The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (88 page)

  
92.
Some weeks after
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
93.
For years, there had been talk
Author interviews with Putnam County politicians.

  
94.
Sheriff Don Smith called
Author interview with Putnam County sheriff Don Smith.

  
95.
In June 2010
“FBI Probes Putnam,”
Putnam County Courier
, June 3, 2010.

  
96.
“This was an ego fight”
Author interview with Sam Oliverio.

  
97.
Although Uncle Vinnie
Eric Gross, “Leibell Is New County Executive,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, Nov. 3, 2010.

  
98.
Then, on Monday morning
William K. Rashbaum and Nate Schweber, “Sidewalk Meeting for State Senator and Lawyer Leads to Guilty Plea,”
New York Times
, Dec. 6, 2010. See also Ashley Parker, “Ex-Senator Gets 21-Month Prison Term in Tax Evasion Case,”
New York Times
, May 13, 2011.

  
99.
Roger and Beth were trying
Author interview with two people familiar with the matter.

100.
Initially, the proximity
Author interviews with three people in whom Joe Lindsley confided.

101.
According to two
Author interview with senior executives at Fox News.

102.
“You going to talk”
Author interview with Gordon Stewart.

103.
But as Boyer
Peter J. Boyer,
Who Killed CBS? The Undoing of America’s Number One Network
(New York: Random House, 1988).

104.
When Boyer showed up
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

105.
The
New Yorker
article
Boyer, “Fox Among the Chickens.”

106.
Ailes was pleased
Author interview with Gordon Stewart. When asked to respond to criticism of his article by some residents of Philipstown, Boyer wrote in an email: “It’s beginning to sound like you’ve decided on what you want to write, whatever the facts (you could, by the way, ask David Remnick what he thought of that piece, or Dwight Garner, book critic at the NYT who lives in Cold Spring) … C’mon, Gabe. Be a journalist. It’s an honorable calling.”

107.
Lindsley finally decided to resign
Author interviews with acquaintances of Joe Lindsley.

108.
Roger and Beth did not
Details of the former
Putnam County News & Recorder
reporters exit from the paper come from author interviews with people familiar with the matter.

109.
“They made it clear”
Author interview with Peter Boyer.

110.
In April 2011
John Cook and Hamilton Nolan, “Roger Ailes Caught Spying on the Reporters at His Small-Town Newspaper,”
Gawker
, April 18, 2011,
http://gawker.com/5793012/roger-ailes-caught-spying-on-the-reporters-at-his-small+town-newspaper
.

111.
“I hate everything”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

112.
When Ailes walked into
Author interview with a former senior Fox producer.

113.
In the spring
Author interviews with people familiar with the former
Putnam County News & Recorder
reporters.

114.
On January 31
Jeremy W. Peters, “Newsweek and Daily Beast Hire Two More,” “Media Decoder” (blog),
New York Times
, Jan. 31, 2011,
mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/newsweek-daily-beast-hire-two-more/
.

115.
On October 18
Christine Haghney and David Carr, “At Newsweek, Ending Print and a Blend of Two Styles,”
“Media Decoder”
(blog),
New York Times
, Oct. 18, 2012.

116.
Boyer found a new job
Alexander C. Kaufman, “Fox News Hires Peter J. Boyer from Newsweek,”
The Wrap
, Oct. 18, 2012,
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/fox-news_names-prestigious_newsweek-writer-editor-61251
. In an email, Boyer explained the details of his hiring at Fox News: “I hadn’t known the Aileses before I wrote that
New Yorker
story, and I spent most of my time with Beth up there at her paper. I interviewed Roger by telephone, as I recollect. A couple of months after the story was published, I met Roger socially, and we got along quite well, and over the next year or so we had a couple of lunches, and had some laughs. By this time, I’d taken the leap to
Newsweek
with Tina whom Roger knew pretty well. In the spring of 2012, Roger mentioned the prospect of coming to Fox, and by summer, he had me over to meet with his news executives about coming to the channel and working with the doc[umentary] unit (I’d done a bunch of
Frontline
s over the years). I said, Hell, yes, and haven’t looked back. It’s been great fun.”

