Gabriel Sherman

Gabriel Sherman's book about Roger Ailes does what the title promises - he tells the story of Ailes and how he built Fox News into the power house of today. The number of men in positions of power rarely have a reputation of being kind and understanding souls, and Ailes is no exception. As baseball legend Leo Durocher was reportedly fond of saying, "Nice Guys Finish Last", and "I Come to Win". And in reading this book, if Durocher hadn't already made those phrases famous, I could envision Ailes as making them well known instead. Ailes was clearly driven to succeed, and as Gabriel Sherman points out, Ailes had the vision to make that happen.… (más)

If anyone wants to understand how America got where it is today at the end of the Trump era, then Gabriel Sherman’s THE LOUDEST VOICE IN THE ROOM, a biography of Roger Ailes, is required reading. Originally published in 2014, when Ailes was at the height of his power at the head of FOX News, my copy contains an afterward which details his fall from power in July 2016 amidst a sexual harassment scandal. Ailes did not cooperate with the writing of this book, but Sherman talked to a lot of people who worked with the man from his earliest days in Warren, Ohio, to his glory days at FNC, when he was arguably one of the most consequential Americans of the 21st Century. Most of what they had to say was not flattering, but that is only fair, for Ailes had a sharp tongue himself, and he knew how to use it against those who got on his bad side.

Because Ailes did not sit down with Sherman, there is more than a little extrapolating when it comes to trying to find out what made him tick. Attention is paid to a childhood with a cruel father, and a strained marriage to Ailes’s mother, a woman who sued for divorce as soon as Roger left for college in 1958, selling his childhood home before remarrying and moving to California, in the process, throwing away all of his “stuff.” Did this ultimately make Ailes one of those conservatives who in middle age longed for that mythic Eisenhower era America, and thought that the country’s salvation rested upon the return to the status quo of a bygone time? Nevertheless, the young Roger found work in radio, and then television. A job with the Mike Douglas Show led to fortuitous meeting in 1967 with then Presidential candidate Richard Nixon, where Ailes talked himself into a job as a media advisor on Nixon’s campaign. He did such a good job in presenting the very untelegenic candidate to the American public that he was able to get work on other Republican campaigns in the years ahead, while still keeping one foot in the door of television and entertainment. The high point (or low point, depending on which side you fall on) was in 1988 when Ailes helped turn George H. W. Bush from Reagan’s wimpy Vice President into a clone of Clint Eastwood. This entailed the infamous Willie Horton ad which implied that Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis was an accessory to rape and murder. Ailes may not have been solely responsible for a political ad that forever changed American politics for the worse, but his finger prints were on it despite vociferous denials later when the Bush campaign’s scorched earth tactics came in for heavy condemnation. Ailes moved on to a new frontier, cable television news; establishing himself at MSNBC before Rupert Murdoch came calling with an offer to head up a fledgling “fair and balanced” news network that would be a counterweight to the all powerful “liberal media.”

I am no admirer of Ailes’s politics and the way he practiced them, but I found myself grudgingly impressed with the young Ailes, who clearly possessed great self confidence, was a very quick study, and capable of creating opportunities for himself (the meeting with Nixon), plus he was very good at office politics; whatever the game was, he knew how to play it. Though Sherman never quite comes out and states it, the picture the book presents is of a driven man in whom success did not bring out the best. As a boss, Ailes was overbearing in the extreme, demanding absolute loyalty with a thin skin when it came to any form of criticism. He had an eye for talent, and could be very supportive, which was often returned in the form of genuine loyalty from those he hired, but like many powerful and successful men, Ailes obviously came to consider himself entitled, ultimately to things for which he had no right to ask.

Many on the left wrote Roger Ailes off as a huckster, out to exploit gullible right wingers by giving them a TV network with propaganda 24 hours a day affirming their racist, xenophobic, anti-intellectual world view. That he did, but Sherman more than makes the case that the man was a true believer in his own right, that his abilities as a salesman were put firmly behind a product in which he truly believed; FOX News succeeded because the man calling the shots behind the scenes was one of the audience he was trying to reach. He tapped into an underserved constituency that tuned in each and every day wanting more…and more. Most of all, he understood that conflict sells, that it is us against them, the true hard working Americans and patriots versus liberal elitists who sneered at them, and wanted confiscate their hard earned dollars, while forcing sexually deviancy to be taught in every classroom. To get this message out, he hired sneering blowhards like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. Along the way, anyone who questioned the policies of the second Bush administration after 9/11 was denounced as traitors, while the invasion of Iraq on flimsy grounds was rammed down the throats of anyone who objected. The Tea Party, Birtherism, and the evils of Bill and Hilary and Barack and Michelle became synonymous with the FOX News brand. And the on air female talent had to be sure and show some leg. Ailes’s creation became the most powerful entity inside the Republican Party, with its power to make or break Presidential candidates. Those whom Ailes favored got special treatment on FOX, thus giving him the kind of power once reserved for the bosses of political machines. How sad and ironic it must have been for him to have been forced out of his job the very week that Donald Trump, a personal friend and a man beloved by the FOX News audience, accepted the Republican Presidential nomination at its convention in July of 2016. One wonders what might have been if Ailes had remained in command during the Trump years, when, no doubt, he would have talked with the President daily. But it was not to be.

In the end, I think Roger Ailes gloried in the power, but he had no conception of responsibility, the kind that even the lowliest of public office holders come to respect. Common ground and compromise held no value, not the least because they generated no ratings and no revenue.

Gabriel Sherman’s book is a superb work of investigative journalism, but I doubt it will be the definitive work on the subject. I’m not taking anything away from Sherman, but I think we are still too close to the time and place to truly understand events, that Roger Ailes’s final place in history is yet to be determined, but until that time comes, THE LOUDEST VOICE IN THE ROOM will do.… (más)

I loved this book. It was a great look into the guy's life and taught me a lot about media strategy, power, and the strengths & weaknesses of FOX / conservative talk personalities.

It's not a liberal book like Al Frankin's. It's coming from a journalistic angle, so it's not putting down his politics or promoting the Democratic party.

It can be tough at times for how many names it throws in, as he moves from job to job, network to network, each with their own internal power struggles that he fights fiercely in.… (más)