The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--And Divided a Country (81 page)

  
82.
Reiter told the lawyers
Affidavit of Fran Reiter,
Time Warner Cable v. City of New York
.

  
83.
New York
magazine speculated
Beth Landman Keil and Deborah Mitchell, “Intelligencer” (column),
New York
, Nov. 11, 1996,
http://www.books.google.com/books?id=NuECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15&dq=%22reiter%22+ailes+%22time+warner%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4-FbUtywH9PqkQf17IGgAg&ved=0CE0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22reiter%22%20ailes%20%22time%20warner%22&f=false
.

  
84.
Parsons was forced
Author interview with Richard Aurelio.

  
85.
Meanwhile, during
Testimony of Ted Turner,
Time Warner Cable v. City of New York
.

  
86.
On Monday, October 21
New York Post
, Oct. 21, 1996.

  
87.
The immature taunts
I. J. Rosenberg, “World Series; Braves vs. Yankees; Braves Notebook; Cox Plays Pendleton Hunch,”
Atlanta Journal and Constitution
, Oct. 22, 1996. See also Ellis Henican, “Ink-Stained; Tainted Coverage in Clash of Network Titans,”
New York Newsday
, Oct. 23, 1996; Turner and Burke,
Call Me Ted
, 337.

  
88.
“I thought about killing him”
Masters and Burrough, “Cable Guys.” See also Turner and Burke,
Call Me Ted
, 338.

  
89.
The three-day preliminary injunction hearing
Harry Berkowitz, “Media Blitz/Time Warner, Fox Battle for New York Returns to Court. Big Cable Clash Has Big Egos,”
Newsday
(New York), Oct. 28, 1996.

  
90.
The 106-page opinion
Opinion of U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote, Nov. 6, 1996,
Time Warner Cable v. City of New York
,
http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/30/84/85/114/136/timewnyc.pdf
.

  
91.
“I used to say”
Author interview with Catherine Crier.

  
92.
Most Fox affiliates
Author interview with a former Fox News executive.

  
93.
Mike Schneider and Crier bickered
Author interview with a Fox News executive.

  
94.
“Chet Collier called us in”
Author interview with Emily Rooney.

    
1.
On a summer afternoon
Author interview with former Fox News correspondent David Shuster.

    
2.
McDougals’ recent trial
R. H. Melton and Michael Haddigan, “Three Guilty in Arkansas Fraud Trial,”
Washington Post
, May 29, 1996.

    
3.
the same year
Philip Weiss, “The Clinton Haters: Clinton Crazy,”
New York Times
, Feb. 23, 1997. See also
Clinton Chronicles
on YouTube (video),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLnZwwYlYP0
.

    
4.
had subpoenaed Hillary Clinton
Alison Mitchell, “Hillary Clinton Is Subpoenaed to Testify Before a Grand Jury,”
New York Times
, Jan. 23, 1996.

    
5.
“Why is this important?”
Author interview with David Shuster.

    
6.
the first lady
Hillary Clinton was never indicted.

    
7.
Two weeks after mailing
Author interview with David Shuster.

    
8.
“I remember Roger”
Author interview with former Fox News producer Adam Sank.

    
9.
It was
The New York Times
Jeff Gerth and Stephen Engelberg, “U.S. Investigating Clinton’s Links to Arkansas S. & L.,”
New York Times
, Nov. 2, 1993.

  
10.
“Monica [Lewinsky] was a news”
Kinney Littlefield, “Reliable Sources,”
Orange County Register
, May 9, 1999.

  
11.
“I was having the time”
Author interview with David Shuster.

  
12.
One of the things Shuster
Ibid.

  
13.
many of the suburban precincts
Alicia Mundy, “Washington: Is Anybody Out There?”
Mediaweek
, Feb. 3, 1997.

  
14.
Moody had gone to Washington
Collins,
Crazy Like a Fox
, 79.

  
15.
When Defense Secretary
David Bauder, “Fox News Channel Fuming Over Exclusion from Cohen Trip,” Associated Press, Feb. 27, 1997.

  
16.
A few months later
John Carmody, “The TV Column,”
Washington Post
, Sept. 8, 1997.

  
17.
in the spring of 1997
Fox News v. Time Warner
, 96-cv-4963, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), judicial order, May 16, 1997. See also
Time Warner v. Bloomberg L.P.
, 96-9515, 96-9517, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, judicial order, July 3, 1997.

