Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--and Divided a Country

This a well written and interesting biography about the man, Roger Ailes, and the cable "news" network he created to promote the rightwing agenda and generate huge profits. Love or hate Roger Ailes, the guy is brilliant, inspired, cunning and devious. The book was a good read and every time I happen to turn on Fox News, I better understand how it seeks to manipulate public opinion and cater to its and the Republican Party's base, old white men.

Very interesting history around elections, political grooming, corporate world views. Last republican I voted for was Nixon. I don't watch Fox, it turns my stomach too quickly. But this book about the media, government, business interests, etc was just so interesting. Learned a bit more about Palin and all those others they parked on Fox a while. Book makes me want to watch Fox more often and see what's going on so I can keep my eye on them. Plus, surf to CNN and others to see how they are adjusting on the run up to 2016.

Hard to believe anyone could listen to Fox or Ailes after reading this book. Even if it is only half true it is one scary book. Sometimes not as much explanation as needed of who the characters are and how they are related. Not a good book to read on a Kindle since going back and forth between the references and footnotes is way too difficult. Should be required reading in every High School civics or life skills class.

This book verified everything I've ever thought of Ailes and FAUX 'news'. It's a well done book but took a long time to read... somewhat tedious. I wasn't necessarily all that interested in what he did decades ago, that could have been somewhat abbreviated... would have liked more on his current antics but employees are probably nervous to be 'caught' ratting out on the creep. He's incredibly manipulative, abusive, self serving, backstabbing, and every other 'quality' that most of us try to NOT be. He's the scum of the earth and one hell of an evil little cretin. Faux needs to go out of business along with every other business owned by Rupert Murdock, and Rush, and O'Reilly, Beck, Hannity, and all the other hatemongers.

A great book. Quick, easy style and Sherman makes a potentially unlikable (I mean, really unlikable) subject at least empathetic while also pointing out how culpable Ailes is in the modern culture wars.

The scum bag behind the curtain and why every one of fox news correspondents are are complete paid meat puppets. He and is paid to be loyal staff are behind the scenes financial supporter are exploiting the freedoms in democracy while they destroy it.

About TIME they expose this sleazy, trashy bunch of paid liars and slanderers. I always thought that there was a connection between them always using the same language, so I was NOT surprised to discover in the book that it all emanated daily from ail's deepest bowel to be "passed" to their legions of coprophagic stooges, hungrily awaiting their next little dribble, the smellier, the better.

Who is Roger Ailes? Our divided government where reason and pragmatism used to reign has been replaced by two parties at war with each other. The person responsible for this is Roger Ailes. He crafted Fox News and heralded in the worst level of hate journalism in history. Fox is responsible for the rise of the Tea Party, the election of George Bush, the birther movement against President Barack Obama, and a bunch of false scandals that plague the presidency.

We learn of the pathological nature of Roger Ailes and his obsession to be the King Of The Media. He created a profitable
circus of stupid and mediocre minds that use the fascist concept of persuasion. Day after day we hear the same charges made
even when they are disproven. Obama is a Muslim. Obama Is a socialist. Obama was born in Kenya. Fox enlists a bunch of losers to keep this narrative going and we have half of American population still saying that OBAMA IS MUSLIM SOCIALIST FROM KENYA. How did this happen? Why are we allowing carnival barkers to run our precious free press?

Just as the terrorists were able to attack us because of our "free" and open society, Roger ailses is able to use "free speech" to
destroy the concept of an honest and free media. If this country is going to fall it will not be by terrorists from outside, it will be
power hungry media moguls from within. We get a picture that is disturbing that it is hard to fathom.

This book needs to be read by every congressmen, journalist, and caring citizen. I pray that this aberration is curable.
Whether you are Republican or a Democrat...you deserve a government based on the truth. When we are duped by
people who have no interest in democracy we all lose.

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

I cannot wait for the movie to be released.

