ailes threatened to use the
New York Post
to go after Jeff Zucker, Ailes denied it.

  
92.
Beth Comstock
Author interviews with a person familiar with the matter. See also Kurtz, “Out and About.”

  
93.
The whole deal got blowtorched
Brian Stelter, “Voices from Above Silence a Cable TV Feud,”
New York Times
, July 31, 2009.

  
94.
During his “Worst Persons” segment
Keith Olbermann, “Worst Persons” (transcript),
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
, MSNBC, Aug. 3, 2009.

  
95.
O’Reilly answered
Bill O’Reilly, “Talking Points Memo” (transcript),
The O’Reilly Factor
, Fox News, Aug. 5, 2009.

  
96.
He set up an anonymous
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter. Appearing on
Fox News Watch
the evening of April 26, 2008, Pinkerton mentioned a story he had read about on “a blog called the Cable Game,” which pointed out that Reverend Jeremiah Wright had an enormous stake in Obama losing, given how often he’d said that white people are terrible. Pinkerton did not respond to requests for comment.

  
97.
“Is CNN on the Side”
“Is CNN on the Side of the Killers and Terrorists in Iraq?,”
Cable Game
(defunct blog), Oct. 24, 2006; archived at
http://web.archive.org/web/20061025010450/http://thecablegame.blogspot.com/
.

  
98.
“David Brock Gets Caught!”
“David Brock Gets Caught! (Although Secretly, He Probably Loves Being Naughty and Nasty),”
Cable Game
(defunct blog), Sept. 28, 2007; archived at
http://web.archive.org/web/20070929103305/http://thecablegame.blogspot.com/
.

  
99.
He called Ailes
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter. When asked to comment, Klein wrote, “I’m not confirming I ever had that convo w Roger,” adding: “I think a good executive quietly does what he or she needs to do
to protect the team and the brand. Roger enjoys the game and respects others who can play it.”

100.
Cooper wouldn’t announce
Andrew Sullivan, “Anderson Cooper: ‘The Fact Is, I’m Gay,’ ” “The Dish” (blog),
AndrewSullivan.com
, July 2, 2012,
http://www.dish.andrewsullivan.com/2012/07/02/anderson-cooper-the-fact-is-im-gay/
.

101.
Klein did not last
Brian Stelter, “CNN Fires Executive Who Led Makeover,”
New York Times
, Sept. 24, 2010.

102.
For Sarah Palin
Most of the information in the following paragraphs was originally reported in Gabriel Sherman, “The Revolution Will Be Commercialized,”
New York
, May 3, 2010.

103.
Her sky-high approval ratings
Becky Bohrer, “Palin Center Stage in Politics, but What of 2012?,” Associated Press, July 2, 2010.

104.
The worst was
Rachel D’Oro, “New Palin Defense Fund Uses Fighting Words,” Associated Press, June 29, 2010.

105.
In November 2008
Matea Gold, “Palin to Talk with Van Susteren,”
Los Angeles Times
, Nov. 8, 2008.

106.
Later, the Fox camera crew
Author interview with a person familiar with the situation.

107.
Conservative pundit
Scott Martelle, “The Book on Sarah Palin,”
Los Angeles Times
, Nov. 12, 2009. See also author interview with Mary Matalin.

108.
with Alaska’s strict ethics rules
Hillel Italie, “Palin Has Book Deal, Memoir to Come Next Year,” Associated Press, May 13, 2009.

109.
On the morning of July 3
Rachel D’Oro, “Palin Resigning as Alaska Governor,” Associated Press, July 3, 2009.

110.
Once she resigned
Sherman, “The Revolution Will Be Commercialized.”

111.
in September 2009
Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.” See also Sherman, “The Revolution Will Be Commercialized.”

112.
In January 2010
Jim Rutenberg, “Palin Joins Fox News Team,”
New York Times
, Jan. 12, 2010. See also Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

113.
A Wall Street analyst
“The 35 Most Powerful People in Media,”
Hollywood Reporter
, April 20, 2012.

114.
In 2009, Ailes earned
Carr and Arango, “A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics.”

115.
Ailes “predicted”
Author interview with a senior Fox producer.

116.
In the midterms
Quinn Bowman and Chris Amico, “Congress Loses Hundreds of Years of Experience—But Majority of Incumbents Stick Around,” “The Rundown” (blog),
PBS NewsHour
, Nov. 5, 2010,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/11/congress-loses-hundreds-of-years-of-experience---but-vast-majority-of-incumbents-stick-around.html
.

117.
“I’ve never seen anyone build”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

118.
Sean Hannity complained
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

119.
And it didn’t help matters
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

120.
In March
Howard Kurtz, “The Beck Factor at Fox,”
Washington Post
, March 15, 2010.

121.
Palin also ruffled
Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

122.
In the control room
Author interview with an employee of Fox News.

123.
Ailes began to doubt
Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

124.
her website had put the image
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sarah-palins-crosshairs-ad-focus-gabrielle-giffords-debate/story?id=12576437
.

