Michael Wolff, who wrote a biography of Rupert Murdoch, now records the decline and fall of Fox News. Murdoch hired Roger Ailes to design a very different cable news operation and Ailes succeeded. “News is a variety show,” he offered…”It’s sexy girls and outrageous men. …Don’t try to be subtle. This is America.” (p. 71)
Fox News became the highest rated cable TV channel built on conspiracy theories and lies. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Ailes created a toxic work environment. Ailes’s bragged to Wolff the secret of success at Fox New: “To get ahead, you have to give some head.” (p. 71)
It was no secret Rupert Murdoch hated Fox News, Ailes, and all the on-air personalties he hired: Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Kellyanne Conway, Baria Bartiromo, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Ainsley Earhardt. Murdoch loathed Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson even though they earned Murdoch millions.
But Murdoch and Fox News made a Faustian Bargain with Donald Trump. In 2016 Fox News broadcast dozens of Trump speeches giving Trump free advertising and persuading the Fox News audience to join Trump World. When Trump won the 2016 Election, Fox News doubled down on Trump’s agenda and cult of personality. But, when Trump lost in 2020, Fox News committed the Fatal Error of buying into the Big Lie that the Election was stolen. Supporting Trump’s lies about the Dominion election machines while internal documents clearly showed no one at Fox News actually believed the lies they were broadcasting led to the disastrous lawsuit brought by Dominion.
Initially, Murdoch thought the Dominion lawsuit might cost $50 million. Manageable. But as more evidence was revealed: “Every one of the key on-air faces of the network had been exposed in email conversations expressing obvious skepticism about the Trump camp’s claims that Dominion was part of a conspiracy to steal the election… The Trump claims were laughable, the people making them on his behalf demented, everyone understood.” (p. 205) Yeah for weeks, Fox News kept spreading Trump’s lies.
Fox News lost the Dominion law suit and had to pay $785 million dollars. Murdoch dumped Tucker Carlson. Then, Rupert Murdoch, 91 years-old, stepped down and named his son, Lachlan Murdoch, his successor. But it’s not hard to imagine the upcoming fight for control of the Murdoch Family Trust by Murdoch’s children–Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James–when Rupert Murdoch dies. If you’re interested in the dumpster fire that is Fox News, The Fall delivers all the sordidness in graphic detail. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — xiii
Prologue 1: Keith Rupert Murdoch, 1931-202_ — 1
Prologue 2: Roger Ailes–Summer 2016 — 12
WINTER 2022
- Rupert: In the Sun — 23
- Tucker: February 24, 2022 — 31
- Lachlan: Spearfishing — 42
SPRING
4. Hannity: The Funeral — 55
5. Laura: Ron DeSantis — 68
6. James: A Force for Good — 80
7. Tucker: The WASPS — 89
8. Elisabeth: The Daughter –100
SUMMER
9. Dominion: “Fuck Him”. — 115
10. Hannity: Give Them a Head — 128
11. Tucker: Ur-text — 137
12. Elisbeth: The Third Option — 152
13. Hannity: POTUS — 161
14. Suzanne Scott: The Second Floor — 171
15. Laura: The Brand — 181
AUTUMN
16: Lachlan: In Play — 193
17. Rupert: In Love — 203
18. The One-and-Only Channel: Ben Shapiro’s $110 Million — 211
19. James: The Sisters — 220
WINTER 2023
20. Rupert: Die, Trump, Die — 233
21. Tucker: Might He? Should He? — 242
22. Hannity: Indictment — 252
23. Trial: The Deal — 260
24. Tucker: The Last Supper — 270
25. The Talent: Carlson and Trump — 279
Epilogue: Ruper–Apres Moi — 288
Acknowledgements — 297
I always found it crazy that Americans watch Fox!
Sometimes when there is no room for my laptop I start the google news on my phone, international selection ftom many sources.
And when I see some headlines I immediately realize that this must be Fox. When I’m in the mood I start reading but usually I stop after a few lines of nonsense and obvious lies.
Sometimes the New York Post or the Washington Times (clever, ain’t they?) appear and the “logic” is the same.
The only worse stuff is the English “Yellow Press”, some of which is also owned by Australian Murdoch, like The Daily Excess and the Daily Heil (nice, isn’t it?).
Several years ago one of Murdocj’s papers in England got accuse of really illegal stuff – so they let it go bankrupt …
Sorry for the many typing mistakes – seems I’m not really awake yet and my fingers are cold.
Summer is gone and we just srted our heating system.
Wolf, we’re experiencing 50 degree temperatures after a Long Hot Summer.
Sadly, the NY POST *was* a decent if shallow paper before Murdoch bought it.
Todd, Murdoch had plans for the NY POST once he owned it. Fortunately, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL mostly upholds journalistic values with a dollop of conservatives despite Murdoch’s ownership.
Wolf, Fox News caters to the disaffected Americans who resent diversity and higher education.
Back when I was driving for the Red Cross, a lot of my older passengers often expressed concern or outright fear about something they’d seen on Fox: Ebola, Economic Collapse, Hordes of Mexicans charging across the border to steal our jobs and rape our women, Hillary’s sex-traffic in minors….
Lies and Politics aside, they were always trying to scare people.
Dan, Roger Ailes believed that peddling fear and threatening conditions drew viewers to Fox News.
And clearly, he was right.
Fox opened a Pandora’s Box that was always there but just not in plain sight. Now we have Newsmax and its cancerous kin hoping to take over, all hoping to become the new Fox. Although they won’t succeed they have been given enough light to attract the right-wing fascist moths. There’s a rotten log in the middle of a swamp and they should all crawl back under it where they belong and let the grown-ups do the talking.
