Latinos make up one-sixth of the nation’s population, but accounted for more than half of the country’s population growth between 2000 and 2010. What was considered left or liberal on Fox News represented mainstream views for a site aimed at Latinos—even a site with the Fox brand. Ailes’s relatively low-cost initiative paid off. Hispanic activists praised Fox News Latino even as they attacked coverage on Fox News. The site beat the similar ventures from the Huffington Post and NBC News to the punch.
Periodically, Fox News Latino journalists influence the news channel’s coverage, at least around the edges. Fox News Latino’s Bryan Llenas appeared on Fox News to describe the results of a poll on Latino views commissioned by the website in the early stages of the 2012 elections. Llenas noted that Hispanic voters cared more about the economy than immigration, but said that the latter issue defined their moral compass. “Eighty-five percent support undocumented workers working in this country,” Llenas told the anchor, Rick Folbaum. “If you ask them whether they prefer the word ‘illegal’ versus ‘undocumented,’ a majority of them believe that the term ‘illegal immigrant’ is offensive.”
Latinos represented the future of ratings. Glenn Beck did, too, at least for the near term. But Beck came with conspiracy theories, wild-eyed accusations, and predictions of doom. His ratings declined throughout 2010 and protests from such liberal groups as Color of Change led hundreds of advertisers to peel away. Some of the remaining advertisers peddled gold for hoarding and seeds for staple crops, as though civilization was on the verge of collapse. Beck liked talking about religion, often apocalyptically, at great length. Ailes felt that was the kiss of death on cable television. Each man had a clear vision for the kind of show he wanted on the air. They just didn’t match up.
The chairman had always minted the stars. Fox News was the star. O’Reilly was perhaps the network’s one untouchable figure. But no one could be bigger than Fox News itself, a fact seemingly lost on Beck. He not only had a radio show but created his own production company, Mercury Radio Arts, through which he performs in a traveling concert show. In August 2011, Beck staged a rally on the same day and spot as Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, forty-seven years earlier. He created the Blaze, a conservative news and aggregation site modeled after the liberal Huffington Post. His colleagues at Fox wondered whether any of that would have been possible but for Fox. Ailes’s aides privately characterized Beck as a demagogue, a perpetual motion machine producing one bad headline after another. Beck’s loyalists whispered that Ailes was a control freak, stifling his continued rise after Beck had demonstrated that you could get prime-time ratings at 5:00 PM eastern time—well before most people had returned from work on the East Coast.
In the spring of 2011 Ailes took steps to remove Beck from the air. A carefully orchestrated joint interview with the Associated Press allowed Ailes and Beck to present a relatively unified front. Beck said he had asked Ailes for a reduced role at Fox that did not include his daily evening show. “Half the headlines say he’s been canceled,” Ailes told the AP. “The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.” Fox News executive Joel Cheatwood would follow Beck to his production company, Mercury Arts. The announcement included the promise that Mercury Arts would continue to develop projects for Fox News and its digital platforms. Neither side believed that promise would be fulfilled.
On his show the next evening, Beck showed flashes of his trademark humor—along with his trademark ego. “There’s a lot more important news than, ‘What’s the big fat chunky guy doing for his future?’” Beck told viewers. “When I took this job, I didn’t take it because it was going to be a career for me.” He then proceeded to compare himself to Paul Revere.
Beck’s coworkers thought he was a deranged business genius. For his new online channel, Blaze TV, Beck followed his instincts: the first broadcast was beamed from Jerusalem, where he encouraged Israelis to live with hope. Why they needed his encouragement was not clear. He built up his own video channel and news service, and it earned him tens of millions of dollars a year. He later sought to place it on cable systems throughout the country.
Ailes and Bill Shine, Fox’s programming chief, created a temporary show to fill Beck’s slot called The Five. It was built around four conservative voices and one liberal—four attractive people under fifty and one guy in his mid-sixties. The odd man out in each grouping was Bob Beckel, who managed Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale’s landslide loss in 1984 and got caught up in personal scandal afterward. He was not outmatched in bombast, but Beckel presented an intemperate and outmoded face of liberalism on the channel.
The show flourished and stuck around. Ailes surprised even himself with its success.
THAT SAME spring, Ailes’s emotional investment in Fox was being tested. Ailes was paid $5 million a year, plus a bonus of $1.25 million at the end of the fiscal year, plus a “high end special bonus” of $8 million that he would undoubtedly receive. Fox’s ratings allowed network executives to squeeze extra money not just from advertisers but from cable system providers as contracts to carry Fox for their subscribers expired. News Corp would annually grant Ailes extra shares worth another $4 million (give or take) once Fox Business Network broke even and additional stock if it started hitting some profit targets. He traveled to all business-related events on a company-paid private jet. News Corp paid for Ailes’s security detail too. Over time, the package could exceed $20 million a year. But Ailes told associates he was still just a hired hand. Rupert Murdoch underscored Ailes’s status by refusing to grant him a meaningful stake in the company that came with a vote.