This critical bio of Roger Ailes is must reading for liberals who hate him. FOX NEWS loyalists will find it to be a hatchet job, which it is. But it contains a lot of high drama. It's kind of a latter day CITIZEN KANE - a greatly flawed hero terrorizes his way to the top. In this case, Ailes succeeded in greatly altering the politics of the nation and becoming, for all practical purposes the Joseph Goebbels of the Republican party. Fascinating.

Sherman tells a fascinating story and really pieces together all the stages in Ailes life which contributes to the man we know him as today. Wish he could attribute more of his story to actual sources but the nature of the information makes the lack of "on the record" witnesses understandable.

I was expecting so much more than an itinerary of what/when he's done things in his life. I don't like the guy to begin with; just wanted to read about why he ended up to be such a conservative idiot. Book is boring; I stopped reading it.

Having recently read Chafets book, "Roger Ailes: Off Camera", which seems just a PR release for Ailes, it's refreshing to wake up into a world where people do good work and have intelligence. Sherman's book is well researched and written. There's actual work, brains and effort put into the writing of this book, and it shows. It's much more interesting, and I'm a somewhat smarter person for having read it, which is what a good book should do.

The machinations of psychotics in holding on to an America that only existed in their own minds. This book is well researched and helps one understand the machinations of a "so-called" news network, where the news is essentially created for those who think alike, or do not think very much. The stunner: These people sort of believe what they produce. A classic case of the herd instinct in man.

I had always wondered how a news organization that is so obviously not a news organization and yet who claims to be fair and balanced came into existence. Roger Ailes learned his craft well from the study of the Nazi propaganda machine.

It is obvious when Pres.Regan killed the Fairness Doctrine, he opened the door for Rupert Murdock and Roger Ailes to start their misinformation network we know today as Fox News.

We once learned from misdeeds of the Nazis who misled the German public and created truth in journalism laws. I hope that our more informed Americans will see what Fox News is about. A right-wing arm of the Republican Party We must hope Roger Ailes never fulfills his pledge to "pick the next president!

A fun book with lots of telling detail. Engrossing and hard to put down. Love him or hate him ailes is a freakin tv genius. Book exhaustively sourced--almost 40% of the 600 pages are source notes and bibliographies. If you love fox it's a hatchet job; if you hate fox every word is gospel. If you're neither it's pure fun.

This a "fair and balanced" account of the machinations of one of the worlds best liars.
Roger Ailes life is full of very clever manipulation of people to meet his own goals. This book offers a balanced look at his style and is well researched. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the "brains" behind Fox News.

It supported everything I've ever thought about about Fox News and it's "staff." None of them actually believe the swill they spout every evening, but it does make for "good television." And they have no qualms about selling their souls!

Roger Ailes is a complex man, extremely smart and talented in different fields as shown from his early years onward. He is also a VERY difficult man to work with or for, then and now! . But it is his career at Fox that is the most compelling reading, and yes, it is compelling! From Early on when Fox News Network was establishing itself, to its competition with CNN, the details and the players themselves are well painted. And what a group, including disturbing facts about as Bill O'Reilly, who comes off VERY poorly. Hannity, and Greta are also given plenty of ink. But even without a cast of characters including Rupert Murdoch, Ailes himself is the be all in every situation, always maddening, ambitious, devious, and powerful . Ailes personal life is also explored; forget political correctness if you should happen to meet him in December and wish him a Merry Christmas, not Happy Holiday. The book is well written so despite its length, it held my interest from start to finish.

When Ailes moved to Garrison, 46 miles north of Manhattan, he tried to impose his will on the area. This is documented in the chapter called Trouble On Main Street. A few of the many instances of his arrogance, bullying and paranoid behavior follow:

1. He bought the local newspaper, PCN&R, and started slanting the news and bullying the reporters. Even his formerly loyal reporters at PCN&R couldn't stand his bullying and quit.
2. Explaining why he was interested in buying a 129-acre plot of land, he stated "I hear a group of Chinese investors are looking. I'm not going to have some Chinese investors set up a missile silo right across from West Point."
3.Verbally abusing and threatening Richard Shea the county supervisor. For example, "Listen," Ailes seethed, "don't be naive about these things. I will destroy your life."
I

Very informative writing on how one individual with a mastery of media is able to divide this country along ideological lines. How one person's paranoia and hatred is able to put at risk the very foundations of our democracy.

