The time: three months ago. The place: some hotel room. The players: Obama, his advisers, Ailes, and Rupert Murdoch.

Obama's angle: You people at Fox News aren't being fair:

"I just wanted to know if I'm going to get a fair shake from Fox News Channel," Ailes recalled him saying...

In a recent interview with Glamour magazine, Obama said Fox News and others went after his wife, Michelle, "in a pretty systematic way. . . . If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in and day out, that'll drive up your negatives."

Fox's angle: We're not unfair, we're just not a part of the biased liberal media bootlickers. Also, who can control Hannity?

"Senator, you're the one who boycotted us," Ailes says he replied. "We're not the ones who boycotted you. Nor did we retaliate for your boycott."...

As Ailes recalls it, he responded to Obama's concern about fairness by saying that "there are opinion shows and there are news shows." Some of the criticism, Ailes told him, has come from conservative commentator and co-host Sean Hannity — whom he likened to MSNBC's more liberal pundits Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews.

The resolution: Obama will be on Bill O'Reilly's show tomorrow night. And let's hope it turns into a huge fight, because, why not? Apparently Rupert is trying to take the friendly route with Obama, much as the New York Post suddenly became soft towards Hillary Clinton when it looked like she might win. But Fox News should take note: times are a-changing. After Obama gets elected, Fox News' ratings will slide and they'll see a backlash for their Bush era broadcasting. Bet. Rupert Murdoch is smart enough to know that a good relationship with Obama might be worth more to Fox than just about anything in the next year.

[WP]

All right, he’s not quite a liberal. He remains a militant free-marketeer and is still pro-war (grudgingly, he’s retreated a bit). And there was the moment, one afternoon, when over a glass of his favorite coconut water (meant to increase electrolytes) he was propounding the genetic theory that the basic problem of the Muslim people was that they married their cousins.

Other hints that Murdoch is still an unpolished, rough-and-tumble media mogul: He is a terrible mumbler, has alienated many of his children from his business and likes to personally report dirt on his foes (Wolff observers him trying to nail down gossip about a Hillary Clinton adviser).

But is no longer the unwavering backer of Fox News that he once was. After begging an audience with Barack Obama, Wolff writes, Murdoch arranged a "truce" with the Democratic presidential candidate and Fox News. Also, he's no fan of Fox shouting head Bill O'Reilly:

Fox has been his alter ego. For a long time he was in love with the Fox chief, Roger Ailes, because he was even more Murdoch than Murdoch. And yet now the embarrassment can’t be missed—he mumbles even more than usual when called on to justify it; he barely pretends to hide the way he feels about Bill O’Reilly. And while it is not possible that he would give Fox up—because the money is the money; success trumps all—in the larger sense of who he is, he seems to want to hedge his bets.

And Murdoch would "really like to own" that temple of liberal New York respectability, the Times:

Now, everybody around him continues to tell him that buying the Times is pretty much impossible. There will be regulatory problems. The Sulzberger family would never … And then there’s the opprobrium of public opinion.

But it’s obviously irresistible to him. I’ve watched him go through the numbers, plot out a merger with the Journal’s backroom operations, and fantasize about the staff’s quitting en masse as soon as he entered the sacred temple.

Given his history with the Journal, it would be a mistake to write off Murdoch's ambitions for the financially-troubled Times. And given his savvy, it would also be a mistake to assume the mogul walked through his acquisition fantasy with a media reporter for any reason other than to broadcast it to the entire world, in particular the Sulzberger family, whose dividend payouts are crippling the newspaper they supposedly would never relinquish.

[Vanity Fair]

Ailes' channel has been flagging over the past 12 months. Fox News is rapidly losing ground among the younger viewers most coveted by advertisers as MSNBC and CNN more cleverly exploit the presidential campaign season.

Ailes' utter failure, meanwhile, to control Fox News' snarling, smearing attack-dog PR department has been an embarrassment to his boss Rupert Murdoch, who has apparently resorted to trying to appease the once-despised Times with scoops to clean up the mess.

Ailes' bonus is a dumb use of News Corporation's money, which perhaps makes it slightly less of a weeping tragedy for lefties.

[Silicon Alley Insider]

Olbermann called Snow "optimistic, funny and courageous," adding, "While we could not have disagreed more on policy, we were in frequent contact, even during his days as Press Secretary."

The temerity!