Far from New York, a woman well versed in the ways of politics and power traveled thousands of miles for a private conversation bearing a greeting from Ailes. Kathleen T. McFarland, “KT” on the air, was a Fox News analyst and a former aide on national security and military matters in three different Republican administrations. McFarland also ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination for US Senate in New York in 2006. In April 2011 she met with Gen. David Petraeus, then overseeing American military strategy in Afghanistan, for an off-the-record conversation at his offices in Kabul. She sought his assessment of operations there in her role as a commentator and columnist. Toward the end of the ninety-minute session, she told Petraeus she had a message from her boss. Ailes had his mind on a big prize: the White House. Ailes had little confidence in Mitt Romney for the 2012 race. The Republican field needs shaking up, Ailes thought. Petraeus could be a good addition to the mix.
The ambitious general could see where McFarland was going and headed her off: “I’m not running.” Petraeus and McFarland joked nervously about the presence of his aides. “Everybody at Fox loves you,” McFarland said and then detoured to ask Petraeus what he’d like Fox to change about its coverage of the war in Afghanistan.
But the Fox analyst doubled back to the message she said she was carrying for Ailes. “I’m not runnin’,” Petraeus repeated, laughing. McFarland said Ailes advised him to stay in government only if Obama named him chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Services. “If you’re offered anything else, don’t take it,” she said. “Resign in six months and run for president.” Ailes would run his campaign. At no point did Petraeus indicate surprise. “Rupert’s been after me, as well,” the general replied. He then turned to his cohort of aides. “You all have really got to shut your mouths,” Petraeus told them.
McFarland moved to reassure him: “I’m only reporting this back to Roger. And that’s our deal.” Petraeus said he was interested in only two jobs: chairman of the joint chiefs and another that he would not specify. “That has to be off the record,” he said. He repeated that he would never run for the White House. “If I ever ran, I’d take [Ailes] up on his offer,” Petraeus said, and added a revelation of his own: “He said he would quit Fox.” Ailes had promised to bankroll his run, Petraeus said, before correcting himself. “That must have been Murdoch.” McFarland quickly
agreed. “I think the one who’s bankrolling it is the big boss,” she said.
By the end of the month, Obama had nominated the general to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency. When Bob Woodward of the Washington Post revealed the exchange and posted the audio online much later, Ailes said he had been joking. McFarland took the fall: “I know now that Roger was joking, but at the time, I wasn’t sure.”
MITT ROMNEY was the front-runner among Republicans from the outset, the guy “up next,” as Bob Dole had been in 1996, and John McCain in 2008. He had 1950s good looks, fairly strong name recognition from his 2008 bid, and a seemingly bottomless bottom line. But no matter how strongly he professed his conservative beliefs, even calling himself “a severe conservative,” Romney failed to stir passion in the core Republican primary voter.
Romney appeared on many conservative radio talk shows but routinely shut out reporters on the trail, preferring to deliver carefully honed messages at tightly controlled forums. In one four-week period that fall, Romney did no interviews with the national press corps. The New York Times magazine and Time magazine did cover stories on Romney without any help from the candidate.
Ailes had confidence in none of the alternatives to Romney, not Herman Cain, Rick Perry, or even network alums Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Still, Fox gave credulous treatment to all of them and even to sideshows such as Donald Trump. Fox treated him more kindly than his own network, NBC, which aired his show Celebrity Apprentice. Trump was the ultimate in empty calories and Ailes knew he could not beat Obama. But Ailes let it ride.
When Gingrich surged, Romney met privately with Fox News executives, and subsequently surfaced several times on the network. Then he sat down with Fox’s Bret Baier, who asked: “How can voters trust what they hear from you today is what you will believe if you win the White House?” On key issues—climate change, abortion, immigration, gay rights—Romney had advocated a variety of contradictory positions, including some held by the Obama administration.
“Well, Bret, your list is just not accurate,” Romney replied, grimacing. “So, one, we’ll have to be better informed.” Baier pressed him again, prompting Romney to accuse Fox of taking talking points from commercials paid for by Democrats. It was all downhill from there.
One common belief outside the network, especially among its detractors, held that Fox intended to dictate a winner for 2012—the “Fox primary,” one critic dubbed it. It was an imprecise assessment. Fox News was appealing to conservative viewers and voters by rigorously refereeing the internal party fight in which there was no clear-cut crowd pleaser. In an earlier era, party bosses had performed that role in smoke-filled rooms. After primaries were established, the political press corps—the boys and girls on the buses and airplanes—played that part. But in the Republican field, Ailes’s Fox News dwarfed all media players.
Santorum received a boost from the top Fox pundit of all. Rupert Murdoch fired up a personal Twitter account on New Year’s Eve 2011. Among his inaugural political missives of the 2012 cycle: “Can’t resist this tweet, but all Iowans [should] think about Rick Santorum. Only candidate with genuine big vision for country.” Romney was thought to have won the Iowa caucuses in a close vote. Days later, however, Santorum was declared the victor following a party recount. It would not be enough to give him enduring momentum. He would hold his former employers at Fox responsible for failing to give him sufficiently fulsome coverage. So, for that matter, did Gingrich. Romney, for his part, told Ailes point-blank that Fox favored Gingrich and Santorum over him. If Ailes had granted one of the Republicans favored status, the candidate didn’t know it.
