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Newspaper politics, zoning code wars and hidden home security cameras feature prominently in a newly released excerpt of an anticipated book about Fox News chief Roger Ailes.
Authored by New York contributing editor Gabriel Sherman, the excerpt from the forthcoming title The Loudest Voice in the Room focuses on the internal strife that occurred at a local newsweekly, The Putnam County News & Recorder, after Ailes bought the publication in 2009. It also deals with Ailes’ relationship with his local community in upstate New York.
The exec has publicly stated that he and Fox News did not participate in the unauthorized biography. Ailes dismissed the content of Sherman’s book in a Q&A published in the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. “Attacking me and Fox News is nothing new — it’s a cottage industry,” Ailes told THR. “What’s new is that Random House refused to fact check the content with me or Fox News; that tells you everything you need to know about this book and its agenda.”
STORY: Roger Ailes Fights Back, Dismisses New Book
THR combed through the New York piece published on Wednesday to highlight a few of the memorable quotes allegedly uttered by the Fox News chief in Sherman’s Loudest Voice excerpt:
Quote 1: “You have no f—ing idea what you’ve done! … You have no idea what you’re up against. If you want a war, you’ll have a battle, but it won’t be a long battle.”
Context: A local town supervisor, Richard Shea, alleged Ailes told him this in a phone call on Jan. 10, 2010, shortly after the publication of a New York Times article quoting Shea saying that the Fox exec was “pretty much threatening me” over a local zoning code dispute.
Quote 2: “I have the same problem with you that I have at Fox News. I don’t do a lot of web at Fox News,” Ailes said. “I’d be eating my own lunch.”
Context: A news startup website — variously described as a local Media Matters or MSNBC — run by Gordon Stewart hired several staffers from the News & Recorder in 2010. Ailes later dined with Stewart and was, according to Sherman, “surprisingly open about his lack of knowledge of new media.”
Quote 3: “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.”
Context: This was Ailes’ stated reason, to Richard Shea and land-use attorney Joel Russell, for considering a purchase of acres of land called Mystery Point, New York.
Quote 4: “I have 2,000 employees at Fox, yet this small newspaper is the cause of all my headaches,” Ailes allegedly said. “I’m sick of the drama in this office.”
Context: What the Fox News exec allegedly told the staff of the News & Recorder when, according to Sherman, he entered the paper’s building in order to “quell another staff rebellion.”
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