62. In Los Angeles “Cyperspace; L.A. Hooks Up with 26,000 Cable Types,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1996.
63. He bragged Chuck Taylor, “NBC-Microsoft Channel May Not Be Available Here,” Seattle Times, April 30, 1996.
64. Malone held stakes Ken Auletta, “John Malone: Flying Solo,” New Yorker, Feb. 7, 1994.
65. “We are the only players” Scott Hettrick, “MSNBC Awaits Word from TW,” Hollywood Reporter, April 30, 1996.
66. Andy Lack announced “Bryant Gumbel to Join NBC Colleagues as a Host for Prime-Time Talk Program on MSNBC Cable,” PR Newswire, April 29, 1996.
67. “We’re here persuading” Taylor, “NBC-Microsoft Channel May Not Be Available Here.”
68. “I went into their booth” Author interview with Richard Aurelio.
69. “I’m not going to tell you” Kim Masters and Bryan Burrough, “Cable Guys,” Vanity Fair, Jan. 1997.
70. “There’s a ritual dance” David Lieberman, “Ailes Tackles Toughest Assignment,” USA Today, Sept. 23, 1996.
71. In 1996 Richard Mahler, “Media Overload?,” Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1996.
72. Murdoch flipped the equation Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”
73. “We had to put something on the table” Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”
74. As one former Ailes colleague Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
75. Less than a month Bill Carter, “ABC’s All-News Cable Channel Is Shelved,” New York Times, May 24, 1996.
76. Ailes gloated David Lieberman, “Cap Cities/ABC Cuts Cord on Cable News,” USA Today, May 24, 1996.
77. Dozens of CNBC and A-T executives Author interview with a former Fox News executive. See also Brian Lewis, master’s thesis, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dec. 11, 1995, available at https://coolcat.fdu.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=442618.
78. In all, eighty-two Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
79. That spring John Motavalli, “Fox vs. CNBC? Now That Would Be a Grudge Match,” New York Times, March 6, 2003.
80. “Our view” Stephen Battaglio, “Peacock Unruffled by Fox News $10 Cable Bid,” Hollywood Reporter, May 7, 1996.
81. On Friday, May 31 Letter from attorney Justin Manus to NBC executive vice president for employee relations Edward Scanlon, May 31, 1996.
82. Several days later Letter from NBC general counsel Richard Cotton to Justin Manus, June 4, 1996.
83. The system reached “Time Warner Closes Merger with Cablevision Industries,” PR Newswire, Jan. 4, 1996.
84. In early June Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”
85. After the lunch Letter from Rupert Murdoch to Gerald Levin, June 4, 1996.
86. FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky Mark Landler, “An Accord That Could Help Murdoch,” New York Times, July 18, 1996.
87. On the morning of June 24 Bill Carter, “TCI Reaches Deal with Fox to Carry All-News Channel,” New York Times, June 25, 1996.
88. “There’s a huge diversity” Ken Auletta, “John Malone: Flying Solo,” New Yorker, Feb. 7, 1994.
89. Ailes denied Carter, “TCI Reaches Deal with Fox.”
90. As important, Malone “Rumors Dog News Station Debut,” Bergen Record, July 16, 1996. See also Elizabeth Sanger, “Cable News Sweepstakes; Time Warner, Fox in Negotiations as MSNBC Debuts,” Newsday, July 16, 1996; and Hiawatha Bray, “Network Official Reveals Higher Level of Competition,” Boston Globe, July 16, 1996.
91. A few weeks after Jeffrey Daniels, “Murdoch Has the Whole New World in His Hands,” Hollywood Reporter, July 18, 1996.
TWELVE: OCTOBER SURPRISE
1. “People are going to be on television” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 130–31.
2. At 9:00 a.m. “Television; Electronic Eye Candy Dominates Hip Debut,” Boston Herald, July 16, 1996; MSNBC’s On-Air Launch, 1996 07–15 (video), YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSS2s-4PrNQ.
3. Jodi Applegate “ ‘Today’ Taps Applegate,” Daily Variety, April 3, 1996.
4. On the day of the launch Jane Hall, “Upstarts Hope to Make News of Their Own,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1996.
5. “MSNBC,” he had told USA Today David Lieberman, “Malone, Murdoch Forge All-New Cable Deals,” USA Today, June 25, 1996.
6. As NBC took out Gary Levin and John Dempsey, “MSNBC Clears 1st Hurdle at Bow,” Variety, July 15, 1996–July 21, 1996.
7. Ailes assigned Scott Ehrlich Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
8. “It was a no-brainer” Author interview with Robert Ailes Jr.
9. two days later, when MSNBC David Hinckley, “Imus Gets to Don a High Profile on MSNBC,” New York Daily News, July 18, 1996.
10. On Thursday, July 18 Jonathan Storm, “TV Critics Get a Posh Peak at New Season. They’re Plunked in Classic Cars. Serenaded by Sheryl Crow. It’s All Part of the Selling of Shows,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 15, 1996.
11. The assembled reporters received printouts John Carmody, “The TV Column,” Washington Post, July 19, 1996.
12. “We’re not going to consider” Chuck Taylor, “Fall TV—Fox Will Jump into the ‘Very Competitive’ All-News Arena,” Seattle Times, July 19, 1996.
13. Gone was the hype Williams, “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-Hour TV News Channel.”
14. “We have not claimed” Richard Huff, “Aiming to Outfox CNN, MSNBC,” New York Daily News, July 19, 1996.
15. “If you couldn’t give me” Stephen Battaglio, “Fox News Net Will Debut Oct. 7,” Hollywood Reporter, July 19, 1996.
16. “It’s a very competitive climate” Ibid.
17. Unlike MSNBC, which had Peter Johnson, “NBC Spells Out Format for Cable News Channel,” USA Today, April 18, 1996.
18. “There is no status” Greg Braxton, “Fox News Announces Oct. 7 Launch of Cable Channel,” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1996.
19. “Roger is a political animal” Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
20. The construction of studio space This paragraph is based on author interviews with Fox News executives.
21. Bahman Samiian See résumé at http://www.bahmansamiian.com/resume.pdf.
22. “We had to do more” Author interview with a former Fox News staffer.