Sherman's book calmly and coolly lays bare the innumerable contradictions, hypocrisies and flat-out lunacy that constitute the sad and twisted worldview of Roger Ailes. You're left unhappy and saddened by the power that such a damaged man has wielded for so long, inflicting so much damage on the society he professes to love.

The early part, about young Roger Ailes was interesting, if slow-moving. Sherman moves about in time like a novelist, and as it is in fiction, it isn't always clear. Too many names, too few qualifiers. He states things as fact without giving proof. When he mixes Ailes' professional life with his private life, and even his childhood, it begins to disintegrate. Perhaps Ailes is correct in thinking everybody is out to get him -- this book is surely about fifty percent paranoid projection.

Just finished this book. It was well written and thoroughly researched.

Ailes is a media genius. That's the point of the book. Good or bad, Ailes changed American politics more than any person since Reagan.

This book won't cause anyone to change their political views. It will, however, explain how our polarized political culture got from point A to point B.

Ailes himself has always boasted that he's not a news person ("newsie"). In fact, he disdains news people. Before anyone else, he realized that people vote by how they feel rather than how they think. Ailes seeks to persuade people to his politics through pure entertainment. He's impervious to shaming by fact-checking because he's the first one to admit he could care less about facts. That's "old thinking." He's proven himself right. He was the first to mix politics and religion with electronic entertainment. He just happens to have right wing views, but that's not the author's point.

Fox News is not a news organization. It's a political and profit making organization that employs anchor people and talk show hosts. That's the point of the book and it was well made. The left believes that's blasphemy. But Ailes laughs all the way to the bank.

Ailes is not hollow. His conservative views are genuine. He believes his politics justify his means. Any means.

Again, reading this book won't convince anyone to switch political parties. But it will give you insight into our culture.

For me that's enough.

Editing note: After I wrote my review, I realized I omitted some points.

Near the end of the book the authors describes Ailes's recent feud with his small, NY hometown paper (which he ended up buying) and the local politicians (who he eventually out maneuvered). Though I had read something about this in newspapers, the author does a marvelous job tying the pieces together. This vignette is a microcosm of Ailes's increasingly paranoid and retaliatory trajectory, and presumably that's why the author addressed it at the end. The story is dryly hilarious. It's the kind of great writing that should be taught in journalism schools. The feel you get is akin to a good post-modern novel such as "The World According to Garp," except that it's not fiction. I've gone back and re-read this chapter several times because it's so entertaining.

Another point I forgot to make is that Aisles and his followers launched a predictable, preemptive attack on this book. Their ostensible criticism is that the Aisles wasn't interviewed. But the final chapter of the book details the author's extensive fact checking which included 614 live interviews, most of which were corroborated with at least one other source. Ailes's refusal to be interviewed is vintage Aisles. It's also proof that he knew the author is a real reporter who was intent on digging out the facts.

Gabriel Sherman has written the definitive biography. It is packed with facts, dates, names, quotes, and more, giving us a complete picture of its subject, Roger Ailes, the guru and mastermind behind the Fox News Cable Network. It’s difficult to believe that the man who created and produced the affable Mike Douglas TV program, is also responsible for the hard-hitting, no-nonsense, voice of the right Bill O’Reilly. Ailes is also one of the most responsible campaign strategists that got Richard Nixon elected President. He considers himself a king-maker. His entire career, from son of a factory worker to one of the most influential and powerful men in the world is chronicled in detail in this book. Ailes touts that his network is the home of “fair and balanced reporting,” which Sherman points out is the exact opposite: a right-wing mouthpiece. He explains how Ailes puts up a smoke screen to hide his true agenda. Once he conquered the TV cable news wars with a multi-billion dollar money-making network whose ratings surpassed the total of all competitors combined, Ailes still couldn’t rest. He then moves to a small community north of New York City and fights to take over local politics and the media there while keeping strong control at the network. Is he a bully? Well, you read and judge for yourself, but I don’t think that there is any question about it. Backed up with over 125 pages of notes giving credit for every quote in the book, Sherman has created a picture of this man, which I am sure is very displeasing to Ailes. But I don’t believe it is a hatchet job, just excellent reporting. It’s hard to imagine one man being so successful in so many endeavors while also being Napoleonic in his personality. I would like to have lunch with Roger, but I sure wouldn’t want to work for him.

