98. “You gotta be kidding me” Tapper, Down & Dirty, 37.
99. “Gore unconceded” Ellis, “A Hard Day’s Night.”
100. At 3:57 a.m. Mason et al., “CBS News Coverage of Election Night 2000,” 12.
101. Fox News, the first Ibid.
102. Brit Hume made Ibid.
103. Talkov was concerned Author interview with Cynthia Talkov.
104. For the next thirty-three days See, e.g., Sean Hannity, Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, Dec. 4, 2000 (“now there’s an effort out there to delegitimize the Bush presidency, which is now inevitable.”); Brit Hume, Mort Kondracke, Fred Barnes, Mara Liasson, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Dec. 4, 2000; Sean Hannity, Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, Nov. 26, 2000 (“At the end of the day, George W. Bush is the president-elect, right now,” Anthony Weiner: “Have you ever said that Al Gore’s trying to steal the election?” Sean Hannity: “He is.”)
105. “The day after the election” Author interview with a senior Fox producer.
106. “It won’t be easy” Brit Hume, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Nov. 8, 2000.
107. “There is a minor brouhaha” Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News Channel, Nov. 8, 2000.
108. “I think what’s going on” John Gibson, The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News Channel, Dec. 9, 2000.
109. On November 26 Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 156–57; Paula Zahn, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Nov. 26, 2000.
110. “If it hadn’t been for Fox” Howard Kurtz, “Doing Something Right, Fox News Sees Ratings Soar, Critics Sore,” Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2001.
111. In November 2000 Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 158.
112. David Shuster was Much of the information in the following pages is taken from an author interview with broadcaster and journalist David Shuster.
113. On Thursday, November 2 Alicia C. Shepard, “A Late-Breaking Campaign Skeleton,” American Journalism Review, Dec. 2000.
114. Carl Cameron broke it Brit Hume, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Nov. 2, 2000.
115. “I knew it would hurt him” Ken Auletta, “Vox Fox: How Roger Ailes and Fox News Are Changing Cable News,” New Yorker, May 26, 2003.
116. the reporter’s source was a Democrat Shepard, “A Late-Breaking Campaign Skeleton.”
117. On air, Tony Snow Tony Snow, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Network, Nov. 3, 2000.
118. “I don’t know whether” Alan Colmes, Hannity & Colmes, Carl Cameron interview with George W. Bush, Fox News Channel, Nov. 4, 2000.
119. The coverage reflected Author interview with David Shuster.
120. As the recount stalemated Ibid.
121. Shuster also clashed Author interview with David Shuster.
122. Bret Baier “Bret Baier,” Foxnews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/personalities/bret-baier/bio/; David Folkenflik, “Bret Baier: The Next Generation of Fox News Anchor,” NPR.org, April 6, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/04/07/135176903/bret-baier-the-next-generation-of-fox-news-anchor.
123. On Fox, Brit Hume Brit Hume, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Nov. 15, 2000.
124. Shuster’s time was running out Author interview with David Shuster.
125. He would leave the network “First Bites,” Bulldog Reporter Business Media, July 26, 2002.
126. On November 9 Mayer, “George W.’s Cousin.”
127. “Jebbie’ll be calling me” Ibid.
128. “It was just the three of us” Ibid.
129. Gore’s campaign manager Tapper, Down & Dirty, 69n.
130. There were congressional hearings Katharine Q. Seelye, “Congress Plans Study of Voting Processes and TV Coverage,” New York Times, Feb. 9, 2001.
131. Cynthia Talkov had become Author interview with Cynthia Talkov.
132. On Valentine’s Day 2001 House of Representatives, 107th Congress, Hearing Before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Feb. 14, 2001.
133. Prior to the hearing Author interview with former Associated Press CEO Lou Baccardi.
134. “Obviously, through” House of Representatives, Hearing Before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, prepared statement of Roger Ailes.
135. “That one little moment” Author interview with a senior Fox producer.
SIXTEEN: HOLY WAR
1. In a few hours Author interview with attorney and political adviser John Coale, Van Susteren’s spouse.
2. Six days before Lisa de Moraes, “CNN Nabs Paula Zahn from Miffed Fox News,” Washington Post, Sept. 6, 2001.
3. Before she left Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
4. In March 2001 Allyson Lieberman, “The New King of Cable: WB Whiz Jamie Kellner Is Taking On His Biggest Challenge Yet: Turner’s Empire,” New York Post, March 11, 2001.
5. “Give us six months” Jim Rutenberg, “Hatfield vs. McCoy in TV Land,” New York Times, Jan. 13, 2002.
6. “Roger printed that quote” Ibid.; author interview with a senior Fox News producer.
7. “Who wouldn’t want to be” Author interview with former Fox News producer Anne Hartmayer.
8. Kellner, whom The New York Times Jim Rutenberg, “Mix, Patch, Promote and Lift; A Showman Speeds the Makeover of Ted Turner’s Empire,” New York Times, July 15, 2001.
9. offered Zahn $2 million de Moraes, “CNN Nabs Paula Zahn from Miffed Fox News.”
10. “She thought her career” Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 178.
11. On Tuesday, August 28 The account of Fox’s negotiations with Zahn can be found in ibid., 177–82.
12. “He made it very clear” Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
13. The following morning Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 180–81.
14. The suit was later dismissed Bill Carter, “Judge Dismisses Fox News Suit over Anchor’s Defection to CNN,” New York Times, March 26, 2002; Bill Carter, “Fox Loses Round in Its Suit over Anchor’s Move to CNN,” New York Times, May 1, 2003.
15. “I don’t pay for disloyalty” Bill Carter, “Fox News Fires a Star Host over CNN Bid,” New York Times, Sept. 6, 2001.
16. Ailes said he was Ibid.
17. “I could have put” Ibid.
18. “The key to the whole thing” Author interview with a senior Fox executive.
19. Shortly after 9:00 Author interview with John Coale.
20. “Oh my God” The account of this meeting is based on author interview with a person in the room as well as the account in Scott Collins’s book, Crazy Like a Fox, p. 161.