10 The FOX Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network Into a Propaganda Machine (Anchor Books, 329 pages, $15), is a case study of FOX News’s journalistic bias written by journalists David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt. The authors cite research collected by Washington, D.C.-based Media Matters for America, a news watchdog agency founded by Brock where Rabin-Havt is the executive vice president. The book is a quick read, and it is enjoyable, mainlybecause the readersmost likely topick it up will easily agree with the authors’ intent: Proving that FOX News is a thinly veiled conservative propaganda machine. Though commendable in scope, the research falls mostly flat on the ears of habitual viewers of Jon Stewart’sThe Daily Showon Comedy Central, which regularly pans the conservative network for its poor journalistic standards. The book, however, is a useful reference tool, providing many specific, well-researched examples as to how FOX is a powerful arm of the U.S. Republican Party, most alarmingly in its attacks on Media Matters itself. The story of the creation and development of FOX News is an interesting one, and the book is always most captivating when it is narrating interpersonal history of the key figures within the network. The network’s founder, Rupert Murdoch, looked for amarket ripe to be exploited, and as he is wont to do, found the right people to do it. To this day, FOX News is the one and only conservative news channel, and it has become the largest news channel in terms of absolute ratings. At the head of this operation is Roger Ailes, depicted here as the closest possible real-life equivalent to Malcolm Tucker, the fictional takeno-prisoners P.R. guy in the BBC comedy/drama The Thick of It. A conservative stalwart, Ailes held several posts within Republican campaigns and administrations, all connected tomedia relations. Notably, in 1971 the Nixon administration granted Ailes an office in the executive building right next to the White House, where he worked as a sort of a “political troubleshooter.” He also worked for George Bush, Sr. during his presidency, and Rudolph Giuliani during his tenure as Mayor of New York City. Quotes from media outlets that worked with Ailes during his political activism characterize him as an effective and energetic — albeit aggressive and sometimes vindictive — spin doctor. The book strongly insinuates that Murdoch himself has taken issue with the way the channel seems to dictate the sensationalistic populism that has become the signature of the Republican Party’s right wing. This has left moderate conservatives powerless to do anything but follow FOX’s line as it uses misleading reporting and questionable source material to shape the news to Ailes’s agenda, or indeed fabricate news stories when in fact there are none. Program hosts who are either unbridled radicals or influential leaders of the Republican Party further exacerbate this. The authors’ claims are supported by extensive research and internetwork as well as cross-network comparisons, bringing to light a specific formula that FOX News uses to sell half-truths as “news stories” and shame everyone else for ignoring them. With much pomp and circumstance, the book repeatedly shows how FOX News is, in effect, a political entity of its own, giving massive exposure to fringe groups (such as the Tea Party) and forcibly making room in the mainstream media narrative for fringe issues (such as President Obama’s birth certificate). All for the sake of what? The answer is evident even as Brock and Rabin-Havt attribute it to Ailes’s desire to play puppet master to the Republican Party. Ratings are only discussed as testaments to the great reach FOX News enjoys. But nowhere do they acknowledge the sources of its ratings success. The mainstream operator in a niche market, FOX News has captured the entire conservative viewer base by pandering to the least common denominator, presenting content that is agreeable to their target audience but void of credibility to the left and center. The authors show how Republican performance seemed to improve in districts soon after FOX News began to air, but is FOX’s misleading promise of “fair and balanced” reporting to blame? More powerful than the channel’s cartoonish reporting is its monopoly on televised conservative opinion. The authors show how Republican candidates flock to FOX looking for maximum exposure and the freedom to blatantly advertise their PACs (or Political Action Committees, which unlike individual contributions, have no spending cap). Would they still do so if therewere amore credible way to speak directly to their base? In fact, would Republican candidates have ever taken refuge in the audacity of the Tea Party’s radicalism if FOX weren’t the only place offering them shelter after their 2008 defeat? The network itself has dismissed Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. The authors attribute this to personal clashes with Ailes, but it is far more likely that even FOX News understands that a minimum of credibility is necessary for a news channel, especially if that lack of credibility is making advertisers pull out, as was the case with Beck’s program. Brock and Rabin-Havt take issue with FOX News’ undeniable bias, and so have many individuals within the media. The Daily Show hardly goes a day without ridiculing FOX. The network is indeed ridiculous to everyone but its viewers, who will never be swayed by the meticulous research of a watchdog agency or the biting observations of a comedian. What might convince some of them, however, could be an intelligent, honest and less sensationalistic place to turn for informed but staunchly conservative opinions. In the meantime, FOX News has no obligation apart from that of guaranteeing an audience to its advertisers. After all, if entertainers like Will.I.Am and Young Jeezy can brainlessly rap about President Obama’s virtues because their audience laps it up, can’t FOX News apply the same commercialist principles to its reporting?YS The making of a U.S. TV propaganda machine, with help from one politically connected TV president March/April 2013 FOX News Succeeds with Believers and Fills a Niche Book Review
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI4OTA5