The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda MachineHere is comprehensive overview of the tumultuous career of former Fox News president Roger Ailes and a must-read for anyone looking to understand his legacy and impact on news media. Based on the meticulous research of the news watchdog organization Media Matters for America, David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt show how Fox News, under its president Roger Ailes, changed from a right-leaning news network into a partisan advocate for the Republican Party. The Fox Effect follows the career of Ailes from his early work as a television producer and media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Consequently, when he was hired in 1996 as the president of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship conservative cable news network, Ailes had little journalism experience, but brought to the job the mindset of a political operative. As Brock and Rabin-Havt demonstrate through numerous examples, Ailes used his extraordinary power and influence to spread a partisan political agenda that is at odds with long-established, widely held standards of fairness and objectivity in news reporting. Featuring transcripts of leaked audio and memos from Fox News reporters and executives, The Fox Effect is a damning indictment of how the network’s news coverage and commentators have biased reporting, drummed up marginal stories, and even consciously manipulated established facts in their efforts to attack the Obama administration. |
Contents
Not Necessarily the News | 3 |
Rogers Rise | 21 |
The Path to the Top | 48 |
A Terrorist Fist Jab? | 63 |
A Stalinesque Mouthpiece | 79 |
Time for a Tea Party | 104 |
Violent Rhetoric | 143 |
Six Steps | 157 |
Willie Horton Times | 182 |
A Vote for Liberty | 197 |
One Million Dollars | 213 |
The Puppet Master | 241 |
Epilogue | 257 |
Notes | 287 |
Acknowledgments | 320 |
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