  
18.
But in mid-July
Lawrie Mifflin, “In the Murdoch-Levin Dispute, Money Talked,”
New York Times
, July 28, 1997.

  
19.
Ailes was triumphant
Jon Lafayette, “New Pro: With New York Hurdle Crossed, Fox Hits Stride,”
Electronic Media
, Sept. 15, 1997.

  
20.
once declared
David Brock, “Confessions of a Right-Wing Hit Man,”
Esquire
, July 1997.

  
21.
In a bid to get
Author interview with David Brock.

  
22.
“Three people in the world”
Brock, “Roger Ailes Is Mad as Hell.”

  
23.
His friend, gossip columnist
Liz Smith, “Valentine’s Day Wedding,” Los Angeles Times Syndicate, published in
Toledo Blade
, Dec. 23, 1997.

  
24.
On Sunday morning
Author interview with a senior Fox News Channel executive.

  
25.
Just past midnight
Matt Drudge, “Newsweek Kills Story on White House Intern,”
Drudge Report
, Jan. 17, 1998,
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm
.

  
26.
“At the last minute”
Ibid.

  
27.
What should Fox put
Author interview with a senior Fox News Channel executive.

  
28.
In December, he met with
Stephen Battaglio, “Net Columnist Drudge Uploads Fox News Deal,” BPI Entertainment News Wire, March 2, 1998.

  
29.
The thirty-one-year-old
See Matt Drudge,
Drudge Manifesto
(New York: New American Library, 2000).

  
30.
He relished beating the press pack
Todd S. Purdum, “It Was Something He Said,”
New York Times
, Aug. 17, 1997.

  
31.
On August 11, 1997
Blumenthal v. Drudge
, 992 F.Supp. 44 (D.C. Cir. 1998), complaint.

  
32.
Though Drudge pulled down the story
Ibid.

  
33.
“I don’t give a damn”
Bruce Haring, “Matt Drudge’s Maverick Journalism Jars Internet,”
USA Today
, Aug. 14, 1997.

  
34.
“You better have multiple sources”
Author interview with a source familiar with the matter.

  
35.
Acting on Ailes’s directive
Author interview with a senior Fox News Channel executive.

  
36.
Snow’s co-anchor
Tony Snow and Mara Liasson,
Fox News Sunday
, Fox News Channel, Jan. 18, 1998.

  
37.
David Shuster was not surprised
Most of the details involving David Shuster are derived from author interviews with Shuster.

  
38.
The item revealed
Matt Drudge, “Former White House Intern Called; New Background Details Emerge,”
Drudge Report
, Jan. 18, 1998,
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm
.

  
39.
At 6:00 p.m
. Matt Drudge, “Former White House Intern Denied Sex with President in Sworn Affidavit,”
Drudge Report
, Jan. 19, 1998,
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm
.

  
40.
“They didn’t want to play”
Author interview with a senior Fox producer.

  
41.
Linda Tripp
Josh Getlin and Marc Lacey, “ ‘Tell-All’ Book Called Goal of Linda Tripp,”
Los Angeles Times
, Jan. 25, 1998.

  
42.
“You ought to talk to Lucianne Goldberg”
Jeffrey Toobin,
A Vast Conspiracy:
The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President
(New York: Touchstone, 1999), 100.

  
43.
“We were all part of”
Author interview with literary agent Lucianne Goldberg.

  
44.
“His message was”
Author interview with a participant on the call.

  
45.
“TONIGHT ON THE DRUDGE REPORT”
Matt Drudge, “Tonight on the Drudge Report: Controversy Swirls Around Tapes of Former White House Intern, as Starr Moves In,”
Drudge Report
, Jan. 20, 1998,
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm
.

  
46.
“CLINTON ACCUSED OF URGING AIDE TO LIE”
Susan Schmidt, Peter Baker, and Toni Locy, “Clinton Accused of Urging Aide to Lie; Starr Probes Whether President Told Woman to Deny Alleged Affair to Jones’s Lawyers,”
Washington Post
, Jan. 21, 1998.

  
47.
“WASH POST SCREAMS INTERN STORY!”
Matt Drudge, “Wash Post Screams Intern Story,”
Drudge Report
, Jan. 20, 1998,
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm
.

  
48.
On Monday morning, January 26
President William J. Clinton, “Child Care,” C-Span, Jan. 26, 1998 (relevant portion begins at 24:30),
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ChildCare4
.

  
49.
For Ailes, who had watched
Author interview with a Fox staffer who was present.

  
50.
“Roger saw Clinton thumbing”
Author interview with a friend of Ailes.

  
51.
“Roger once said”
Author interview with a former Fox producer.

  
52.
“Roger thought it was amusing”
Author interview with Lucianne Goldberg.

