Facebook. Com booktv. Booktv is live from savannah, ga. Home to the annual savannah book festival we will bring you several authors including mike redmond, lily cobble, scott bird, john rizzo and debra solomon. We kickoff live coverage of the savannah book festival with gabriel asherman, author of the loudest voice in the room. Good morning, everyone. My name is alex gold and i am happy to welcome you to the seventh annual savannah book festival presented by Georgia Power. Into our new venue of the Lutheran Church of ascension which is made possible by the generosity of fred and john kane. Many of you have already attended our terrific special events with our opening and keynote addresses. Today your work is cut out for you as you choose which authors to visit during this day that offers dozens of announce writers to established astounding books in the last year. We would like to extend special thanks to our presenting foster, Georgia Power, individual donors who make Saturdays Free event possible. If you would like to lend your support we welcome your donations at the door as you exit. Before we get started i have a couple housekeeping notes. Take this moment to turn off your cellphones. I will demonstrate. But also ask that you please dont use flash photography. Also immediately following this presentation mr. Sherman will be signing copies at the square. And thank john and stephanie for sponsoring Gabriel Shermans appearance here today. [applause] you made an Excellent First choice for the 9 00 hour. Gabriel sherman stirred the pot with his new biography the loudest voice in the room, the inside story of how roger ailes and fox news remade american politics. He is a contributing editor at the new York Magazine and is a Bernard Schwartz fellow at the new american foundation. And new York Magazine mr. Sherman reported on cover stories on media, politics and business. Previously sherman was the media reporter read the new york observer. Has appeared on cnn, fox news, and nbc, abc world news and National Public radio. Mr. Sherman lives in new york city with his wife, jennifer. We know he is a competitive marathon runner and hope he will come back for savannah rockandroll marathon november 8th. Please welcome the loudest voice in the room author Gabriel Sherman. [applause] [applause] thank you, savannah book festival, for having me down to talk about my new book. Real treat if anyone has looked at a weather map. Over the last few days i would come down to leave new york for any reason but it is a real treat to get down here to talk about my book and thank you for that. We can thank bill airlines for losing my luggage on the way down which is why i am wearing a sweater and not a jacket which would be more appropriate attire for such a nice venue. We can all thank delta. It is a great opportunity to be here. I spent the last three years working on this book. Has been the most challenging and inspiring part of my journalism career and i am so excited to talk a bit about it. As a nice introduction mentioned i work at new York Magazine. I cover media politics and business. I covered media for a decade and i am fascinated by how our largest media organizations, Television Networks, big newspapers play such a role in our National Politics and the big issues of our day. I have written stories about the n. Y. Times, cnn, msnbc and Rupert Murdochs media empire. The news corp. In the whole range of those stories over the last decade there was no one story that was bigger than fox news. It is a phenomenon that has changed both away americans get their news and also the way our National Politics works. As a business story is also a fascinating story because fox news generates 1 billion of profit. It generates more profit than all of the other evening newscasts combined so you look at the big three on cbs, abc and nbc. Those three programs put together dont even equal fox newss profits. The business story is unmatched. The way to tell that story, three years ago i said i want to write a book about fox news. Undeniably a major story. I set out to write a history of the Network Launched in 1996. Very early into that research i discovered that the way to tell that story, the best way and ultimately the only way was through the life and career of roger ailes, the creator of fox news and chairman and ceo on the network. Most people in this realm who dont know who roger ailes is. In the course of my research i would tell people what my book was about and who is roger ailes . It was such an opportunity as a reporter that i can introduce a man who has wielded such power over american life. He remains unknown to so many people. The reason i chose to write this book through the life and career of Roger Ailes Fox news is an expression of him. It was an expression of his world view. His power is such that he runs it absolutely, everyone inside fox news take their cues from ales. In interviews, he built fox news from life experience. And doing what he is and how ultimately he made fox news such a staggering success. I want to sketch out to ailes is and you can see how these formative experiences, translated into such success at fox. And what we see on screen when you turn on fox news and watch the famous personality sean hannity, sarah palin, and others i wanted to go on a journey to find out what happens behind the curtain and ultimately in a larger sweep of history where does fox news come from. Biggest media story of the last 50 years. And so roger ailes is an man who has this amazing american