The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

In general (not just for this book, but for any book on politics - right or left), many one star reviewers find a book that disagrees with their particular world view and they jump to call it garbage without reading it. The 1 star review for THIS book strikes me as a prime example of this: what comments does the reviewer offer about the book itself? Only that it's garbage because of some nameless, unlinked memo that 'proves' Media Matters was out to target Fox News. I would be much more apt to believe such a comment if the person, you know, read the book and cited specific examples of lies and misrepresentations contained therein.

To be honest, I do fall on the progressive side of the political spectrum and although I do not frequent Media Matters' website, when I get directed there by someone via my twitter feed it's not just some tear-down of Fox News - it's actual video footage or audio clips accompanied by real facts. Of course, for those living in any kind of reality distortion field (such as I believe Fox News supplies for its viewership) the reality of 'facts' don't matter - 'facts' can be ignored, discredited or brushed aside quite easily by oft repeated lies presented as news. And that is something that this book, quite correctly in my opinion, presents as a danger to democracy. In a period of time where unlimited sums of anonymous money can be put into distorting reality through TV, advertising and "faux news," how are average people to determine the objective truth and make good voting decisions?

Anyhow, I've started into the book and, thus far, it seems to be an accurate representation of Fox News.

This book is a perfect complement to the Media Matters for America web site. The web site is good because it gives daily updates on right-wing media disinformation (contrary to right-wing critics, the web site gives the full context of the right-wing misinformation then it explains the error, smear, distortion, etc.) The book is good in that it gives a good historical overview of Fox News and how it has evolved into a political propaganda operation for the reactionary right. The book devotes over 300 pages to the lies, smears, and political paranoia of Ailes' political operation.

Due to space limitations, the book didn't include some important information about Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and Bill Sammon, the man Ailes chose to be Washington deputy managing editor (who job it is to oversee the news content of the network). I was amused to read that in the 1970's, Ailes worked on a Fox News prototype: the Coors-funded Television News Incorporated which included in its ideology the belief that Martin Luther King was a communist. The book also noted that right after 9/11, Ailes gave political advice to the Bush administration. What the book didn't have the space to mention was Ailes' habit of helping the Bush administration was a stark contrast to Ailes' relationship to the Clinton administration; Ailes was a proponent of the view that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster. Ailes even lauded the reporting on Foster's death by Christopher Ruddy (whose work was so shoddy that he was fired from Murdoch's tabloid The New York Post). When independent counsel Robert Fiske determined that Foster's death was a suicide, the Foster family issued a public statement imploring Ailes and the other conspiracy theorists to stop their baseless rumor-mongering and allow them to mourn in peace. Ailes callously ignored their pleas. Even after four investigations--including Ken Starr's--found that Foster's death was a suicide, Fox News commentators such as Sean Hannity and Andrew Napolitano continue to spread rumors about the possible involvement of the Clintons in Foster's death. This epitomizes what historian Richard Hofstadter called the paranoid style and it explains why Fox News is a source for birther, deather, and tenther misinformation. Ailes deserves to be an honorary member of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Similarly, the book addresses Sammon's journalistic misconduct as a Fox News employee. It didn't have the space to elaborate on Sammon's background. Sammon worked as a reporter for Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times prior to working for Fox. During the 2000 campaign, Sammon was the author of the "floodgate" smear against Al Gore (the Rolling Stone article, "The Press Vs. Al Gore" gives the full story of the smear). Also, reporting on the Florida recount, Sammon cited a Washington Post article and butchered quotes from the article to give the exact opposite impression about what Gore was communicating to his staff (the Post story clearly pointed out that Gore indicated that the country was his top priority; Sammon doctored quotes to falsely claim that Gore was indicating that the country was his last priority). The online article "Journalistic Misconduct by Two Fox News Analysts" gives the full story. These two examples are serious violations of journalistic ethics. Accordingly, Sammon's prior misconduct made him a good fit for Fox News.

Regardless of your political views, you should not miss the opportunity to read The Fox Effect. In the book, they meticulously detail the inner-workings of Fox News and present numerous quotes and historical accounts of how the network covered the major stories that have shaped elections since 2000. After reading this book you cannot help but realize the overtly partisan nature of the network, beyond its editorial programs, as well as the dangerous effect its rhetoric is having on political discourse in the country today.

The heated, often-misinformed rhetoric that dominates our political discourse today is directly related to the rise of Fox News as a media entity in our culture.