...a true friend of Snow's says Olbermann had "no relationship with Tony, at all." In fact, Olbermann named Snow his "Worst Person in the World" on Jan. 9, 2007, accusing him of lying about President Bush's 2003 "mission accomplished" speech. Olbermann hissed, "You're just baldfaced lying. You were hired to lie . . . We're not all third-graders out here."

Clearly, Olbermann's parting words for Snow should have focused on their bitterest moments of disagreement rather than on what Olbermann admired about Snow. In fact, Olbermann should have included in his eulogy the phrase "worst person in the world," if only for the sake of consistency.

[Post]

Early on, Ailes tried (unsuccessfully) to get two newspapers to retract negative coverage of him. In today's environment, the gambit might have succeeded. You have to admire his balls, considering his suggested correction:

When Ailes was helping former president George Bush prep for his debates, he slipped him a sure applause line: attack the liberal media messenger, Dan Rather:

Who is she?

Briganti is Fox's VP of media relations, and #2 in the PR command structure under Brian Lewis. But if Lewis sets the tone, Briganti is the one who carries out the executions. Here's a very abbreviated list of her all time hits:

• When Anderson Cooper chided Fox for running with a false report of Obama going to a Muslim school, Briganti responded with, "Yet another cry for attention by the Paris Hilton of television news, Anderson Cooper.”
• Briganti attributed Keith Olbermann's attacks on Bill O'Reilly to his "personal demons, and said "In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion.”
• When Christiane Amanpour said CNN and Fox were intimidated by the Bush administration and practiced self-censorship in the run-up to the Iraq war, Briganti responded, "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

How did she get so notorious?

Briganti's real reputation was not earned by zingers about famous cable talking heads; it was earned with a conscious, longstanding policy of publicly bullying average beat reporters who wrote straight news that was not to Fox's liking. She once insinuated that a WSJ reporter wrote a story about Fox that the network didn't like because her hormones were acting up (the reporter was pregnant at the time). She and her colleagues routinely complain to reporters' bosses and try to get them in trouble with their editors for the crime of not praising Fox well enough.

She's famous for blacklisting reporters who do not cover Fox the way it wants to be covered. Whereas most media operations strive to present a professional face even if they hate a certain reporter, Fox does the opposite. One reporter told me that Irena blacklisted him and even turned him down for a requested tour of the Fox studios because she felt his coverage was negative. Also blacklisted in the past were an AP reporter and a Baltimore Sun reporter. The notable thing is that these are not commentators that Fox disagrees with; these are regular, run-of-the-mill TV reporters, reporting fact-based news, who were blacklisted because said facts disagreed with Fox.

Strangely, nearly everybody who's met Briganti in person says she's nice and personable. One reporter heard that when Irena first started going to Fox press events in New York, she was outed to reporters as a rather bubbly person. That undermined her queen-of-mean persona, and she had to cut back on her events schedule—or at least be a bit less nice. Others say that Briganti was in fact a nice person before she got to Fox, and that being there has turned her soul dark.

That may be because she is the mouthpiece of Fox chief Roger Ailes, the former Nixon hatchet man who loves to run Fox and its PR operation as if it was locked in a nasty political campaign. Since the golden rule of PR is that a flack is only as evil as her clients, it makes sense that Briganti would develop a reputation as a rare, unvarnished attack dog in media flackdom. She learned from the best.

When I worked at PRWeek a couple of years ago, I tried to write a profile of Briganti. This, after several people who had dealt with her assured me that she was the single meanest flack in the entire media world (which is true). I sent emails out to a list of people in the media that Briganti had publicly insulted. And what happened? Some turned me down, citing fear of her. Some didn't respond, out of fear. And one, in what I still consider to be the biggest bitch move I ever saw as a reporter, ran straight to Irena, telling her that a PRWeek reporter was out to smear her. This—from a reporter who had already been publicly smeared by Briganti—is akin to the kid whose response to being bullied is to grovel and try to please the bully further.

Briganti expertly strung me along for months, promising interviews in the near future and then pushing back the date continuously. Eventually the profile fell apart and never got written. She's good at what she does. She is still quite willing to offer negative tidbits about her competitors to this day.

