The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News and Divided a Country.

• Author: Fischer, Raymond L.
• Position: Book review

THE LOUDEST VOICE IN THE ROOM: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--and Divided a Country

by GABRIEL SHERMAN

RANDOM HOUSE, N.Y.

2014, 395 pages, $28.00

Contributing editor for New York magazine, Gabriel Sherman has written for several publications; served as a commentator on NPR, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC's "Morning Joe," NBC's 'Today Show," and ABC's 'World News"; and, beginning in 2012, been honored as a Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation.

As a pugnacious TV advisor to three presidents--Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush--and later, as the progenitor of Fox News, Roger Ailes "remade American politics and media." Almost single-handedly, he transformed politics into "mass entertainment--monetizing politics while making entertainment a potent organizing force." As chairman and CEO of Fox News, Ailes is one of the "most powerful opposition figures in the country." He used Fox News to "polarize the American electorate and drew sharp with-us-or-against-us lines; he demonized foes and railed against compromise."

As a young man growing up in Warren, Ohio, in the early 1950s, Ailes acted in plays with his neighborhood friends, among whom Austin Pendleton became a well-known stage and film actor. Pendleton's mother gave Ailes acting lessons, and the boys presented plays on a stage in the Pendleton's basement. In high school, he appeared in several plays and had the lead in "A Man Called Peter." Ailes attended Ohio University, one of the first universities to have a student-operated radio and TV station. As a freshman, Ailes worked at WDUB, where he proved to be "a natural broadcaster"; he read news headlines on "Radio Digest" and hosted the "Yawn Patrol," a morning variety show. Eventually promoted to station manager, Ailes made the "station his home."

Following graduation in 1962, Ailes went to work with Westinghouse's Cleveland TV station KYW, where he served as executive producer of "The Mike Douglas Show." This "immersed Ailes in the world of professional entertainment," where he learned "TV had more to do with drama--conflict, surprise, and spontaneity--than with expensive sets." Most importantly, he learned to keep shows fresh, keep people off-balance not knowing what would happen, and end each segment with a 'payoff.'"

In 1965, the show ranked No. 1 among daytime shows in America. On "The Mike Douglas Show," Ailes "developed the unassailable, blustering confidence that became his...