48. In late November 1995 Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 18.
49. “It was very, very uncomfortable” Ibid.
50. “He said he would run it” Author interview with Robert Wright.
51. “I love competition” Elizabeth Sanger, “Financial News Is Hot,” Newsday, Dec. 3, 1995.
52. On December 14 Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 5–10, 17.
53. On-screen, Bob Wright CNBC/Dow Jones Business Video, “NBC Holds News Conference to Announce New 24-Hour News Channel” (transcript), Dec. 14, 1995.
54. Microsoft was investing Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 9.
55. The staggering $7.5 billion Mark Landler, “Turner to Merge into Time Warner; a $7.5 Billion Deal,” New York Times, Sept. 23, 1995.
56. In early December United Press International, “ABC to Launch 24-Hour Cable News Channel,” Dec. 5, 1995.
57. Speaking to a group Associated Press, “Murdoch Planning All-News TV Network,” Nov. 29, 1995.
58. Just a few months earlier Ken Auletta, “The Pirate,” New Yorker, Nov. 13, 1995.
59. A day after Murdoch’s announcement “Battle of the Cable Stars: Turner Unfazed by Murdoch All-News Network Challenge,” Los Angeles Times, Times Wire Services, Nov. 30, 1995.
60. “From CNN’s earliest days” Turner and Burke, Call Me Ted, 336.
61. One reporter asked CNBC/Dow Jones, “NBC Holds News Conference to Announce New 24-Hour News Channel.”
62. “Fuck them” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 17.
63. “I remember Dan Quayle” Author interview with a former America’s Talking producer.
64. Vanity Fair Marie Brenner, “Steve Forbes’s Quixotic Presidential Quest,” Vanity Fair, Jan. 1996.
65. When The Washington Post Howard Kurtz, “CNBC’s Roger Ailes, Talking a Fine Line,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1995.
66. Ten days later Liz Smith, “Roger’s a Free Man,” Newsday, Dec. 11, 1995.
67. “We both realized” Author interview with former General Electric chairman Jack Welch.
68. On January 9 NBC separation agreement with Roger Ailes.
69. A week later, dozens Scott Williams, “Roger Ailes Out at CNBC,” Associated Press, Jan. 18, 1996.
70. “Now look” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 21.
71. “When Roger came out” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 22.
72. “It’s an awkward day” Ibid.
73. What Wright did not say Author interview with Robert Wright.
74. Tom Rogers left Richard Katz, “NBC’s Rogers Takes Post as Primedia’s CEO,” Variety.com, Sept. 28, 1999, http://www.variety.com/1999/biz/news/nbc-s-rogers-takes-post-as-primedia-ceo-1117756095/. See also Michael Singer, “Tom Rogers Named New CEO of TiVo,” CNET News, June 27, 2005, http://news.cnet.com/Tom-Rogers-named-new-CEO-of-TiVo/2100-1040_3-5764357.html.
75. David Zaslav followed Rogers Paula Bernstein, “Zaslav Is Wired to Replace Rogers as NBC Cable Chief,” Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 5, 1999. See also Ana Campoy, “Discovery Communications Names David Zaslav CEO,” Marketwatch, Nov. 16, 2006, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/discovery-communications-names-david-zaslav-ceo.
76. In 2011 Christina Rexrode and Bernard Condon, “Typical CEO Made $9.6 Million Last Year, AP Study Finds,” Associated Press, May 25, 2012.
77. In the weeks before his departure Author interview with former executives at CNBC.
78. The New York Daily News Richard Huff and Douglas Feiden, “Ailes Quits CNBC, Ch. 4 GM Steps In,” New York Daily News, Jan. 19, 1996.
79. Earlier that fall Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 22–23. See also Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
ELEVEN: THE AUSSIE AND THE MIDWESTERNER
1. Less than two weeks after Scott Williams, “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-Hour TV News Channel,” Associated Press, Jan. 30, 1996. See also Bill Carter, “Murdoch Joins a Cable-TV Rush into the Crowded All-News Field,” New York Times, Jan. 31, 1996; and Washington Post, “Ailes to Run Murdoch’s New Network,” Jan. 31, 1996. The Times reported that the channel was not yet named, while the Post said it was to be called the Fox All News Network or Fox News.
2. But the tabloid saga Author interviews with CNN executives, anchors, and producers.
3. In a break from Howard Kurtz, “The Little Network with Big Names,” Washington Post, July 12, 1996. See also John Carmody, “The TV Column,” Washington Post, Aug. 18, 1997.
4. “The appetite for news” Williams, “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-Hour TV News Channel.”
5. “entrepreneurial spirit” Jane Hall, “Murdoch Will Launch 24-Hour News Channel,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 31, 1996.
6. “We’re not starting up” Paavo Thabit, “Roger Ailes to Head Fox’s New Venture,” United Press International, Jan. 30, 1996.
7. “I don’t think people” Richard Huff and Tom Lowry, “It’s Roger and Rupert: Murdoch Taps Ailes to Head News Venture,” New York Daily News, Jan. 31, 1996.
8. Ailes said that it Gary Levin, “Murdoch Makes News; Confirms Ailes Hire to New News Web,” Daily Variety, Jan. 31, 1996.
9. “I left politics” Thabit, “Roger Ailes to Head Fox’s New Venture.”
10. Murdoch’s grandiosity For Murdoch’s career, see William Shawcross, Murdoch: The Making of a Media Empire (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992); Thomas Kiernan, Citizen Murdoch (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986); Michael Wolff, Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch: The Man Who Owns the News (New York: Random House, 2008); Andrew Neil, Full Disclosure: The Most Candid and Revealing Portrait of Rupert Murdoch Ever (London: Macmillan, 1996); Ken Auletta, “The Pirate,” New Yorker, Nov. 13, 1995.
11. In Britain William Shawcross, Murdoch: The Making of a Media Empire (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 113, 128–29.
12. in Australia Jenny Hocking, “How Murdoch Wrote the Final Act in Gough Saga,” Melbourne (Australia) Sunday Age, Aug. 26, 2012. See also Philip Dorling, “Getting Gough; Murdoch Files—‘He Was a Partisan Political Player Working with Fraser,’ ” Melbourne (Australia) Age, Nov. 19, 2011.
13. And in New York Jennifer Preston, “Murdoch’s Denials of Political Favors Hard to Swallow in New York,” “City Room” (blog), New York Times, April 27, 2012, http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/Murdochs-denials-of-political-favors-hard-to-swallow-in-New-York/. In an October 4, 2010, interview with the documentary filmmaker Neil Barsky, Koch recalled Murdoch’s influence: “It was interesting how I found out. I was home. I usually left my house at 6:30 in the morning to get on my … political transportation, we called it the ‘beastmobile,’ it was a sort of a large camper, I don’t even know what it … and it broke down in front of my house. So, the guy who was driving it called me to say ‘Don’t come down, I’ll call you when it’s ready.’ So instead of leaving at 6:30, I’m still in the house at 7:00. The phone rings, and the voice said, ‘Is Congressman Koch there?’ and I, being somewhat suspicious, said, ‘Who’s calling?’ And he said, ‘Rupert.’ And I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know any Rupert. Rupert’s not a Jewish name, who could this be?’ So, I said, ‘Rupert who?’ and he said, as I recall, ‘Rupert Murdoch.’ ‘Oh yes, Rupert! How can I help?’ ‘Congressman, the Post will be endorsing you today in a front-page editorial and I hope that it helps you.’ I said, ‘Rupert, you’ve just elected me.’ And that was the major conversation.”