Here's some more Briganti insight, culled from my own experience and what other reporters have told me:

• She is the single most blatant horse trader for stories in the entire media business. That means she will tell a reporter, "I'll give you this tidbit of news, but in return you have to write a negative story about this or that element of our competitors." When a reporter takes the tidbit but doesn't do Fox's bidding with the other fluff or nasty story (as no respectable reporter would), that reporter goes on Fox's shit list, and is subject to have a negative item about them planted by Briganti. This kind of blatant favor trading and retaliation would make PR people from, say, the Times or MSNBC laugh or shudder. Fox is the only practitioner of this level of media PR bloodsport.
• Some PR people have decided not to apply for jobs at Fox—jobs they could use—solely because of Briganti's bad reputation.
• Briganti and Fox routinely refuse to participate in any news story that also mentions CNN. They try to convince reporters to cut CNN out of television stories entirely in order to get quotes from Fox.
• We hear that even some within News Corp's corporate PR department (separate from Fox's specific PR department) dislike Briganti, because her bloody-hatchet reputation frankly makes the entire company look like a bunch of crazy people. Which doesn't go over well in corporate boardrooms. But Briganti, as Ailes' mouthpiece, seems to be untouchable.

Does it work?

This is the real question: does Fox's fixation on retaliation and fear tactics aimed at the working press actually benefit the network? Well, they certainly work in the sense of making reporters fear them; David Carr himself writes about the "series of alarms" that go off in his head when he writes any story about Fox News. One tipster asked about Briganti eagerly volunteered information (and called her a "cunt,") but added, "I can't be attached to this in any shape or form. Or she'll get me."

But does fear equal good media relations? In the short term, it can serve to temper negative stories about Fox. But it also serves to temper reporters' enthusiasm for any good items about Fox. And long term, it creates a press corps united in its hatred and resentment of your company.

Fox News'—and Briganti's—main mistake is attacking the normal, workaday reporters with such angry gusto. It's one thing to go after Keith Olbermann. It's another to go after beat reporters at trade magazines and newspapers who are simply doing their jobs. Ever so slowly, despite their skittishness and fear, media reporters will coalesce against Fox in a seething mass, just waiting for the chance to get their revenge for Briganti's slights.

And though one of Briganti's favorite pastimes is leaking to blogs, she'll come to find that her detractors can do the same thing just as easily. Blogs are far less likely to cower in the face of a threat of "denied access." And even papers like the Times are getting salty these days, as you can tell by Carr's piece. Smart PR people have found, with long experience, that it's better to try to treat people fairly and take negative stories in stride. Karma can be a bitch.

[And if you've dealt with Briganti and have some stories to tell? Recorded one of her tirades? Have emails to forward? And for god's sake, does anyone have a picture of this woman? Email us.]

(Thanks to RavingRabbid and Anthony for the tips.)

Incidentally, the Murdoch imports at the Wall Street Journal continue to tread on the newspaper's delicate sensibilities. You'll remember Marcus Brauchli, the Journal's managing editor, had a speech ready to welcome his new overlords, but they never called on him. That was just the first humiliation.

The latest: Tina Gaudoin, who came in with the Journal's new publisher from Murdoch's Times of London, has talked of her plans for the business newspaper's new weekend magazine. The luxury title will cover modern wealth with wit and irreverence—which, says the Murdoch import, "may come as a shock to some of the people at the Journal.” Such diplomacy.

So we’re clear from the get-go, I admire and respect News Corporation's Roger Ailes. Regardless of what you think of his politics, when it comes to American media, the Fox News founder is an undisputed giant in an industry dominated by creative Lilliputians.

But I admit that I initially struggled to understand why Mr. Ailes gave the green light to “Happy Hour,” the late afternoon show on his newly launched Fox Business Network, the cable network which is challenging CNBC's grip on television financial news. In case you haven’t seen it — and given FBN’s paltry ratings it’s quite likely you haven’t — “Happy Hour” is a campy show hosted by Cody Willard and Rebecca Gomez, two individuals who, professional credentials aside, look like they belong on the set of an MTV reality show more than in the studio of a serious business news program. Perhaps that’s why “Happy Hour” is set in a bar — the “Bull and Bear” pub at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel to be exact.

With the hosts and guests perched on barstools as pints are pulled behind them, “Happy Hour” has the production values of a community access channel in Aurora, IL (”It’s Wayne’s World, Wayne’s World, party time, excellent!”). The banter is light and the guest lineup, umm, eclectic. You may get a CEO or an investment manager or two talking about taxes and assets, but you’re more likely to get models, actors, strippers, ice dancers, comedians, filmmakers, more models, actors and … oh, did I mention the strippers?