To treat such a divisive, larger than life character as Roger Ailes is to invite polemicists to take aim. Upon concluding this book, it's no surprise to learn that Ailes himself has railed against the author, his aims, and this product. That's to be taken with a grain of salt- it's simply Ailes modus operandi.

What's most fascinating about this book is not its partisan motivation, but rather its obvious joy, fright, and head-slapping dumbstruck amazement at Ailes booming personality, indefatigable ambition, and incisive, cutting politics. The author, whatever his intents, can barely contain his supreme admiration for Ailes, who, nearly single-handedly, has come to dominate television news, partisan politics, and how media is consumed in the US today.

Regardless of political allegiance, this book is enlightening on so many levels and it deserves a close read, perhaps twice. Ailes has done more for, against, and with television "news" than anyone else. Love him or hate him, The Loudest Voice in the Room makes it clear: you have to deal with Roger.

A ripping story.

Willie Horton was a real monster - go check it out; the facts are the facts. The question a good author would have addressed - was Willie Horton's furlough used to unfairly exploit or properly promote a honest presidential dialogue about prison reform. Sherman never gets there instead obsessing on his belief that Ailes obsessed.

Pick virtually any other element of the politics of the book and you will get the same problem. Sherman glosses over the facts of the situation only to make Ailes look like a petty exploiter.

Roger Ailes has done more damage to the American political system and has greatly contributed to the gridlock we see in Washington today. As the nations problems pile up, Washington politicians twiddle their thumbs. I put the blame for this squaring on the shoulders of Ailes and his network - Fox News.

Ailes' audience is indeed growing older and dying off, which is a good thing. When Ailes dies - and may that day come sooner rather than later, I'd like to see him decapitated, with his head put thru a meat grinder and the hamburger meat like substance that comes out on the other side of the grinder be burned. Rip both his arms off and throw them in the ocean. Take what's left of his body and take it to Times Square and hang it upside down just above the ground, where people can take baseball bats and take turns whacking at it. Then, bury whats left in Death Valley California - where it can burn at temperatures near 140 degrees in the summer. That will be but a fraction of the temperatures that this despicable thing will encounter when it no longer bothers us here on earth.

Gabriel Sherman's book is both the biography of Roger Ailes and the history of Fox News. While Fox News fans might react negatively, the book is meticulously researched, with copious end notes. The amount of detail overwhelmed me at times, and I was usually able to read only a chapter at a time. Perhaps I was trained and worked as a newspaper reporter decades ago, I was both horrified and mesmerized by how foreign Ailes' standards were from "news" as it has been defined in the past. Ailes never set out to create a news channel. His background was in entertainment and politics. All documented: He saw a niche audience that network stations were missing. He told that older, white, conservative audience in the heartland what it wanted to hear, and he created and promoted "news" to use as propaganda to advance his own agenda and to destroy his enemies. In his paranoia, his list of enemies was very long.

This book by journalist Gabriel Sherman recounts the life of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, and the impact he has had on modern American life. Beginning from his love affair with acting in his youth, then turning increasingly to politics, Ailes has managed to succeed in changing the media culture and how people interact with it. Fox News is a movement as much as it is a means to transmit information to viewers. Ailes has thoroughly invested the channel with his many psychological peccadilloes, from his xenophobia, to his conspiratorial mindset, and his preference for blonde anchorwomen. This is a thorough biography, and an excellent discussion of Ailes and the station he has created.