  
53.
It was all eerily reminiscent
E. J. Dionne Jr., “Gary Hart: The Elusive Front-Runner,”
New York Times
, May 3, 1987. See also Robin Toner, “Hart Drops Race for White House in a Defiant Mood,”
New York Times
, May 9, 1987; E. J. Dionne Jr., “Courting Danger: The Fall of Gary Hart,”
New York Times
, May 9, 1987.

  
54.
Ailes envisioned Hume’s
Sarah Goldstein, “The Wire Q&A: Ted Koppel Remembers the Iran Hostage Crisis,” “The Q” (blog),
GQ
, Nov. 3, 2009,
http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-q/2009/11/the-wire-qa-ted-koppel-remembers-the-iran-hostage-crisis.html
.

  
55.
“We’re trying very hard”
John Higgins and Donna Petrozzello, “Fox Chases the News,”
Broadcasting & Cable
, May 18, 1998.

  
56.
“The Clinton administration—they hated us!”
Marshall Sella, “The Red-State Network: How Fox News Conquered Bush Country—and Toppled CNN,”
New York Times Magazine
, June 24, 2001.

  
57.
Launching Hume’s newscast
“Around the Dial,”
Boston Herald
, Jan. 28, 1998.

  
58.
“How did it happen?”
Bill O’Reilly,
The O’Reilly Report
, Fox News Channel, Oct. 7, 1996.

  
59.
“Few broadcasts take any chances these days”
Ibid.

  
60.
His career began in Scranton
“Bill O’Reilly’s Bio,”
FoxNews.com
, April 29, 2004,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155,00.html
.

  
61.
In 1982, he was called up to the Bigs
Kitman,
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up
, 100, 102, 124.

  
62.
“He would say”
Author interview with journalist, producer, and television host Emily Rooney.

  
63.
At six-four
Nicholas Lemann, “Fear Factor: Bill O’Reilly’s Baroque Period,”
New Yorker
, March 27, 2006.

  
64.
In one five-year period
Kitman,
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up
, 102–22 passim.

  
65.
“He was always in trouble”
Ibid., 163.

  
66.
In 1989, he bailed out
Ibid., 135–36.

  
67.
“I’m not sure”
Neil Swidey, “The Meanest Man on Television,”
Boston Globe
, Dec. 1, 2002.

  
68.
One evening he told
Bill O’Reilly, “Two Year Anniversary Special,”
The O’Reilly Report
, Fox News Channel, Dec. 29, 1998

  
69.
“It’s important if the president of the United States”
Ibid.

  
70.
“You guys wanted him out since Day One”
Ibid.

  
71.
O’Reilly once remarked
Kitman,
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up
, 166.

  
72.
“It was very basic”
Ibid., 16.

  
73.
At prep school
Evan Thomas, “Life of O’Reilly,”
Newsweek
, Feb. 11, 2001.

  
74.
At Marist College
Kitman,
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up
, 33–42 passim.

  
75.
“I could feel those rich girls”
Thomas, “Life of O’Reilly.”

  
76.
“Bill O’Reilly is one”
Author interview with Robert Ailes.

  
77.
Disgraced former Clinton adviser
Richard L. Berke, “Call-Girl Story Costs President a Key Strategist,”
New York Times
, Aug. 30, 1996.

  
78.
“What do you want me to say?”
Author interview with a former Fox producer.

  
79.
In March 1998
Hannity & Colmes
, Fox News Channel, March 11, 1999.

  
80.
In April, Ailes hired
David Bauder, “Dick Morris Joins Fox, Kinsley Back on CNN,” Associated Press, April 14, 1998.

  
81.
Several weeks later
Tim Goodman, “Fox News Hires Drudge—You Decide,”
San Francisco Examiner
, July 23, 1998.

  
82.
“It’ll be me, a hat”
Jennifer Weiner, “Foremost Internet Gossip Moves to TV,”
Chicago Tribune
, June 20, 1998.

  
83.
“Raymond Chandler detective’s office”
Ibid.

  
84.
To complete the picture
David Bauder, “Matt Drudge: Out from Behind the Laptop and onto TV,” Associated Press, June 25, 1998.

  
85.
In July, Ailes hired
Weiner, “Foremost Internet Gossip Moves to TV.”

  
86.
The new lineup premiered
“TV Ticker,”
New York Post
, July 27, 1998.

  
87.
On the evening of August 17
Ted Koppel, “Bill Clinton Admits Affair,”
Nightline
, ABC, Aug. 17, 1998,
http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/bill-clinton-lewinksy-affair-1998-9533796
.