82. He also wooed Maureen Dowd, “CNN: Foxy or Outfoxed?,” New York Times, Aug. 15, 2001.
83. In October 2001 Howard Kurtz, “CNN Chief Orders ‘Balance’ in War News; Reporters Are Told to Remind Viewers Why U.S. Is Bombing,” Washington Post, Oct. 31, 2001.
84. “It was torture” Author interview with television executive Phil Griffin.
85. Prior to joining Felix Gillette, “Phil Griffin Gets New Title: President of MSNBC,” New York Observer, July 16, 2008.
86. MSNBC was faltering The accounts and quotations regarding MSNBC’s struggle to compete with Fox News are derived from author interviews with MSNBC executives, and were first reported on by the author in “Chasing Fox: The Loud, Cartoonish Blood Sport That’s Engorged MSNBC, Exhausted CNN—and Is Making Our Body Politic Delirious,” New York, Oct. 11, 2010.
87. On the day MSNBC Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
88. After Andy Lack Collins, Crazy Like a Fox, 130.
89. After MSNBC anchor See, e.g., “Good Morning Lowcountry,” Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), April 24, 2002.
90. “Take her out” Author interview with a Fox employee.
91. “He was the oppo research guy” Author interview with a Fox executive.
92. One morning in late fall Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
93. “You know who’s” Ibid.
94. Doocy’s producers Ibid.
95. “You wake up” Ibid.
96. “Are we going to continue” Author interview with a person who was in the room.
97. By early April “Baghdad Under Heavy Bombing as US Troops Push In,” Agence France-Presse, April 5, 2003.
98. On the morning of Author interview with a senior Fox executive.
99. statue of Saddam Hussein For a thorough look at the events of the April 9 removal of the Saddam Hussein statue, see Peter Maass, “The Toppling: How the Media Inflated a Minor Moment in a Long War,” New Yorker, Jan. 10, 2011. Several of the quotations in this section are taken from that story, as well as from Jaramillo, Ugly War, Pretty Package, 197–200.
100. As the scene on the ground The information pertaining to the activity in the Fox newsroom during the flag-raising incident is from author interviews with current and former Fox News producers.
101. “Get that flag going!” Maass, “The Toppling.”
102. “My goose bumps” Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina (New York: Penguin, 2006), 83.
103. “This transcends anything” Maass, “The Toppling.”
104. “What better picture” Author interview with a Fox producer.
105. “Here we go!” Jaramillo, Ugly War, Pretty Package, 199.
106. “ ‘Jubilance’ seems too mild” David Asman, Fox News Channel, April 9, 2003; video available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uyttSrkW6Q.
107. “The scenes of free Iraqis” Maass, “The Toppling.”
108. Throughout the day Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, 84.
109. “Now that the war” John Gibson, The Big Story with John Gibson, Fox News Channel, April 16, 2003.
110. Although thirteen Sean Aday, John Cluverius, and Steven Livingston, “As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Emergence of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49, no. 3 (Sept. 2005): 326.
111. “They had their ending” Author interview with a former Fox producer.
112. In September 2003 Author interview with a former senior Bush administration official.
113. “I think he hid them” Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, 288.
114. “signs of a return to normal” Brit Hume, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Oct. 9, 2003.
115. One October 1 segment Brit Hume, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Oct. 1, 2003.
116. When a Spanish diplomat Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Oct. 9, 2003.
117. “For a huge part” Ibid.
118. “Do not fall into” Media Matters staff, “33 Internal FOX Editorial Memos Reviewed by MMFA Reveal FOX News Channel’s Inner Workings,” Media Matters for America, July 14, 2004, http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/pdf/foxmemo_040604.pdf.
119. “It was the same” Author interview with a senior Fox producer.
120. “[T]he pictures from Abu Graeb” Media Matters staff, “33 Internal FOX Editorial Memos Reviewed by MMFA Reveal FOX News Channel’s Inner Workings,” http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/pdf/foxmemo_050504.pdf.
121. In 2004, Fox even considered Author interview with a former Bush administration official.
122. Dan Senor Jim Dwyer, “Bush Voice in Iraq Eyes U.S. Senate Run,” New York Times, March 16, 2010.
123. Senor turned down Author interview with a former Bush administration official.
124. In the fall of 2003 The account of Lewis’s negotiations is taken from author interviews with sources familiar with the matter.
EIGHTEEN: “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH ALL THIS POWER?”
1. On Wednesday, August 4 Much of the detail in this section is taken from the author’s interview with former substitute Fox host and Democratic politician Patrick Halpin.
2. The August 4 edition Sean Hannity, “Veterans Run Ad Against Kerry,” Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, Aug. 4, 2004.
3. The spot opened Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, “Any Questions?,” 2004 political advertisement, available at http://archive.org/details/swb_anyquestions.
4. The next day “It’s Not All Fair Game,” editorial, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 6, 2004.
5. On August 5 Brit Hume, “Political Headlines” and “All-Star Panel,” Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, Aug. 5, 2004.
6. “I think this is awful” Bill O’Reilly, “Unresolved Problem,” The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News Channel, Aug. 5, 2004.
7. “Cable news” Auletta, “Vox Fox.”
8. Since Kerry locked up For examples, see On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Fox News Channel, Nov. 1, 2004 (Laura Ingraham: “A lot of people are going to get in there and realize they’re aligning themselves, if they support Kerry, with the people of France”); The Big Story with John Gibson, Fox News Channel, Oct. 22, 2004 (John Gibson: “Kerry in the White House, speaking French to Chirac?”).
9. “There were subtle commands” Author interview with a senior Fox producer.
10. “He may be a Boston aristocrat” Brit Hume, “All-Star Panel,” Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Channel, April 6, 2004.