R.A. exhibits psychopathic behaviour. Shame on his Australian employer who so obviously cares nothing for American values and hired this Q-ball and gave him free rein to operate in any fashion he wished as long as the network made wealth. Money overrules everything: common sense, manners, good taste, good behavior, even honesty... everything. The biggest disaster of all is that such a sizeable portion of the American public can be persuaded to turn off their common sense and allow themselves to be lied to, bullied and dragged around by the nose by The Loudest Voice In The Room. Where is their discernment? Where are their brains? One hopeful sign : the reviews on the store for this and other books on the subject of FOX "un-news" network reveal that the reading public at least, is onto this gigantic scam. But how to get dummies to read and become informed?

Okay, so obviously whatever you think of Fox News will dictate how you approach this book. However, if you've ever wondered just how Fox News became, well, Fox News, TLVITR is illuminating.

As other reviewers have commented, yeah, this author has really gotten it stuck to him by Ailes and company over writing this book. What's noteworthy about this is that A) not all of what's written in here about Ailes is, per se, negative, and B) Regarding what is negative, for Ailes and his minions to launch a smear campaign against the author, they're basically making the author's point.

So, yes, although it can drag in the middle section, this is a well-researched and well-written read. And if you disapprove of Fox News, the last third will be invigorating. For instance, come for how the 2003 Iraq invasion might as well've been a Fox News production. Stay for how the Fox News brass was utterly confused on how to report on the war after it continued beyond its all-but-scripted conclusion, the toppling of the statue (jeez, remember that?).

P.S. One of the highlights of this book is a late chapter about how Ailes and his family moved into a small town, took over the newspaper and basically Fox News-ified the town. This chapter could even serve as an effective standalone piece.

Should be required reading in high school so that students know what propaganda is and how it works, also make it a gift to your parents or your crazy uncle who watches Fox 24/7 so they know now why they hate everyone and how it happened. It spells out the rise of power of Roger Ailes and his media manipulation to elect Richard Nixon as President. How he formulated Fox network to be a spin machine of the rightwing. Want to know why our nation is divided?? This book spells it out.

Well-written, thoroughly researched, and even-handed history of the rise of the most popular voice in conservative media. I especially appreciated the analysis of the impact of Ailes and Fox News on the whole of media and the political discourse in this country. Ailes is portrayed as a brilliant, driven force with very real human qualities, rather than the image of a dark shadowy monolith exerting deliciously evil mayhem.

The Loudest Voice in the Room: Roger Ailes, Fox News and the Remaking of American Politics by Gabriel Sherman is not only a book about Ailes as an adult but about how his father raised him and his childhood to adulthood. His father was a douche bag also and taught Ailes to be the douche bag Ailes is today. Ailes has perfected it. This book is good in showing Ailes personality though out his live and how people catered to him, I am not sure why at time, and this gave him even more power. This was before he was fired from Fox. This must me Trump's soulmate and why Trump took him to his bosom. I wanted to knock the stars down just for the subject but that wouldn't be fair, lol. I did however decrease the rating for all the extra things I thought were just too much that didn't seem to lead anywhere that I could see, but there were sooooo many people in his life it was difficult to track. Too many and it gets confusing. Good book on a bad character. Thanks for showing us that he was a dick his whole life and how he got that way.

His father taught him not to trust anyone. While away at college, his divorced mother remarried, sold the Ohio home and moved to California without telling him about the move or what became of his things. Roger Ailes learned to fend for himself.

There are a lot of surprises about Ailes' early life. For instance: He is a hemophiliac, he produced Broadway plays including a counter-cultural ecology themed musical called "Mother Earth", and he allowed himself to be followed around by Richard Gere, who was studying for a role as a campaign guru.

Sherman follows Ailes through his successes and failures as a TV and theatrical producer. In the beginning his "media advice" on political campaigns was a side-line. His work with Nixon and the resulting best seller about it both hindered and launched him. As his life and career progressed so did Ailes' anger and paranoia.

