Roger Ailes’ Reading List

Saturday’s Wall Street Journal includes a “Top Five Books” by FNC chairman Roger Ailes. The feature is subtitled “the best books about the news business.”

1. “The Medium Is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan (Bantam, 1967).

“I’d only add this to the formula: Never underestimate the influence of dominant TV news personalities, like Walter Cronkite in his day and those who have followed…”

2. “The Kingdom and the Power” by Gay Talese (World Publishing, 1969).

“When I was growing up, people thought: If it’s in the Times, then it must be true. Who thinks that now? Reading Mr. Talese’s hugely enjoyable, exquisitely detailed book in 2006 has to be a bittersweet experience…”

3. “Breaking the News” by James Fallows (Pantheon, 1996).

“This book stands out for how directly it addresses the arrogance and negativism of the press, which run counter to the way Americans feel about their country. Consider the media’s current obsession with the wiretapping story. If an al Qaeda member is phoning somebody in the U.S., what are we supposed to believe — that he’s looking for travel tips? Americans know better…”

4. “Three Blind Mice” by Ken Auletta (Random House, 1991).

“Mr. Auletta’s tremendous access to sources was the making of this entertaining book, subtitled ‘How the TV Networks Lost Their Way.’ Among other things, it shows how network people spend their lives sucking up, stabbing each other in the back and then going to corporate meetings promoting teamwork…”

5. “Bias” by Bernard Goldberg (Regnery, 2001).

“This breakthrough book says: Let’s stop pretending, let’s finally acknowledge the elephant in the room–the fact that the media, composed largely of liberals, view the world through the prism of leftist politics and report the news accordingly…”