story, rags to riches story. He was born in 1940 in warren, ohio, a factory town in northeastern ohio, a symbol of postwar american prosperity. The factories were booming, turning out cars, products, vibrant downtown, talk about people like to talk about how things were better back in the day, in warren, ohio it was true. This city was a vibrant civic space, there were churches, newspapers, factories through picnics and parties through all the workers, workers retired on generous pensions. It was the American Dream so this was the world into which roger ailes was born. His father was a factory foreman, worked at the packard automotive plant. His father did not have College Education, i went back to warren, to archives i interviewed people who grew up in the town, i interviewed roger ailess brother and the theme that emerged from that experience were two things. Several things. One was a romance and nostalgia about america in its golden age. Another thing was the hardship roger ailes knew as a boy. He was born a hemophiliac and hemophilia in the 1940s was a serious medical condition. The average Life Expectancy was about 10 or 11 years old. His parents didnt even know if he was going to make it out of childhood. The other theme that defined his childhood in addition to his overcoming that disability was growing up in a household with a father who was a very volatile demanding man. He thought the boys lessons, was a violent man and it was a painful childhood experience that gave the will to succeed and to triumph and overcome and ultimately dominate other people. Fast forward a little bit. He has a childhood that is marked by hardship but also by a love affair with American History and culture growing up in a very proud time in america. Fastforward to the early 1960s, graduates and takes a job at a tv station in cleveland, ohio. We all today think tea is being done in new york and hollywood and los angeles but in the 1960s tv was booming all over america. In cleveland, ohio there was a new daytime variety show called the mike douglas show. Ales gets a job as a gofer, making 68 a week as a lowlevel producer. This is the experience which is something that translates into the success of fox. On the mike douglas show, television is about entertainment, drama, spectacle, daytime television was about connecting with an audience, the entertainers of the day came through there was a place where television is about appealing to peoples emotions. The mic douglas show was also a place where it was in the middle to the cultural tilt of the 1916s, clearly on the side of the existing, where the new culture, it was a conservative place. One of the things my book really shows is how roger ailess life brings together the two worlds of television and politics. Now it seems like everyone it is Common Knowledge that to be a national politician, whether you are a democrat or republican you have to be a Compelling Television performer. Sarah palins speech at the 2008 Republican Convention was a knockout home run. Introduced her to the American People and she became an overnight sensation and celebrity. In the 1960s this was a new concept. Using television to appeal to the American People was a new idea. Roger ailes was really the person who figured it out. Unlocked the secrets how to use television. He almost was like if you think of now in our modern World Facebook and the internet as this new technology. In 1960s one of the producers i interviewed talked about Television Almost like the social media, the facebook of its day. In 1968 roger ailes has a fateful encounter with Richard Nixon that change the american political history, changed American Television history. It was on the set of the mike douglas show where he meets Richard Nixon and nixon as many people know lost the 1960 president ial election to john f. Kennedy in part because he had such a disappointing performance during the televised president ial debate. It was the first time president ial debates were televised and Richard Nixon had the wrong makeup, he wore a gray suit with a grey background, maybe he couldnt blame delta for that. He had the wrong wardrobe and so he appeared almost ghostlike on the screen next to john kennedy who was 10, looks like a movie star. Fastforward 1968 Richard Nixon running for president again and the one thing he has to do to win the presidency is to win television, to triumph over this medium that let up his political downfall earlier in his career. He needs ales on the set of the douglas show and is grousing backstage and says it is a shame a man like me has to use a gimmick Like Television to get elected. As the legend goes ales snapped back if you think that way you will lose again. Richard nixon was so taken with this young 27yearold producer, this brash kid to talk to back to him that he told his Campaign Advisers hire him, he must know something we dont. Roger ailes who had no political experience wasnt involved in the young republican club, people i interviewed did not talk about him being that publicly active, found himself on the Richard Nixon campaign, in the crucial role of producing his televised town hall debate, his town hall appearances all over america. Richard nixon as we know when on to win the presidency. That experience also made roger ailes an overnight star in the political world. Roger ailes, the conservative icon and a sense owes his career to a liberal. 