There is background on the most curious of Ailes' relationships such as Joe McGuinness (author of The Selling of the President: The Classical Account of the Packaging of a Candidate) Rudloph Guiliani (the NY elite his networks bashes) and the Murdoch family (his employer, whom he manipulates). There is good back story on how Ailes got on with Nixon's staff, how he built Fox, Fox's hyping of Clinton's "scandals" and its presentation of the the 2000 Election returns, how Glen Beck came to leave Fox, the facts surrounding the O'Reilly harassment and libel (Al Franken) lawsuits and much more.

The chapter on the Ailes's move to the Philipstown and purchase of its local newspaper is the story of Fox News in a microcosm. There was the unnecessary stirring up and empowerment of angry people and the spouting of talking points/half-truths like those heard daily on the network. Total control was demanded of the small newspaper staff. This and a smothering paternalism (you can stay at our place, for vacation, we'll take you to your family in our jet) begat its own kind of indentured servitude. Leaving was an act of disloyalty to be punished as many who left Fox News found out.

The early years are well sourced. For later years the author has to rely on public records, the broadcasts themselves and those who would speak out. When Ailes leaves public life we, the public, will learn a lot more since there will be a spate of tell-all memoirs by Fox News staff. (I hope someone does an "Ailes on the Couch".) As this book ends, Fox while still the cable news leader, is declining in viewership. Its technology is getting outdated. It has lost two elections and in the interest of helping its party, has had to back away from the Tea Party it championed. Rupert Murdoch is less enamored of his producer. It looks like there will be another battle ahead when Ailes' contract expires.

There are no photographs. I'd like to have seen the early Ailes, looking like Bobby Darin. It is hard to imagine. While his brother is quoted and his mother is referenced as present at one point, the family essentially is left after childhood. Similarly, his health is dropped, as though his hemophilia has been outgrown. The transition from a more normal type A person to a full blown paranoiac control freak is not clearly shown, which may be due to finding sources to speak to this period.

This is an excellent and courageous job. I hope this author is not being followed or harassed like the staff of the PCN&R and other "enemies".

I agree with most of those who rated "Loudest Voice" a "3" that the book starts well, then wastes countless pages detailing trivia of names, faces, phone calls, meetings, etc. Sherman should have been more focused- this is an important topic I wish most Americans could be made aware of.

Another point is the central story Ailes tells to illustrate his father's harshness- the "Jump, Roger, your father will catch you" tale, which I suspect is just another Ailes fiction.

I heard the same story told way back in 1961- maybe about the same time Roger Ailes (about my age) heard it. It was, unfortunately, an anti-Semitic story (told by a rather bigoted person) that claimed that Jewish fathers indoctrinated their children by telling them to jump into their arms, then allowing them to fall on the floor. The punch line was "See, Little One, you should never trust anyone. Not even your own father." "Loudest Voice" certainly showed Ailes to have anti-Semitic traits.

(This "story" has probably been around as long as mankind has divided itself into warring tribes, where each sought to dehumanize the other tribe. Sad, but then, Roger Ailes sounds like another sad tale of an injured child seeking to injure- and control- others as an adult. The more power you have, the more people you can push around.)

In this highly detailed, well-researched book, Sherman actually gives us a rather nuanced picture of Roger Ailes -- regarding him as more an opportunist than an ideologue, and certainly not the villain that many detractors have depicted. And as Sherman points out to his credit, even with all his power, Ailes was not able to bend a presidential election to his desires.

This would have been five stars, except that the book bogs down a bit in the middle. All of the corporate machinations at GE and NBC just aren’t worth the reader’s time or effort.

Amazingly deeply researched, and compellingly written. By successfully resisting the temptation to demonize, Sherman provides a nuanced and informative portrait of a complex man with a fascinating life.

