The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine

The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine
by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt for Media Matters for America

Book Description
Publication Date: February 21, 2012

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.

Editorial Reviews
Review

"It's the truth, stupid. That's Brock, Rabin-Havt and Media Matters' message and it's a pretty darn good one."
—James Carville

“Media Matters tells the truth–and then spreads the truth far and wide. They are a leading and effective voice in combating misinformation. This latest book, by founder David Brock, makes clear the threat that incendiary journalism poses to our democracy.”
—Nancy Pelosi

“This pointed study of modern politics is both a must-read and a cautionary tale."
—Senator John F. Kerry

“Think of any conservative-media scandal of the past few years. . . and it’s a good bet that a Media Matters researcher flagged the offending clip, uploaded it to the group’s website, and got the party started.”
—New York Magazine

“Fox News has created a generation of woefully (and objectively) misinformed ideological sycophants to pursue its radical agenda. It's no accident. Now David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt show that no matter how unethical and dishonest you think Fox News is, the reality is that they're much, much worse.”
—Markos Moulitsas, publisher, Daily Kos

About the Author

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

David Brock, the founder and CEO of Media Matters, is the author of five books, including The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy, and his bestselling memoir Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.

Ari Rabin-Havt is Media Matters's vice president of research and communication.

READERS VIEWS:

Why it's called Faux News, February 27, 2012
By Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City)

This review is from: The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine (Paperback)
As the authors state at the outset, the problem is not that Fox News is biased, or that it is a counterweight to CNN or MSNBC, it is a "news business that is willing to put politics above all else. It is more about controlling the political agenda in this country rather than the bottom line." How did Fox get that way? How did it get Republican candidates to fear the network, grovel for its approval, and seek the blessings of Roger Ailes to realize their political dreams?

It was due to Roger Ailes, an up-and-coming political operative, and staunch Republican with a sharp intuition for advancing a political agenda through the medium of television. He mastered his craft under Richard Nixon, through a failing network started by the Coors Brothers, and propping up other Republican candidates such as George Herbert Walker Bush. When Ailes came to Fox, he set out to make it into the political goliath it has become. His boss, Rupert Murdoch, who ran News Corp gave him carte blanche to do as he pleased, while Murdoch was more interested in the bottom line of his empire.

Ailes knew how to pick his staff with people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck running their flagship programs. He also purged anyone with a liberal leaning. Only Brit Hume refused to debase himself entirely from a journalistic ethic. With his departure, Bill Sammons who was selected to run programming, had no such journalistic or ethical qualms.

Authors David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt, of Media Matters chronicle how a news business became an advocacy business. Republican hopefuls have sought an audience with the Great and Powerful Oz (Roger) for blessings and strategies because they knew what he exposure he could give them, both good and bad. Fox's favorite candidates would not only get much free air time on various programs, but get to tell their audiences where they could send their donations. Sean Hannity made no qualms about the donations he made to candidates he supported, and actually went on the air in their behalf--actions not normally associated with professional journalism or a news station.

And Fox could be lethal in attack mode. When Andrew Breitbart offered his highly edited version of a tape of Sharrod Brown sounding racist, Fox ran with the story without investigating it in spite of Breitbart's questionable integrity. The same occurred with ACORN, a priority target for Republicans. ACORN signed up minorities to vote, and those minorities vote Democrat. When James O'Keefe entered several ACORN offices in a preppy sweater and khakis, he failed to impress many of their staff. One lady found O'Keefe and his female partner so amusing, she made up her own story how she killed her husband. O'Keefe had similar lack of success at other offices where they called the police. His special pimp costume was worn outside the offices but never in. Nevertheless, Fox ran with the heavily edited video tape as it was given to them. It was part of their six step attack process: 1) The Conservative activist introduces the lie. 2) Fox News devotes massive coverage to the story. 3) Fox attacks other outlets for ignoring the story. 4) Mainstream outlets begin reporting on the story. 5) Media critics and pundits start praising Fox's news coverage. 6) The story falls apart once the damage has been done.

Sometimes attacking someone was not enough. Some at Fox would target people with a vengeance. Glenn Beck mounted a relentless attack on Van Jones who eventually resigned. Sean Hannity, wanting Kevin Jennings an assistant deputy secretary, introduced false charges of Jennings being a pedophile. Fortunately, other networks got the real story and Hannity did not get his scalp for a trophy.

What is clear is that Fox promoted stories that were unsubstantiated and without merit. They complained of other networks not going along with their knee-jerk response. Yet, they were completely ready to ignore the scandal that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp were generating in Great Britain with their cell phone hacking. They could even alter their stories by editing them to give an story or quote a completely different context e.g. Fox edits testimony by Al Gore to suggest that he is promoting global warming as a business while purging his testimony that every penny he made from his partnership with Kleiner Perkins was donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

What gives this story impact is all the information comes from Fox. You will know the number of times they gave air time to favorite Republican sons. You will know the amount of contributions they made, which would have been unheard of by a news network or journalists not long ago. You will even see Fox TV screens. Off-air transcripts and leaked emails tell a story of a network that is not reporting news by using news to advocate a political position or candidate.

As Michael Shanahan of George Washington University said: "What [Fox does] is not journalism. It is propaganda."

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Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism

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