86. It was a play off Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
87. In an interview that fall Verne Gay, “The All-News Wars Heat Up,” Newsday, Oct. 7, 1996.
88. “Journalists are by and large intelligent” Jon Lafayette, “Fox’s Upstart All-News Cable Channel to Take High Ground, Says Chairman,” Crain’s New York Business, Sept. 16, 1996.
89. “I have noticed” Dougherty, “Fox News Chairman: Cable Service Shooting for ‘Balanced’ Coverage.”
90. Fox’s three foreign bureaus Mifflin, “At the New Fox News Channel, the Buzzword Is Fairness, Separating News from Bias.”
91. CNN’s twenty “Galaxy Latin America Announces Agreement with Turner Broadcasting,” PR Newswire, July 9, 1996.
92. The projected staff of five hundred Lafayette, “ ‘Fairness’ Will Set Fox News Apart.”
93. Even O’Reilly was disappointed Kitman, The Man Who Would Not Shut Up, 169–70.
94. In the end, Fox would Peter Johnson, “Fox Treads into 24-Hour Cable News,” USA Today, Oct. 7, 1996.
95. The indoctrination began Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 79. Author interviews with persons present.
96. “He put it out there” Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
97. He introduced Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 80.
98. At the orientation Author interview with Jay Ringelstein.
99. “There was almost a sense” Author interview with Mike Schneider.
100. “I don’t expect” Mifflin, “At the New Fox News Channel, the Buzzword Is Fairness, Separating News from Bias.”
101. In one early session Author interview with former Fox News producer Adam Sank. During his years at Fox, Sank remembered several incidents he experienced as being anti-gay. In the fall of 1998, when the torture and murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard sparked a national uproar, Moody told Fox producers that they should not play into the media narrative. “He was apoplectic about the coverage,” Sank recalled. “He said, ‘this is an insane amount of coverage that this story is getting. If this wasn’t a slow news week, no one would be paying attention.’ ” Sank was upset by Moody’s seeming indifference to the impact of the heinous crime. Months later, Sank was outraged when Bret Baier invoked Matthew Shepard during a report on a grisly Arkansas case, in which two gay men were accused of sexually abusing and murdering a thirteen-year-old boy. “Nobody except for extreme right-wing blogs was comparing it to Matthew Shepard,” Sank said. “I wanted to leave my first day, but when this happened, I knew I had to just get out.” In 2002, senior management criticized him for airing a segment about a gay pride parade in Los Angeles. “I immediately got word that the powers that be were displeased,” he recalled. His boss pulled him into an editing room and told him that Ailes and Moody thought the piece was “not fair and balanced” and that he “should have known better [than] to run a piece like that.” Sank left Fox News several weeks later.
102. Pointing to an article “Gay Zimbabweans Win Fight for Book-Fair Booth,” New York Times, Aug. 2, 1996.
103. “Maybe the words” Gay, “The All-News Wars Heat Up.”
104. Fox News, the memos stated Sella, “Red State Network.”
105. Though credit for the slogan Author interview with advertising executive Tom Messner.
106. To wit Hass, “Embracing the Enemy.”
107. These friends of Roger Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
108. “I was creeped out” Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
109. It was not the mere fact Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
110. What they found Author interview with Jordan Kurzweil and Fox News producers.
111. “These guys were researching people” Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
112. “It was very Nixonian” Author interview with a former Fox News senior producer.
113. One source close to Ailes Author interview with a colleague of Roger Ailes.
114. According to broadcast consultant Author interview with George Case.
115. It was his theory Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
116. In memos to staff Sella, “The Red-State Network.”
117. “Power is best wielded” Author interview with broadcast consultant George Case.
118. Scott Ehrlich confided Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.
119. Fox hosts now routinely See, e.g., John Gibson, The Big Story with John Gibson, Fox News Channel, April 8, 2004; Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News Channel, Oct. 25, 2010.
120. Early on, Mike Schneider Author interview with Mike Schneider.
121. “I consider myself a freedom fighter” Grove, “The Image Shaker; Roger Ailes, the Bush Team’s Wily Media Man.”
122. According to Dan Cooper Dan Cooper, Naked Launch: Creating Fox News (New York: 4 LLC ebook, 2008). Also available at www.dancooper.tv/NakedLaunch.htm.
123. Rudy Nazath, Author interview with a person familiar with the design of the Fox News studios. Ailes has denied the story. See Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, “Roger Ailes Unplugged,” Politico, June 6, 2013, http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/behind-the-curtain-ailes-unplugged-92386.html.
124. “We hired Alan” Author interview with a former Fox producer.
125. “We thought he looked better” Author interview with a former Fox producer.
126. Bill O’Reilly was also Kitman, The Man Who Would Not Shut Up, 170.
127. With the launch just days away Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 81–82.
128. That evening, the channel would host Clifford J. Levy, “Lobbying at Murdoch Gala Ignited New York Cable Clash,” New York Times, Oct. 13, 1996.
129. He called a meeting Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 82. Author interview with George Case.
130. A Time Warner spokesperson Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”
131. David Zaslav negotiated Ibid.
132. It was pouring rain Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.” See also Plaintiffs’ Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Oct. 25, 1996, Time Warner Cable v. City of New York, 96-cv-7736, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
133. He made numerous angry calls Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.”
134. “Murdoch thought” Ibid.
135. Murdoch insisted Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.” See also deposition of former New York City deputy mayor Fran Reiter, Time Warner Cable v. City of New York.