This excellent book is the story of an emotionally labile, paranoid and talented man who started a television company that promotes lies and gross distortions for the purpose of making it a political operation rather than rather than a news organization. He believed that "People are lazy. With television you just sit-watch-listen. The thinking is done for you," (pg 73) He knew that if he said Fox was "fair and balanced" people would believe that it was fair and balanced.
The book is a primer on how not to run an American news organization. If you search for the truth and speak the truth the country can become stronger. Fox weakens our democracy.
The dividing of the country part of the book does not make its case well but Fox demagogues and lies that become part of the 24 hour news cycle can do a lot of dividing.

Sherman gives us a brief account of how Ailes' childhood might have contributed to the bullying and paranoia Ailes is known for. I doubt it would satisfy a psychologist, but it is interesting.

The meat of the book starts with Ailes' employment at the Mike Douglas Show where he went from a entering position to a producer in an exceptionaly short time. By 1968 he had met Nixon and impressed him enough that he became Nixon's televison producer. Legend has it that Ailes turned the election to Nixon's advantage. Sherman suggests that at this time Ailes was not so much interested in conservative politics but in building a careet in televsion.

By the eighties he had a grasp on building an empire, starting with production of a Rush Limbaugh show, and then moving into network television. He built a reputation at places like CNBC for ridiculing fellow employees. Later, he demanded loyalty while accepting verbal abuse (he usually gave better than he received) so long as the in-fighting was never made public.

I am not sure why Sherman used so many references that were never pinpointed, that is many of his sources go unnamed. The practice suggests the author would have liked to talk to many more people. Regardless he has recorded the life of an influential character who has made a major impact on television.
ernestschusky.com

Sherman, a contributing editor at New York magazine, delivers a portrait of a manipulating, conniving, controlling, petty and fear-mongering man -- which suggests that the only worthwhile biography of Roger Ailes is an unauthorized biography of Roger Ailes. When Sherman attempted to secure Ailes's cooperation for the book, Fox News PR honcho Brian Lewis, who has since left the network, stipulated that the author must "refrain from using any background quotes or anecdotes that Ailes could consider `negative,' " according to the book. No deal, said Sherman.

Ailes's cooperation, as we've seen, yields mush. Zev Chafets's 2013 book, "Roger Ailes: Off Camera," relied on extensive cooperation from his subject and many others who'd gotten word that Ailes had signed off on the project. The hagiographic result was viewed as a patent attempt by Ailes and Fox News to get out in front of the story, to cement Ailes's image before Sherman could come in and wreck it. It didn't work.

Although Ailes can muzzle himself and most all of his subordinates at Fox News, he lacks that power over others. Sherman exploited that opening: He interviewed 614 people, according to his note on sources.

Sherman shapes those interviews -- along with documents and previous work on his subject's life -- into a detailed Ailes chronology, starting with his upbringing in the northeastern Ohio town of Warren, home to Packard Electric Co., employer of Ailes's father, Robert Ailes. Dad could be a cruel character, as when a young Roger was standing on the top bunk in his bedroom: "His father opened his arms wide and smiled. `Jump Roger, jump,' he told him. Roger leapt off the bed into the air toward his arms. But Robert took a step back. His son fell flat onto the floor. As he looked up, Robert leaned down and picked him up. `Don't ever trust anybody,' he said." Although it is possibly apocryphal, Ailes spread a variation of this story, perhaps as an excuse for his legendary paranoia.

In the 1960s, Ailes worked on "The Mike Douglas Show." He started out as a "$68-a-week prop boy" and eventually ascended to executive producer, something of a coup that infuriated some co-workers. Sherman fact-checks the account of the promotion that Ailes puts forth in his 1988 book, "You Are the Message." The way Ailes told it, he challenged the senior editor's bullying ways and got into a "brawl" with him. Although he figured that the violence would ruin his career, "actually it had quite the opposite effect," Ailes had written. Sherman reports: "When asked about the story, a half dozen staff members on The Mike Douglas Show could not recall such a brawl ever occurring."