    
1.
On Monday afternoon, March 28
Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

    
2.
“You’ve got to be crazy”
Author interview with a person familiar with the meeting.

    
3.
“Let’s make a deal”
Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

    
4.
In early 2009
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

    
5.
Things took a turn
Kate Zernike and Carl Hulse, “At the Lincoln Memorial, a Call for Religious Rebirth,”
New York Times
, Aug. 29, 2010.

    
6.
“I’m going to D.C.”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

    
7.
Ailes praised Beck
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

    
8.
Brian Lewis
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.

    
9.
Beck, who had graced the covers
Lacey Rose, “Glenn Beck Inc.,”
Forbes
, April 26, 2010; David von Drehle, “Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?,”
Time
, Sept. 28, 2009; Mark Leibovich, “Being Glenn Beck,”
New York Times Magazine
, Sept. 29, 2010.

  
10.
“Beck had his own”
Mercury Radio Arts employed Manhattan PR firm Hiltzik Strategies.

  
11.
Tensions continued
Steve Kraukauer, “Exclusive: Glenn Beck Launches ‘News and Opinion’ Website, The Blaze,”
Mediaite
, Aug. 30, 2010,
http://www.mediaite.com/online/exclusive-glenn-beck-launches-news-and-opinion-website-the-blaze-tonight/
.

  
12.
Fox executives told
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
13.
At times
,
The Blaze
Emily Esfahani Smith, “Ends vs. Means: The Ethics of Undercover Journalism,”
The Blaze
, March 9, 2011. See also Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

  
14.
Beck’s company
Bill Carter, “Former Huffington Post Chief Is Hired to Run
Glenn Beck Site,”
New York Times
, Jan. 6, 2011. See also David Bauder, “Glenn Beck’s Fox Show Ending,” Associated Press, April 7, 2011.

  
15.
Brian Lewis retaliated
Nellie Andreeva, “Glenn Beck’s Exec Expected to Leave Fox News,”
Deadline Hollywood
, March 21, 2011,
http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/Glenn-Becks-exec-to-leave-fox-news/
.

  
16.
Reporters began
Scott Collins and Melissa Maerz, “Fox Gives Beck Show the Boot,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 7, 2011. See also Robert Quigley, “Advertisers Wimp Out: ‘Boycott’ Glenn Beck, but Stay on Fox News,”
Mediaite
, Aug. 11, 2009,
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/advertisers-wimp-out-boycott-glenn-beck-but-stay-on-fox-news/
.

  
17.
On April 6
Collins and Maerz, “Fox Gives Beck’s Show the Boot.”

  
18.
When the Affordable
Author interview with a senior producer.

  
19.
In the summer of 2010
Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

  
20.
“I still like”
Jonathan Alter,
The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), 179.

  
21.
In April 2011
Bob Woodward, “Fox Chief Proposed Petraeus Campaign,”
Washington Post
, Dec. 4, 2012. See also “Petraeus in 2011 Fox News Interview: ‘I’m Not Running for President’ ” (audio),
Washington Post
, Dec. 3, 2012,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/lifestyle/style/petraeus-in-2011-fox-news-interview-im-not-running-for-president/2012/12/03/c0aa0c72-3d6d-11e2-a2d9-822f58ac9fd5_video.html
. Ailes told Woodward that his outreach to Petraeus was “a joke.” The day Woodward’s article appeared, McFarland wrote a column on
Foxnews.com
taking the blame for the scandal. “I know now that Roger was joking, but at the time, I wasn’t sure,” she wrote. According to a close McFarland friend, she wrote it under pressure from Ailes after she was banned from Fox shows. Ailes’s remark “was not a joke,” the friend said. “She was devastated by it.”

