Michael Calderone at Politico has a fascinating preview of Michael Wolff’s new book, “The Man Who Owns the News” — a biography of Rupert Murdoch.
In it, Wolff reveals some surprising details about Murdoch and his most famous property, the Fox News channel. Details such as the fact that Murdoch doesn’t particularly care for the station’s star, Bill O’Reilly, nor the culture of angry isolationism that channel’s commentary echoes thanks to his success. And apparently the rest of the Fox News brass, slimy as they may be, doesn’t necessarily disagree with Murdoch.
And then there’s this highly entertaining quote directly from the book about a meeting this summer between Murdoch, Fox executive Roger Ailes, and Obama:
Obama lit into Ailes. He said he didn’t want to waste his time talking to Ailes if Fox was just going to continue to abuse him and his wife, that Fox had relentlessly portrayed him as suspicious, foreign-fearsome—just short of a terrorist.
Ailes, unruffled, said it might not have been this way if Obama had come on the air instead of giving Fox the back of his hand.
A tentative truce, which may or may not have historical significance, was thereupon agreed.
Remember, that was in the summer. Obama did, in fact, go on the air, and provide O’Reilly with his second-highest ratings ever, only to get interrupted and berated by the splotchy king of conflict. The network did not respond in good faith, and instead ramped up their “Obama-the-Terrorist” storyline.
An interesting story, nonetheless.
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