The author of the new biography of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, Zev Chafets, is making the TV news rounds this week to promote the book.
Yesterday Chafets appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CNN’s “The Situation Room” and Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” Today he will be a guest on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” while tomorrow he appears on “Fox & Friends.” Yes, three FNC appearances in three days, attracting three very different audiences. CNN and “GMA” also present a different crowd. CNN painted Ailes as a “GOP Kingmaker,” While Hannity’s segment was more personal.
Speaking of different audiences: the book was also reviewed by the New York Times‘ Michiko Kakutani, and not positively:
For the most part Mr. Chafets serves as little more than a plastic funnel for Mr. Ailes’s observations — much as he did for Rush Limbaugh in his 2010 book “Rush Limbaugh: Army of One.” Although Mr. Chafets supplies a tiny bit of context here and there, he doesn’t ask his subject many tough questions about Fox News’s incestuous relationship with the Republican Party, its role in accelerating partisanship in our increasingly polarized society or the consequences of its often tabloidy blurring of the lines between news and entertainment.