(I apologize if I have stated my opinion too subtly.)
Indeed…Fox “News” was Rush Limbaugh on tv, and still is. We’ve always had this bullshit be too influential, in one form or another.
Todd, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh’s daily radio program feed their audiences lies, conspiracy theories, and bitterness. As Deb points out, now those Fox News viewers demand that constant stream of vitriol and attack mode reporting.
Jerry, well said! Fox News and Newsmax and the thousands of websites and podcasts featuring hate, fear, conspiracies, and toxic politics continue to fuel the divisions in America.
Fox ain’t going anywhere—but now the monster is controlling its creator: just see how viewers revolt when an on-air personality says something that doesn’t toe the Trumpist line. As for Murdoch’s moral crisis, he deserves to suffer a lot more than a few sleepless nights for what he has done to civil discourse in this country and throughout the rest of the world. After making billions appealing to and manipulating people’s worst instincts & beliefs, he now wants us to believe that he always “hated” the people he hired to foist his fascist vision on us? Ha! Can you hear the sound of the world’s smallest violin playing “My Heart Bleeds for You”?
By the way, why is there a photo of Alec Baldwin up there?
Deb, I came away from Michael Wolff’s THE FALL with a sense of Rupert Murdoch’s impressive business instincts…and his utter disregard for ethics and morals and principles. It’s just all about the money for Murdoch. I wanted a photo of Michael Wolff and the cover of THE FALL…and the only one I found online also included Alec Baldwin for some unknown reason.
The only place I run into FOX is at the occasional doctor’s office but even they have mostly switched to Home and Garden.
Patti, same here. Fox News was the standard in many doctors’ offices, but now HGTV dominates…thankfully!
Really? Wow. I never saw FNC in a MD’s office…and wouldn’t rust any who did have it. H&G runs in my current Cooper waiting rooms, and is annoying enough.
I’m guessing medical offices steer clear of having Fox News on their waiting room televisions if they want their patients to have reasonable blood pressure readings! (I know, even catching two seconds of Fox while channel surfing makes me feel like my bp is spiking into hypertension territory.) Watching Fox (whether you’re pro or anti their content) is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure! I’ve read (possibly apocryphal) stories about doctors doing everything they can to medically lower their patients’ blood pressure, but when the patients are watching Fox 24/7, there’s no way to calm the outrage/anger that keeps a pressure high. One person asserted that Fox News killed his father—his blood pressure just kept sky-rocketing, and even though the guy begged his father to turn it off once in a while, he wouldn’t do it.
Deb, Fox News tends to stoke their viewers’ rage. Scenes of crime, immigrants at the Southern Border, AOC and Hillary and Biden. Anything that pushes the Outrage Buttons!
When we stayed at the Residence Inn in Florida (2010-19) , there were two televisions in the breakfast room, and one was invariably tuned to Fox News (sic), unless no one was watching and I got my hands on the remote and changed it.
Murdoch is scum, always has been since his British and Australian tabloid days. He will do ANYTHING to make a buck.
Jeff, at the Marriott Marquis hotel in San Diego, the dining room had TVs tuned to ESPN and HGTV. No Fox News in sight!
Fox may have been, and may be, Trump’s biggest media booster, but the other networks and broadcast groups are only slightly less culpable. They all give our national blight free publicity 24/7, however nonsensical, offensive, and repetitive his ramblings.
Fred, Murdoch’s greed just followed the TV ratings. When Trump was on Fox News, the ratings went up. It didn’t matter that Murdoch loathed Trump. Murdoch just loved money more.
Very correct, Fred. Giving the freak show all the play they did was even worse than their usual fawning-to-poll-leaders irresponsibility, and cost-driven desire to gin up 2-candidate races at all times.
I would not hold my breath waiting for Fox to die!
May have written about this before:
In Germany we have the Axel Springer news companies corresponding to Fox, but luckily they didn’t make it onto TV and the internet.
Their BILD newspaper was sold millions of times every day – and to make it not too complicated for the poor readers it had only 8 pages.
In the 60s (when I was a student) their propaganda was horrible, only good news about the ruling clerical fascists (CDU/CSU) and the opposition was described as communist. began …
In West Berlin some students “revolted” and on a demonstration one was killed and there were death threats in the newspaper so we decided to boycott one of their printing houses one night.
Strangely enough many people agreed with us and at the end of the 60s the CDU even lost power and a “leftist” government
Or, at least, a social-democratic one came in….rather as with the current under-achieving, if still preferable, SDU/Green/Free Democratic coalition…any slap-back at fascism (including the Chinese or Korean “Marxist” sort) these days is useful.
Todd, but when economic situations go south, fascism looks more and more attractive for some people.
Sorry, the last sentence should have been continued:
A “leftist” government underWilli Brandt, the mayor of Berlin ,came to power – and all the Nazi laws that the CDU had kept were abolished – to the hooror of Axel Springer and his BILD.
Again this reminds me of today’s GOP:
Until 1969 we had laws criminalizing LGBT people, abortion and even for landlords allowing a student to have a visitor of the other sex overnight!
So again the GOP wants to take the USAS back at least 50 or 60 years – like many right wing governments in Europe.
And media moguls like Murdoch and Springer etc profit from this.
Wolf, the GOP is afraid of the Future. They fear change. All of the GOP political and policy initiatives want to turn back the clock to a time when their ideas dominated.
Wolf, the political and media landscapes keep shifting.