125.
“He thinks Palin is an idiot”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

126.
Ailes also got an earful Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

127.
Christine “I’m not a witch”
O’Donnell Ashley Parker, “O’Donnell Ad Confronts Reports on Her Past,” “The Caucus” (blog),
New York Times
, Oct. 4, 2010.

128.
“Why are you letting Palin”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

129.
One afternoon
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

    
1.
“All I ever wanted”
Peter Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens,”
New Yorker
, Jan. 31, 2011.

    
2.
Putnam County even had
See Putnam County Board of Elections,
http://www.putnamcountyny.com/board-of-elections/election-results
, accessed Nov. 15, 2013.

    
3.
From his mountaintop aerie
Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 105.

    
4.
To the west
“Obstructed the Hudson: Chains Used for This Purpose During the Revolutionary War,”
New York Times
, Feb. 17, 1895.

    
5.
To the north
“West Point Foundry Preserve Re-opens Oct. 19,”
Philipstown.info
, Oct. 16, 2013,
http://philipstown.info/2013/10/16/scenic-hudson-and-partners-celebrate-new-park-opening-at-historic-west-point-foundry-preserve
.

    
6.
The grand interior
Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 105–6.

    
7.
They attended
Ibid., 175.

    
8.
Leonora Burton
Author interview with Cold Spring shop owner Leonora Burton.

    
9.
One was that
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
10.
Buying
The Putnam County News
Brian Stelter, “Big-Time Cable News to Small-Town Paper,”
New York Times
, July 14, 2008.

  
11.
Founded in the mid-nineteenth century
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
12.
In a one-room office
Ibid.

  
13.
“It covered the 4-H Club”
Author interview with investment adviser Elizabeth Anderson.

  
14.
Letters to the editor
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
15.
When citizens complained
Author interview with former
Putnam County News & Recorder
employees.

  
16.
In the 1960s
Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission
, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Docket 29853.

  
17.
The ensuing legal battle
Kathleen Teltsch, “Hudson Group Seeking River Study Proposals,”
New York Times
, Dec. 19, 1982.

  
18.
The landmark victory
Marist College, “Scenic Hudson Collection: Records Relating to the Storm King Case, 1963–1981,” historical note,
http://library.marist.edu/archives/shc/scenichudsoncollection.xml
, accessed Nov. 13, 2013.

  
19.
In Philipstown, a host
See Open Space Institute, Hudson Highlands Land Trust.

  
20.
the Garrison Institute Garrison Institute
, “Mission and Vision,”
http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/about-us/mission-and-vision
, accessed Nov. 13, 2013.

  
21.
One morning in July 2008
Author interviews with
Putnam County News & Recorder
employees.

  
22.
They could keep their jobs
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
23.
“The first one”
Author interview with journalist Michael Turton.

  
24.
In public
Stelter, “Big-Time Cable News to Small-Town Paper.”

  
25.
“He said the community”
Author interview with Kevin Foley.

  
26.
campaign volunteer
Matthew Boyle, “A Force Behind Met Life’s IPO,”
PR Week
, July 26, 1999.

  
27.
Later that summer
Author interviews with former
Putnam County News & Recorder
employees.

  
28.
she didn’t last
Maureen Hunt email to
Putnam County News & Recorder
staff, Oct. 31, 2008.

  
29.
Alison Rooney
Author interview with a former
Putnam County News & Recorder
employee.

  
30.
But that honeymoon ended
“Myth and Deception at Play in Maria Pia Marrella Exhibit at Garrison Art Center,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, March 4, 2009.

  
31.
After the release
Reverend Brian McSweeney, “A Degradation of the Religious Beliefs of the Catholic Church,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, March 11, 2009.

  
32.
A few weeks later
“PVHS TheatreWorks Presents a Musical,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, April 15, 2009.

  
33.
After the event
Draft of article submitted by Michael Turton on the October 2008 mock election at Haldane Middle School viewed by author.

  
34.
The headline had been changed
Michael Turton, “Mock Presidential Election Held at Haldane,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, Oct. 22, 2008.

  
35.
“I’ve been mulling”
Email from Michael Turton to Maureen Hunt and Brian O’Donnell.

  
36.
a series of accusatory emails
Email correspondence between Michael Turton, Beth Ailes, and Roger Ailes. Beth Ailes declined to be interviewed for this book.

  
37.
In February 2009
Author interview with a person familiar with the meeting.

  
38.
Lindsley came on
Author interview with former News Corp executive Martin Singerman.

  
39.
Lindsley jumped at the opportunity
Author interviews with acquaintances of Joe Lindsley. Lindsley declined to comment.

  
40.
“[Ailes] was said”
Author interview with Leonora Burton.

  
41.
“I don’t think”
Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.

  
42.
“A team of landscapers”
Leonora Burton,
Lament of an Expat: How I Discovered America and Tried to Mend It
(Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2013), 164–65.

  
43.
“He can live”
Author interview with a friend of Roger Ailes.

  
44.
“I’m not allowed”
Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.

  
45.
As Lindsley began
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
46.
The unsigned attack
“Debt, Decisions, and Destiny” (editorial),
Putnam County News & Recorder
, May 13, 2009.