Over the course of his book, Sherman documents a number of such little fictions and embellishments propagated by Ailes and his associates, none more consequential than the one that took place at Fox News in May 2012. The media world blew up in outrage when the network's morning show "Fox & Friends" aired a four-minute anti-Obama video that had all the hallmarks of a GOP campaign spot. Under the gun, Fox News told the New York Times that Ailes wasn't aware of the video. Sherman reports that it was Ailes's "brainchild."

Yet deception isn't the theme that knits together the key Ailes epochs documented in "The Loudest Voice in the Room." Loyalty is. Sherman says that when Ailes was running "The Mike Douglas Show," he told a fellow manager, "You can come in anytime and yell and scream `Stupid!' behind closed doors. But if you do it in front of the staff, I'll kill you."

At Fox News, which launched in 1996, reporter David Shuster found himself in a pickle, according to Sherman: "When he pursued Clinton, Ailes personally congratulated him. When he pursued Bush, his bosses questioned not only his objectivity, but his loyalty." Fox News anchors routinely gush over their devotion to the boss.

The book excels at compiling data establishing Ailes's control freakishness and authoritarian nature. It falls a bit short, however, tracing those values to the product that spills from Fox News studios. The ideal in any news organization is that the journalists care more about journalistic values -- fairness, accuracy, honesty -- than about the whims and agendas of the guy in the corner office. An environment in which no one crosses Roger explains, for instance, why Fox News consistently fillets President Obama's Affordable Care Act, a law that Ailes has publicly thrashed.

In its subtitle, "The Loudest Voice in the Room" promises an account of how Ailes has "divided a country." This promise goes unfulfilled. A veteran of the New York media-reporting scene, Sherman nails the Fox News palace intrigue and brings to light interactions that Ailes clearly never wanted to go public. But exploring how Fox News has driven people apart requires digging in far-flung places -- like the halls of Congress, state houses, governor's mansions, tea party rallies, town hall meetings -- digging that Sherman bypassed. When he was asked in a TV interview Friday just how the subject of his book had divided the United States, Sherman looked almost stunned by the inquiry: "Because of his ability to drive a message: He has an unrivaled ability to know what resonates with a certain audience."

Interesting biography, and well researched, but it seemed shallow somehow. I came away with a lot of facts, but not much sense of what really made this guy tick. A bit more analysis would have been helpful.

At the outset of Vladimir Putin's reign, masked government strongmen burst into the halls of the Independent Television Station (NTV is the Russian acronym) and wrestled the control of this media empire away from an oligarch fleeing to Israeli shores and into the hands of the resurging Russian state.

In a sense this was a uniquely Russian story, and yet the themes of this power play echo in the American landscape.

Media power, government collusion with that power and -yes- oligarchy (with a human face here in the USA).

A life of an individual told by his associates is a jumble of anecdotes, metaphors, gossip and flawed memories. That is what a biography always was and always will be.

Any reader who reads a biography and believes that he is getting a total portrait of a single person is an idiot.

The bigger question -the true mark of a success or failure of a biography- is whether a larger truth emerges out of a swamp of gossip and recollections. Similar to way a lotus rises out of the mud.

In this book a larger narrative does emerge and the developing picture isn't all that agreeable to the eyes of a common citizen.

News Corporation's media foot soldiers have attacked this book on account of a story it tells of Roger Ailes offering a female underling money for sex. Although Fox News made millions of dollars peddling salacious rumors about Bill Clinton and there are youtube compilations of female Fox News anchors crossing and uncrossing their legs, we are expected to believe that their corporate offices are filled with asexual boy scouts.

The sexual harassment tale sounds plausible to me; but even if it was proven to be totally false it does nothing to amend the larger narrative of the book.

Forget Roger Ailes, the main protagonist here is power in modern America. The flow of power away from the smoke-filled backrooms and into greenrooms and shiny studios.

Gabriel Sherman does -in one volume- present a narrative similar to that Robert Caro does in his unfinished biography of Lyndon Johnson. This is a study of power: its acquisition, its nature and its use.

The Loudest Voice in the Room is a good read and I recommend it.

~ Ivan
Ivan's Shady Existence Blog