“Who on earth is going to watch this show?” I wondered aloud the first time I watched the show.

Well, for starters, my colleagues Jeff and Anthony. Every day at 5 p.m., they immediately tune out CNBC and flick on “Happy Hour.” These are two of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with, and they haven’t missed a segment since the show began. Another surprising viewer? An erudite editor friend of mine at a major business publication – we’re talking a true Renaissance man who studied ancient Greek just so he could read the original works of Plato and Homer – confessed over dinner last week that he’s a big fan of the show.

Ok, so “Happy Hour” seems to appeal to highly intelligent people. That answered the “who?”, now I just needed to understand the “why?” Jeff and Anthony helped me out on this one:

We can’t believe just how bad the show is,” said Jeff.

“It’s so bad, it’s actually brilliant,” added Anthony.

Now I get it.

Did you ever see Mel Brooks’ “The Producers?” It’s a story about a hapless producer and a nebbish accountant who concoct a scheme to make the worst Broadway play ever made. But their show, “Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgade,” is so outrageous it actually becomes a huge hit. “Happy Hour” is Mr. Ailes’ Springtime for Hitler.

Media pundits predicted that FBN would be a near-clone of Mr. Ailes’ well-established Fox News Network. In anticipation, CNBC jazzed up its sets and graphics, and billed itself “America’s Business Network,” mimicking the jingoistic tone of Fox News. But Mr. Ailes didn’t make his reputation by following conventional wisdom. He just quietly sat back and let CNBC zig while he cunningly was preparing to zag.

Instead of creating quality programming to go head-to-head with CNBC, he took a different approach to capture the loyalty of those stuck at their desks after the 5:00 whistle blows. He developed the least “business-y” business programming imaginable. “Happy Hour” is ESPN or E! for people who can’t get away with watching those channels in the office. Is it playing to more low-brow tastes? Maybe. But as H.L. Mencken once said, “no one has ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

Ailes, who admitted after one tantrum that he was a diagnosed paranoid, according to Cooper, was the subject of a New York Magazine profile; Cooper was interviewed on background. Ailes' former colleague claims he was fired by his agent after Ailes discovered he'd been briefing. Cooper remembers being told: "I got a phone call from Roger Ailes an owwa ago. He told me that until I drop you as a cloyent, any demo tapes I send ovah for talent jobs will sit in the cawwna and gatha dust." Such drama!

The only flaw in the story: Cooper claims that Fox News' Brain Room, officially the cable news network's research department, also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office, able to access phone records, which would explain how Ailes suspected Cooper had been snitching. Look who's paranoid now.

[Alternate headline, suggested below: "Who knew that Jabba the Hutt was a real person?"]

As we were heading in to the Met, Mel Brooks was fleeing. He looks Jewier in person. Regis Philbin was heading to the Regency. His wife held a Museum Towers umbrella against the chill rain and said to her friend while she peered at a black Lincoln Town Car, "If the driver had any brains at all, he'd give us a sign."

Lauren Bush, the current President's niece, climbed the steps. She kissed the cheek of the gray-haired David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlisle Group and a "family friend." A middle-aged Hispanic woman pleaded with the guards to let her inside. Her father and her daughter had gone missing earlier that day: "Sorry ma'am, there's no one in here."

The stairway leading up to the second floor Medieval Art galleries was lined with tea candles that spelled out FOX. In the Sackler wing, the Riefenstahlian touches continued. Giant topiary letters spelled Fox Business. The temple of Dendur was lit blue and yellow. Social free-thinkers Celerie Kemble and her husband Ravenel Boykin Curry IV were there. "We're here for the Counting Crows," said Celerie. "I was supposed to have my birthday party tonight at the Wollman Rink but it got rained out. Eh, global warming!" "

I told her not to be so loud. She wouldn't make it to see the Counting Crows if Roger Ailes heard her.

The president of the Tiffany Foundation, Fernanda M. Kellogg, sat with her husband (and senior vice president at Stribling), Kirk Henckels. "I'm a lifelong left, born and raised," said Henckels, quietly enough. He had a bowtie. She had a humongous diamond necklace. Why are you here? I asked her. "Fox Business is a gem."

Lauren Bush was talking with Vanessa Trump. Lauren was wearing a keffiyah around her slender and sylph-like neck. Was it in solidarity with the Palestinian people or if it was in solidarity with Steve McQueen? She was there for the Counting Crows and Fox Business. Was she single? New York mag's Chris Rovzar, who is a huge huge huge Counting Crows fan, reminded me that she wasn't. She's dating David Lauren, the Ralph Lauren child, which means she'd be Lauren Lauren if they get married unless David chose to heed his father's Ashkenazi heritage and changed his name back to David Lifschitz.

