Authors: Gabriel Sherman
Tags: #Business & Economics, #Corporate & Business History, #Political Science, #General, #Social Science, #Media Studies
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.
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.
23.
MSNBC had recently hired
Doug Nye, “Larry, Curly and Moe: ‘Moidering the Competition for a Long Time,’ ”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, Aug. 9, 1996.
24.
“Well I know your background”
Lawrie Mifflin, “Media: Broadcasting; At the New Fox News Channel, the Buzzword Is Fairness, Separating News from Bias,”
New York Times
, Oct. 7, 1996. The dialogue between Kennedy and Ailes was recounted by Ailes to Mifflin.
25.
Ailes and Chet Collier questioned
Author interview with a person familiar with the matter.
26.
Bob Reichblum
See résumé at
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bob-reichblum/0/788/880
.
27.
Collier was a Massachusetts liberal
Author interview with a former Fox News staffer. See also Richard Goldstein, “Chester Collier, 80, Dies; Led Westminster Show,”
New York Times
, Aug. 29, 2007.
28.
“Chet’s idea”
Author interview with a former CNBC executive.
29.
The trade journal
Dog News
Chester F. Collier (paid obituary),
New York Times
, Aug. 19, 2007.
30.
Throughout the spring and summer
Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
31.
“I’m not hiring talent”
Author interview with a former Fox News executive. See also Brock, “Roger Ailes Is Mad as Hell.” 191
$1 million line item
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
32.
“I didn’t understand”
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
33.
“Viewers don’t want”
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
34.
“He hated anything”
Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
35.
Collier regularly rebuked
Author interview with Emily Rooney. See also Swint,
Dark Genius
, 164.
36.
“Chet told me”
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
37.
John Moody
Suzan Revah,
American Journalism Review
, May 1996.
38.
He had spent a decade
See John Moody résumé at
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-moody/10/ba2/729
.
39.
a Cold War thriller
John Moody,
Moscow Magician
(New York: St. Martin’s, 1991).
40.
A “first-class journalist”
Author interviews with two former
Time
staffers who worked with Moody.
41.
“There are a lot”
Author interview with former
Time
assistant managing editor Janice Simpson.
42.
One of the problems
Collins,
Crazy Like a Fox
, 73.
43.
Speaking with a reporter
Mifflin, “At the New Fox News Channel, the Buzzword Is Fairness, Separating News from Bias.”
44.
As they spoke
Sella, “The Red-State Network.”
45.
“When he first came in”
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
46.
Emily Rooney could not believe
Author interview with Emily Rooney.
47.
“Collier hated Moody”
Author interview with a former Fox News executive.
48.
Moody “hated” Collier’s talk show concepts
Author interview with a Fox News founding producer.
49.
In meetings, Ailes spoke
Author interviews with Fox News executives.
50.
“He made sure”
Author interview with a person close to Ailes.
51.
“So much of the success”
Author interview with a former senior Fox executive.
52.
Murdoch invested
Stephen Battaglio, “Long, Busy Day Planned for Fox News Channel,”
Hollywood Reporter
, Sept. 5, 1996.
53.
A stable of twenty
John Carmody, “The TV Column,”
Washington Post
, Sept. 5, 1996.
54.
Louis Aguirre
See biographical note at
http://www.wsvn.com/newsteam/?id=DBM430
.
55.
Jon Scott
See biographical note at
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/personalities/jon-scott/bio/
.
56.
Shepard Smith
“Entertainment Briefs,” BPI Entertainment News Wire, Aug. 24, 1999.
57.
Wendell Goler
Carmody, “The TV Column,” Sept. 5, 1996.
58.
Camera crews
Jon Lafayette, “ ‘Fairness’ Will Set Fox News Apart,”
Electronic Media
, Sept. 9, 1996.
59.
In addition, the network
Ibid. See also
Warren’s Cable Regulation Monitor
, Oct. 7, 1996.
60.
Neil Cavuto
Carmody, “The TV Column,” Sept. 5, 1996. Many of the details in this paragraph about the prime-time lineup came from Carmody’s article.
61.
provisionally titled
Ibid.
62.
The weeknight slate
Gary Levin, “Fox News Channel Sets Slate,”
Daily Variety
, Sept. 11, 1996.
63.
Starting at 10:00 p.m
. Ibid.
64.
Weekend coverage
Battaglio, “Long, Busy Day Planned for Fox News Channel.”
65.
“He had been in the business”
Marvin Kitman,
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O’Reilly
(New York: St. Martin’s, 2007), 163.
66.
Schneider, probably the biggest name
Author interview with Mike Schneider.
67.
At a press conference
Lafayette, “ ‘Fairness’ Will Set Fox News Apart.”
68.
“There isn’t a shred”
Michael Burgi, “Not Banking on Anchors,”
Mediaweek
, Sept. 16, 1996.
69.
“most television people are idiots”
Kitman,
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up
, 6.
70.
He knew viewers made
Ailes and Kraushar,
You Are the Message
, 3.
71.
“If I have any ability”
Collins,
Crazy Like a Fox
, 140.
72.
“None of us were news people”
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
73.
Sharri Berg
Tom Junod, “Because They Hate Him and Want Him to Fail,”
Esquire
, March 1, 2009.
74.
Janet Alshouse
Martin C. Evans, “Exec Switching Channel,”
Newsday
(New York), Aug. 17, 1996.
75.
Bill Shine
“Fox News Channel Names Bill Shine Senior Vice President of Programming,” Business Wire, Jan. 13, 2005.
76.
“I was not a fan”
Author interview with former Fox News staffer Jordan Kurzweil.
77.
“This was not the A-team”
Author interview with a former Fox News producer.
78.
Catherine Crier
Author interview with former Fox News anchor Catherine Crier.
79.
“We became the enemy”
Author interview with Emily Rooney.
80.
“It became very clear”
Author interview with a former Fox producer.
81.
“Joe had an open-door policy”
Author interview with former Fox News accountant Jay Ringelstein.
82.
“At most organizations”
Author interview with a former News Corp executive.
83.
Once at a News Corp seminar
Neil, “Murdoch and Me.”
84.
“If you’re good”
David Lieberman, “Ailes Tackles Toughest Assignment: Cable Channel Battles Budget, Clock, Rivals,”
USA Today
, Sept. 23, 1996.
85.
At a September 4 news conference
Frazier Moore, “Fox News Channel: More Round-the-Clock News a Month Away,” Associated Press, Sept. 4, 1996. See also Robin Dougherty, “Fox News Chairman: Cable Service Shooting for ‘Balanced’ Coverage,”
Miami Herald
, Sept. 5, 1996; Gary Levin, “Fox News Channel Sets
Slate,”
Variety
, Sept. 9–Sept. 15, 1996; and Lafayette, “ ‘Fairness’ Will Set Fox News Apart.”
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.