  
22.
“He adored Petraeus”
Author interview with a senior executive at Fox News. See also Jake Tapper, “
MoveOn.org
Ad Takes Aim at Petraeus,”
ABCNews
(blog), Sept. 10, 2007,
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Decision2008/Story?ID=3581727
.

  
23.
Around this time
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for the Kochs said that Charles Koch did not fly to New York. “A third party suggested a meeting but it was never scheduled,” she said.

  
24.
“Listen, the premise”
Author conversation with Roger Ailes.

  
25.
In the winter of 2011
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.

  
26.
The first Fox primary debate
Karen Tumulty, “Stage Set for First GOP Debate. So Where Are the Candidates?,”
Washington Post
, May 5, 2011.

  
27.
“I still owe you one”
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter. See also Carr and Arango, “A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics.”

  
28.
The Ailes-backed conservative
Author interviews with Philipstown residents.

  
29.
Stewart even promised
Kevin E. Foley, “Readers Can Affect Forum Questions,”
Philipstown.info
, Oct. 2, 2011.

  
30.
cover story
Murdock, “This Is the Most Powerful Man in News.”

  
31.
That day, several
Author interview with a Putnam County resident.

  
32.
After Beth gave
Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong, “Shea and Erickson Clash on Dirt Roads, Zoning Stance, Governance and More,”
Philipstown.info
, Oct. 26, 2011.

  
33.
Shea won decisively
Douglas Cunningham, “Election Day 2011,”
Putnam County News & Recorder
, Nov. 9, 2011.

  
34.
Republicans referred to
Author interview with Republican officials.

  
35.
“It’s like a town hall”
Jeff Zeleny, “The Up-Close-and-Personal Candidate? A Thing of the Past,”
New York Times
, Dec. 1, 2011.

  
36.
In the last eight months
“The Fox Primary: 8 Months, 12 Candidates, 604 Appearances, 4644 Minutes,”
Media Matters for America
, Feb. 27, 2012,
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/02/27/the-fox-primary-8-months-12-candidates-604-appe/185876
.

  
37.
“I’m sorry, we’re only”
Author interview with a senior CNN producer.

  
38.
“He doesn’t like green energy”
Author interview with a senior producer.

  
39.
“Governor Huckabee”
Michael D. Shear, “Huckabee a Candidate? Tune In at 8,”
New York Times
, May 14, 2011.

  
40.
On the night of May 14
Jack Mirkinson, “Mike Huckabee Gets Mixed Ratings for Presidential Announcement,”
Huffington Post
, May 17, 2011,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/mike-huckabee-gets-mixed-_n_863073.html
.

  
41.
Ailes, like any director
Gabriel Sherman, “Sarah Palin Got Scolded by a Furious Roger Ailes,”
New York
, Nov. 21, 2011.

  
42.
In October, Sarah Palin
Michael D. Shear, “After Summer of Speculation, Palin Says She Won’t Join the 2012 Race,”
New York Times
, Oct. 6, 2011. See also: Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room.”

  
43.
In a private conversation
Author interview with a person familiar with the conversation.

  
44.
Romney’s shaky interview
“Interview with Mitt Romney” (transcript),
Finance Wire
, Nov. 29, 2011.

  
45.
Romney’s campaign did not think
Author interview with a Romney adviser.

  
46.
When the cameras cut
Jack Mirkinson, “Mitt Romney Complained About Fox News Interview,”
Huffington Post
, Dec. 1, 2011,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/mitt-romney-fox-news-bret-baier_n_1122801.html
.

  
47.
After receiving just
“Republican Primary Map” (interactive graphic),
New York Times
,
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/results
, accessed Nov. 15, 2013.