1968, a journalist from philadelphia named joe mcginnis was traveling with the campaign writing about the way nixon was using television to revive his political career. He wrote a book, a Landmark Book that i recommend, the selling of the president. It is a fascinating account of the behindthescenes juicy behindthescenes mac and nations of how the television consultants to nixon helped introduce him to the American People and that was a best seller, a total sensation of its time and roger ailes was the star. He was the most vivid character, he was profane, brash, making fun of nixon, kind of remarkable that a 27, 28yearold kid would be quoted in a book making fun of the future president of the United States but there is roger ailes. The book comes out and make sales a star. It ultimately cost him his job with nixon. Never really got hired at the Nixon White House, he wanted to work in the Nixon White House but never made it into the nixon circle because nixons handlers were so upset about the book. What it did it made him a star political consultant and republicans all over america wanted to hire him to do for them what he did with nixon. He moves to new york city, sets up shop and becomes a political consultant and he offers his services coaching, being an image maker and producer to republican candidates all over america. At fox news you see how he understands daytime t v is about appealing to an audience keeping engaged and hooked, see how he maries that with nixon and uses those to tell a political story. So i want to jump through a couple more things because i am trying to show you fox news is the culmination of his remarkable life. After nixon he moves to new york and get jobs as a political consultant but the other thing he does, he tries to fulfill a childhood dream of his which is to work in the theater. He was a child actor, he acted in high school plays, active in college plays, moves to new york and in addition to being a political consultant he works as the broadway meter producer, this was another fascinating moment in his life, we also see roger ailes as being a conservative icon. He put sarah palin on tv, he is the man who runs Television Network that is the strongest voice for conservative ideas in america. In the 1970s some of his closest friends were liberal artists, people who had been blacklisted in the 1950s under mccarthy, of people who were active as members of the american left and this shows roger ailes is this largerthanlife charismatic figure who will forge unlikely relationships because he is interested in amassing power and interested in how the world works and how media works and in the 1970s, largely controlled by liberals, that will forge these unlikely relationships. The idea that performance is about drama, spectacle, and to keep people engaged, you need to bring that theatricality to your production. His work as the theater producer ultimately did not lead to a runaway career. He produced several productions, one of which was critically acclaimed, probably his biggest hit but it didnt really click for him. By the 1980s decides to get out of show business and the theater and that is the decade where he becomes a preeminent political consultant of his generation. He was the man who worked for ronald reagan, senators like Mitch Mcconnell, phil gramm and culminated in 1988 with his work for george h. W. Bush, he helped make george h. W. Bush the first sitting Vice President to hold on to the presidency since Martin Van Buren which by all accounts was a stunning achievement. What he did is revolutionized american politics in the 1980s because he brought the show business savvy, entertainment values to his work as a political consultant. He made the most memorable attack ads that still to they are tossed in campaign schools. One of his ads which i want to highlight two of them that showcase the thing that defines him as a political strategist which is his use of humor. Now, with the daily show on Comedy Central region to a degree Rush Limbaugh and talk radio these guys are entertainers. That is sort of Common Knowledge now but in the early to mid 1980s the use of humor wasnt so widespread and he was better at it than anyone. In 1984 Mitch Mcconnell was running for a senate seat in kentucky. He was a long shot. The seat was occupied by a goal boy who had been the seat for years, a democrat, and Mitch Mcconnell was trying to appeal to young professional class, a new voice in politics but it was an uphill battle. Everyone thought he was going to lose. He created an ad that made fun of this idea that he was traveling around the country giving speeches but wasnt looking out for people back in his home state and he got a pack of hounds dogs in an ad called the hound dog at and film these dogs running around washington d. C. Looking for huddleston. It was quoted in newspapers and leslie. Became a total sensation this idea that he was missing and ailes had to track him down and Mitch Mcconnell came surging back and won the seat in the senate ever since. The other at i want to highlight which showcases his use of humor was his work for george h. W. Bush in 1988. And again, george bush was a longshot candidate. Michael dukakis, the Massachusetts Governor was up by double digits during this sort of meet of the campaign. What ails it was poked fun at Michael Dukakis, made obscene and electable to a majority of americans and the way he did it was you may all remember this, the ad with Michael Dukakis running around in a tank wearing a helmet. Is one of the old adage is where you never want to be photographed in a funny hat. Ales new most people get that, if you are going to be out there