OVER THE months Ailes reconciled himself to Romney’s ascension. In May, Fox & Friends broadcast a four-minute segment that was like a political hit piece on Obama, contrasting his aspirational 2008 themes of hope and change with discordant music and images of a dystopian America. After an angry call from White House press secretary Jay Carney, Fox removed the video from its website and Bill Shine said it was not “authorized” by senior executives. The network did not issue an apology; it rarely did. Instead, the issue was addressed internally. The same instinct played out in a different way when Fox News wrongly reported that the US Supreme Court had overturned the president’s health care overhaul, on constitutional grounds. CNN also misreported the decision—the result of journalists for both networks failing to read past the second page of the ruling. Fox gave viewers the correct outcome more quickly than did CNN. But CNN posted a correction and an apology. Fox said it had gotten the story right, as the ruling declared Obamacare unconstitutional on page two and resurrected it on page three.
AS THE general election reached full steam, Fox executives believed Obama was getting a pass on important issues that would have bedeviled George W. Bush, including the death of Americans at the US consulate in Benghazi. The network devoted extensive coverage to the issue, replaying the footage of the consulate ablaze in the days before the election. Anchors and pundits said other news outlets were failing to give adequate attention to the administration’s failure to secure their diplomats’ safety. The network was providing balance to the bias it identified in others.
In the week before Election Day, the so-called Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of New Jersey and New York State. After the storm, however, New Jersey governor Chris Christie accepted the warm embrace of the federal government, literally, in the person of President Obama. Christie, a Republican, praised the president, who promised and delivered immediate financial support and much needed personnel. Christie took to Fox News to explain why he welcomed the active aid from a Democratic White House just days ahead of the election.
“Right now I’m much more concerned about preventing any other loss of life, getting people to safe places. And then we’ll worry about the election,” Christie said. “I’ve spoken to the president three times yesterday. He’s been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state. And not once did he bring up the election.”
Steve Doocy, the host of Fox & Friends, nudged Christie to offer a photo opportunity for Romney: “Is there any possibility that Governor Romney may go to New Jersey to tour some of the damage with you?”
“I have no idea. Nor am I the least bit concerned or interested,” said Christie, as caustic as ever. “I could care less about any of that stuff. I have a job to do. I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power. I’ve got devastation on the shore. I’ve got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me.”
Romney’s partisans privately groused that Christie was doing what was best for his own future political prospects, both in New Jersey, a blue state, and in his mind for a possible presidential bid four years later. But Christie was striking a partnership of convenience that would pay off for the state. At times, Christie exhibited the giddiness of a kid. He expressed delight to be flying on a presidential helicopter. Obama further rewarded him a few days later with a call from his musical hero, Asbury Park’s Bruce Springsteen, from Air Force One. Springsteen had been performing at Obama events in Ohio.
Rupert Murdoch paid close attention. His papers and Fox News had supported Christie as he rose from top federal prosecutor to governor to a national political prospect. Romney had come close to selecting Christie as his running mate, although, according to a friend of Ailes, Murdoch and Ailes met with Romney and made it clear that conservatives—and they—would not take him seriously unless he picked Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Romney’s choice of Ryan earned him widespread praise from the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and Fox News programs.
On November 3, the Saturday before Election Day, Murdoch took to Twitter to praise New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and Christie for their handling of the storm damage but added, “Can’t blame Christie for being on the front page of every paper palling up with O [meaning Obama] but misleading.” A bit later on, Murdoch tweeted that Christie “was first Republican go
v to support Romney, and has worked tirelessly for him[.] Help to remind.” Murdoch was telling Christie to let voters know that his support belonged to Romney.
As a mark of respect, if not deference, Christie telephoned Murdoch to explain he would seek help for residents wherever he could get it. Murdoch bluntly told Christie he might irreparably damage his chances for higher office if he did not reiterate his support for Romney. He told the New Jersey governor exactly what he had to do to retain credibility in meaningful conservative circles.
The next morning, at a press conference covered by national cable news channels, Christie reiterated his loyalty for Romney.
Typos, misspellings, and the occasional gaffe mark the Twitter feed as Murdoch’s own, not one commandeered by PR advisers. Murdoch was doing his part for the Romney camp, letting Twitter followers know he expected the Republican to win, despite polls to the contrary. “Monolithic media will spend next three days pushing Obama, but final outcome far from certain,” he wrote on November 3. “Early voting patterns look very different.”
THE NEXT DAY: “Seems slight edge to Obama, but Romney seeing small late surge. Many state polls look unreliable.”
His statement seemed to encompass polls commissioned by his own properties. Those conducted by the Wall Street Journal in partnership with NBC News and rival surveys paid for by Fox News also showed fairly constant margins in favor of the president, in the swing states as well as nationally. But Fox’s programs relied heavily on a rotation of other conservative pollsters, pundits, and public opinion gurus. They strayed beyond analysis into promises of a Romney resurgence.
Former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove was Fox’s leading analyst. He also had the run of the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. On October 4, his column in the Journal was headlined: “Can We Believe the Presidential Polls?”
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