  
48.
His springboard
CQ Transcriptions, Republican presidential debate (transcript), Jan. 16, 2012.

  
49.
Gingrich carried
“Republican Primary Map,”
New York Times
.

  
50.
Stuart Stevens
Author interview with a senior Romney adviser.

  
51.
In one editorial meeting
Author interview with a senior Fox producer.

  
52.
Fox News was on track
Brian Stelter, “Fox News Is Set to Renew O’Reilly and Hannity Through 2016 Elections,” “Media Decoder” (blog),
New York Times
, April 19, 2012,
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/fox-news-is-set-to-renew-oreilly-and-hannity-through-2016-elections/
.

  
53.
“Listen, one out of every”
Howard Kurtz, “Roger’s Reality Show,”
Newsweek
, Sept. 25, 2011.

  
54.
In the fall of 2011
Author interviews with a person familiar with the matter. Fox also feuded with one of its own local Fox stations. In April 2010, a senior Fox News executive named David Winstrom sent a critical letter to Steve Smith, the chairman and CEO of Journal Communications, the parent company of the Fox broadcast affiliate in Naples, Florida. A reporter for the affiliate, Rob Koebel, had interviewed Ailes at Ave Maria Law School, the conservative Catholic institution funded by Domino’s Pizza billionaire Tom Monaghan. Media Matters had posted the interview online. “The story your station produced and aired was forwarded to me,” Winstrom wrote Smith. “I was surprised at the bias in the story. At Fox we understand when you’re number 1 you need a thick skin because other news organizations are going to take shots at you. I was just surprised one of our own Fox affiliates would be taking the shots.” The letter noted that Koebel had asked Ailes: “How do you defend [Fox News] from the critics especially when you have a lineup that includes Sarah Palin?” Winstrom informed Smith that he hadn’t “discussed the interview with Roger” and added “he probably doesn’t have any strong feelings one way or another about the clearly biased questions.” But, Winstrom explained, “Fair & Balanced is not just a slogan.… The Fox News Channel has a strong following in Florida. We appreciate the south Florida viewers. I hope that your Fox station and our Fox News team can work at keeping those loyal viewers.”

  
55.
“I’d give anything”
Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 234.

  
56.
“I don’t want the kid”
Sella, “Red-State Network.”

  
57.
“He has common feelings”
Author interview with a close colleague of Roger Ailes.

  
58.
When Zachary was twelve
Author interview with a Dilenschneider Group employee.

  
59.
Around this time
Chafets,
Roger Ailes
, 235.

  
60.
In February 2012
Author interview with Gordon Stewart.

  
61.
That week
Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong, “Neighbors Object to Mega-Structure for Art Collection,”
Philipstown.info
, Feb. 20, 2012,
http://philipstown.info/2012/02/20/neighbors-object-to-mega-structure-for-art-collection/
.

  
62.
Later that month
David Brock, Ari Rabin-Haft, and Media Matters for America,
The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine
(New York: Random House, 2012).

  
63.
“He was obsessed”
Author interview with a Fox News contributor.

  
64.
In retaliation
“The Fox Effect: The Book That Terrifies Roger Ailes and Fox News,”
Daily Kos
, Feb. 28, 2012,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/28/1069245/-The-Fox-Effect-The-Book-That-Terrifies-Roger-Ailes-And-Fox-News
.

  
65.
On April 10
“Announcing Our Newest Hire: A Current Fox News Channel Employee,”
Gawker
, April 10, 2012,
http://gawker.com/5900710/announcing-our-newest-hire-a-current-fox-news-channel-employee
.

  
66.
Within twenty-four hours
Joe Muto, “Hi Roger. It’s Me, Joe: The Fox Mole,”
Gawker
, April 11, 2012,
http://gawker.com/5901228/hi-roger-its-me-joe-the-fox-mole
.

  
67.
When Muto quickly landed
John Cook, “A Low Six-Figure Book Deal for the Fox Mole,”
Gawker
, May 3, 2012,
http://gawker.com/5907475/a-low-six+figure-book-deal-for-the-fox-mole
.