With the daily headlines no longer driving ratings, Ailes looked for other ways to regain his edge. In the fall of 2006, he brought in an old hand: Woody Fraser. They reconnected at the Los Angeles memorial for Mike Douglas, who had died that year. The following spring, Ailes hired Joel Cheatwood, a veteran television executive from CNN, to gin up programming concepts for Fox. “Roger would call him Helmet Head, because Joel has a very unique coif,” a colleague said. More than for his hair, Cheatwood was known in the industry for being a tabloid-TV revolutionary. As head of a Fox affiliate in Miami in the early 1990s, he juiced ratings with gory, sensationalized crime stories and flashy graphics. And at CNN, Cheatwood and his deputy, Josanne Lopez, who had worked for Ailes at America’s Talking, had discovered a charismatic Philadelphia talk radio host and put him on Headline News. His name was Glenn Beck.
Over the summer, Ailes tasked Cheatwood and a small group of executives—Bill Shine, Woody Fraser, and Suzanne Scott—to propose steps that would halt the ratings slide. “Roger likes things to be produced simply and overtly,” a producer said. “For example, he likes words in graphics to be big. There is a story he tells all the time about the live bug”—the graphic in the lower corner of the screen. “He made his bigger than CNN’s at the launch, then, when CNN made its bigger, Roger made his bigger still. He kept doing that until CNN gave up.”
O’Reilly’s was the only show that seemed to be working and Ailes expressed uneasiness about it. “One person should not be the identity of this network,” he told executives. Ideas were thrown around about shuffling shows and hosts. One glaring weak spot was Hannity & Colmes. The show typically had higher ratings than its rival 9:00 p.m. offerings, but was far from meeting corporate expectations. While some observers said the format of left-and-right pundits was an anachronism, the consensus at Fox was that Colmes was the problem. After a decade, liberals were convinced he was a patsy; and conservatives simply did not want to listen to him. It was like a pro wrestling match where the result was scripted, the outcome the same every time. Hannity himself was one of Colmes’s most vocal detractors. “Sean was bitter he had to do the show with Alan for many years,” a senior producer said. Hannity also complained that Colmes did not hustle to book guests. As the Iraq War intensified, Hannity bombarded the White House with pushy personal appeals. “If you don’t give me Powell for the TV show, I’m going to fuck you on the radio,” he snapped to a press aide.
“We don’t do debate shows,” the aide said. Hannity repeated his threat.
“Listen,” the aide replied. “There is a policy of this government that we don’t negotiate with terrorists and those who harbor them.”
In 2007, Hannity and Colmes’s relationship continued to unravel. “There were times he’d freeze Alan out and be curt with him,” said a former senior producer at Fox. “Sean became less close-mouthed about his feelings about Alan. They’d sit on set right before the show and Sean would say, ‘What’s it going to be like when you’re gone?’ ”
One of the paradoxes of Ailes’s management style was that, while he bulldozed through barriers, he could be excruciatingly cautious when it came to making talent decisions, which frustrated his executives. He wavered when they suggested dumping Colmes. “Roger wanted the counterpoint,” the senior executive said. “They were a team. That’s what Fox was—these people. The only thing that changed in the prime-time lineup were the women, from Catherine to Paula to Greta.” As a stopgap, in January 2007, Ailes gave Hannity a Sunday night solo show. But Ailes still had doubts. While he shared Hannity’s hard-right politics, he privately complained that he was too stiff. “I want you guys to slap him in his head,” Ailes told Bill Shine. “There’s entertainment value here and he doesn’t get it. When he’s on camera, it’s like he expects Alan to have an epiphany on air and say, ‘You know, Sean, you’re right. I’ve been such a moron for fifty years. How did I not see it?’ ”
Hannity’s pressure ate at Colmes. In the fall of 2008, Fox announced Colmes was leaving the show.
As usual for Fox, salvation was on the horizon, in the form of a presidential election, which was certain to provide the armature of a new narrative. For the first time in eight years, Democrats and Republicans would be choosing candidates for the general election. The jump ball for the nomination on both sides of the aisle gave Ailes an opportunity to reignite the passions of his weary audience, who could rally behind a Republican nominee and enjoy a compelling gladiator death match on the Democratic side.
The obvious priority was the Republican primary. In early 2007, Ailes dispatched senior executives to lock down the highest-profile GOP debates. Katon Dawson, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, recalled how Fox outmaneuvered CNN in the negotiations to air the primary debate on May 15, 2007, in Columbia. Although Wolf Blitzer personally lobbied Dawson on behalf of CNN, Fox was swifter with its official pitch, and had carrots CNN did not. “Fox had a specific South Carolina audience. A very Republican audience,” Dawson said. Fox also had sticks. “I would never want to get on the wrong side of Roger Ailes,” he added.
Those who crossed Ailes during his campaign to win the Republican primary telecasts faced his fury. On February 14, 2007, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation announced that it was partnering with MSNBC and Politico to host a debate, which would be moderated by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Ailes complained to Fox executives that NBC and Politico cut an inside deal with the library. Frederick Ryan Jr., the chairman of the Reagan foundation’s board, was also the president and CEO of Politico. Ryan had recused himself from the selection process, but Ailes was not appeased. “Roger likes to win, not most games, but every game, every single day,” Ryan said. Fox hosts began denouncing Politico as “far left wing.”
The Republican debates took on more urgency after Democrats mobilized to freeze Fox out of their primaries. Ailes had triggered the backlash himself. On March 8, Ailes was in Washington to accept a First Amendment Leadership Award from a group of radio and television news directors. During his speech, he mixed up Barack Obama’s name with Osama bin Laden, for humorous effect. “And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move,” Ailes said. “I don’t know if it’s true that President Bush called [Pakistan president Pervez] Musharraf and said, ‘Why can’t we catch this guy?’ ” Ailes’s impudence fed into a narrative about Fox’s hysteria over Obama’s candidacy. A couple of months earlier, Steve Doocy announced on Fox & Friends that Obama had attended a madrassa funded by “Saudis” in Indonesia. Obama advisers erupted, labeling the claim “completely ludicrous.” Robert Gibbs, Obama’s communications chief, called Moody to complain. Moody said he could not control Fox & Friends. “It’s an entertainment show,” Moody explained.
On March 9, a day after Ailes jokingly confused Obama with Osama, the Nevada Democratic Party canceled its Fox News debate. It was a move progressive groups like MoveOn.org had been calling for. Fox quickly fired back. David Rhodes, Moody’s deputy for news, was put out front, to issue a statement. “News organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus, which appears to be controlled by radical fringe, out-of-state interest groups, not the Nevada Democratic Party,” Rhodes said.