  
47.
Leonora Burton stopped selling the paper
Author interview with Leonora Burton.

  
48.
Elizabeth Anderson later decided
Author interview with Elizabeth Anderson.

  
49.
Lindsley relished the partisan combat
Author interviews with acquaintances of Joe Lindsley.

  
50.
James Borkowski
Author interview with attorney and former Putnam County town justice James Borkowski.

  
51.
Borkowski lost to Smith
Terence Corcoran, “Smith Easily Defeats McConville for 3rd Term as Putnam Sheriff,”
Journal News
(Westchester County), Nov. 4, 2009.

  
52.
Richard Shea
See website for Richard Shea Construction,
http://www.richardsheaconstruction.com/contact
.

  
53.
“Jesus, wait a minute”
Junod, “Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America?”

  
54.
The first time Shea met Ailes
Carr and Arango, “A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics.”

  
55.
A few weeks later
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter. Richard Shea declined to comment.

  
56.
“You can’t mention”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
57.
“You have no fucking idea”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
58.
Jeannette Yannitelli
Author interview with Putnam County resident Jeannette Yannitelli.

  
59.
Shortly before 7:30
“Residential Re-Zoning: Will Property Owners Weigh In?,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, April 7, 2010.

  
60.
“Let us observe”
Account of the meeting comes from “Zoning Workshop Draws Hundreds,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, April 14, 2010.

  
61.
An hour into the contentious meeting
Transcript provided by Cold Spring resident Susan Peehl.

  
62.
Ailes stood up and intervened
For footage of Ailes’s remarks, see YouTube video of town hall meeting at Haldane High School on April 7, 2010 (video by Susan Peehl),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqEErpyQWAs
.

  
63.
Ailes loved to quote Washington
In an email from Mary Thompson, a research historian at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington: “We’d love to know the source where you found this alleged quote, so that we can add it to our records on spurious George Washington quotes.” The phrase “a violation of my property is a violation of my personhood” appears in L. William Countryman,
Dirt, Greed, & Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and Their Implications for Today
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), p. 144, in a chapter on women and children as property.

  
64.
After the meeting concluded
Author interview with Philipstown board member Nancy Montgomery.

  
65.
Later, Ailes had his own version
Junod, “Roger Ailes on Roger Ailes: The Interview Transcripts, Part 2.”

  
66.
In the fall of 2010
Author interview with two persons familiar with the meeting in Richard Shea’s office. Shea declined to comment on the meeting.

  
67.
“It was ninety percent inaccurate”
Author interview with land use attorney Joel Russell.

  
68.
To that end
Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong, “Mystery Point Sold to Billionaire Philanthropist,”
Philipstown.info
, June 22, 2013,
http://philipstown.info/2013/06/22/mystery-point-sold-to-billionaire-philanthropist/
.

  
69.
“I used to think”
Author interview with Philipstown supervisor Richard Shea.

  
70.
Putnam County resident Gordon Stewart
Author interview with Gordon Stewart.

  
71.
“He was an easy guy”
Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.

  
72.
Shortly after Stewart
Author interview with Gordon Stewart. See also Annie Chesnut, “District Settles with School-Related Personnel,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, Dec. 17, 2008.

  
73.
In the fall of 2009
Author interviews with Gordon Stewart and Susan Peehl.

  
74.
When Ailes got wind
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
75.
But by the time
Author interview with Gordon Stewart.

  
76.
On Tuesday morning, July 6
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

  
77.
The following day
Author interview with Gordon Stewart.

  
78.
“There was no push”
Author interview with a former senior executive at Fox News.

  
79.
Ailes decided to sit
Author interview with Gordon Stewart.

  
80.
“They thought”
Author interview with former
Putnam County News & Recorder
reporter Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong.

  
81.
Alison Rooney noticed
Author interview with Gordon Stewart. Rooney declined to comment.

  
82.
“It was weird”
Author interview with a former
Putnam County News & Recorder
employee.

  
83.
Tucked between the articles
Putnam County News & Recorder
, July 14, 2010, 10.

  
84.
T. J. Haley
The details of Haley’s tenure at
The Putnam County News & Recorder
come from author interviews with acquaintances of Haley and people familiar with the matter. Haley declined to comment.

  
85.
The decor in the bathroom
Author interview with a person who visited the
Putnam County News & Recorder
office.

  
86.
Like Haley, Panny
See résumé of Carli-Rae Panny at
www.carliraepanny.com/resume.html
, 6accessed Nov. 13, 2013.

  
87.
“Anytime that anyone”
Author interview with a Putnam County politician. Leibell declined to comment.

  
88.
“Vinnie thought it was great”
Author interview with Putnam County legislator Sam Oliverio.

  
89.
They ran into each other
Author interview with an acquaintance of Vincent Leibell.

  
90.
Ailes spent months
Author interview with two Leibell family intimates.

  
91.
In the spring of 2010
Michael Brendan Dougherty, “Longtime Senator Has Staying Power,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, April 28, 2010.