Welcome to the Fox News Follies, A Farce

Welcome to the Fox News Follies, A Farce, or as Michael Wolff chose to title his book, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty. A farce is defined as “A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect.” Follies is defined as “Lack of good sense, understanding, or foresight. An act or instance of foolishness. A costly undertaking having an absurd or ruinous outcome.”(American Heritage Dictionary). All of these elements come into play in the course of this true life yarn of clashing egos in media corporations and the family that owned one, with billions at stake, played out across boardrooms, studios, and upscale dining locations. It’s soap opera in the way only big business can produce it, and truth is always stranger than fiction. 

I read the Kindle with Audible narration which was set to a speed of 1.4x. Holter Graham is the narrator who did a masterful job with the book. It was more a dramatic reading than a simple narration. It was like a vocal combination of Friends’ James Michael Tyler’s Gunther, and Will and Grace’s Sean Hayes’ Jack doing the voice. Picture your best story telling friend bringing a bag of donuts over one morning and spilling his guts about all the Murdoch family’s Fox News secrets and drama after two espressos. Narrator Graham had to have rehearsed rigorously for this performance, but amping it up a bit brings out his glorious inflections. It is perfection. 

The main character in the book is hubris on the part of warring members of the wealthy, tumultuous Murdoch clan whose personal political views, sibling rivalries, and overall dysfunction lead to an increasing inability to tend the singular cash cow in their portfolio as it deserved, and their utter contempt for the viewing base as well as their stable of broadcasting talent. Jack Welch once said something to the effect that people are rarely fired for incompetence, they’re fired because they can’t get along with other people. In the case of Fox News, it was not getting along with Rupert Murdoch, except you might not even know you weren’t getting along with him, as his engagement with employees might be 180 degrees from how he felt about them. Business decisions increasingly resembled Murdoch’s mercurial marital dissolution patterns, as he distanced himself from hands on management in favor of interpersonal affairs, eschewing family members who despite his efforts at exposing them to corporate opportunities, inconveniently couldn’t seem to effectively take the reigns to free him up for more amusing pursuits, as he advanced into his 90s.

I’ve never read a Michael Wolff book, but I couldn’t resist getting the scoop behind Fox’s seeming self sabotage over the last few years. I grew up in a Fox News household, so am thoroughly versed in the various personalities involved. I was not expecting the book to be as good as it is. It was so well researched, building off Wolff’s years of studying Murdoch for a previous book, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch. It is full of business details, but so well written it doesn’t bog readers down in the particulars. It was fact dense but fascinating, comprehensive in scope, but not a heavy read. It was highly entertaining (unless you were on the receiving end of the real life version). I do feel Murdoch, his sons, some on air talent, Fox management, liberals, and the author grossly underestimate the consumers of Fox News over the 27 years since it was launched, but that doesn’t really affect the storyline. The base has moved on to better sources, and whoever ends up with it after Murdoch’s passing is free to mold it however they wish. I’d be surprised if it ever matches the profit making juggernaut it was, as the industry’s technology continues to evolve.  

Author Wolff observes, “In that age-old media tension, the best talent becomes larger than the platform by which it has been nurtured—and walks out the front door. Elvis leaves the building. In the bittersweet department, accompanied by the wild laughter of his enemies, you have the lonely figure of Rupert Murdoch, ninety-two-year-old Rupert Murdoch, now shaded by doubt, ambivalence, regret, and bafflement, and the harsh and clanging voices of his children. Not the best mindset with which to hold a kingdom.”