Why had Rupert Murdoch picked Adam Duritz for the night's entertainment? Does he like the Counting Crows? The director of PR for Fox Business Network, Jocelyn Austin, seemed panicked that I might ask. She grabbed my arm and led me to the bar. "Let's get a drink," she said tautly.

"Uh, there's no bartender at the bar," I said. "Ha," she said, "I'll make you a drink. Let's not bother Rupert."

But we were standing next to Rupert. There was a little circle of people around him. Socialite Fabiola Beracasa was nearest.

Fabiola was wearing a silver dress. "I don't know whether to punch you or to kiss you," she said. Her boyfriend stood next to her. I thought if she kissed me, I'd get punched by him but if she punched me, he might kiss me instead, right? Adam Duritz began to sing the first unbearably crap lines of Long December. Was that Lauren Bush singing along softly? I tapped Rupert's shoulder.

He's shorter than I'd expect. He's also very powerful. I thought the best approach was informal. I gave him a pound. (Kidding.) Instead he enveloped my hand in his own soft hands and shook up and down. He feels like a cashmere doll. He had never heard of the Counting Crows. But he thought they were okay.

Jack and Suzy Welch were talking to Roger Ailes and cosmetics queen and Republican super-cougar Georgette Mosbacher. There was Page Six's Richard Johnson. He was scowling for a photograph. According to Nikola, his wife said, "Richard, you look like an angry shithead." Richard smiled. He said he didn't want to talk about what he had written about Vanessa Grigoriadis; the whole how he'd rape her but she was ugly thing.

"I have nothing to gain by this conversation," he said. "Let's let it lie."

[Update: Now we're hearing that it might have been Braden Keil's wife Jennifer Gould Keil not Richard's wife who called him a shithead, which might be even better.]

Can Ailes Outfox CNBC? [WSJ]

Peter Kann, former Dow Jones chairman and CEO, sent a letter to the Bancroft family praising them for opposing the bid. His rationale: "I thought it is important for some of us who believe in the independence of the company to thank the Bancrofts and the Ottaways for what they are doing, and maybe to try to provide some more support for the positions they are taking."

In TV Week, Fox News architect and Murdoch confidant Roger Ailes says don't bet against the boss: "I've never seen him not want to win. There's no reason to believe he's going to take business news lightly. He sets a pretty high bar and people generally underestimate him in a kind of strange way. They say, 'Well, a business channel,' and then suddenly he makes a play for Dow Jones. He's full of surprises, and it shows everybody he's fully engaged and intends to win." Ailes does note, however, that ""If the family elects not to sell it, it's not going to happen." (Via TVNewser.)

Finally, in Slate, Jack Shafer predicts that Murdoch won't destroy the paper, but will remake enough of it to turn it into a very different publication, one for which top journalists won't want to write and Jack Shafer won't want to read. Again: harsh words!

Yesterday: Episode V: Darth Murdoch Plays The Press

AILES:What I'd like to do is introduce to you a man who was going to be here, as I said, tonight. I think he's the finest anchor in primetime news anywhere in the country. He's been working pretty hard, and it's, I guess, ten hours later. He's in northern Israel right now. This is Shep Smith.

Shep, can you hear me? I think there's a four-second delay.

SHEPARD SMITH: I'm used to that one, boss.

AILES: All right, Shep. First of all, I'm going to throw it open to questions here, Shep, if you can handle it, but I think you've handled pretty tough audiences in your life.

[unreleased transcript follows]

SMITH: Thank you, sir.

AILES: And let's not bullshit. Your family name ain't the best in the news. You need to be doing it better, and cleaner than the other guy. Now what is it with you?

SMITH: Just want to serve my country, be the best anchor in the news, sir.

AILES: Don't screw around with me, Smith. You're a hell of an instinctive anchor. Maybe too good. I'd like to bust your butt but I can't. I got another problem here. I gotta send somebody from this squadron to Miramar. I gotta do something here, I still can believe it. I gotta give you your dream shot! I'm gonna send you up against the best. You two characters are going to Top Gun.

FOX News' Roger Ailes Speaks at TCA Press Tour [Fox News via TVNewser]