Book: Roger Ailes tried to bring Rush Limbaugh to Fox News

[DonViejo]

With Fox News' ratings sagging in 2006, Ailes hoped to reinvigorate his network by adding the talk radio giant

ELIAS ISQUITH

In the wake of the Democrats’ landslide win in the 2006 midterm elections, Fox News saw its dominant hold over its cable news competitors slacken somewhat, according to “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” Gabriel Sherman’s upcoming biography of Roger Ailes.

Ailes and his fellow executives were worried, writes Sherman, that the relative dip in ratings would soon become “a freefall.” So what did the former advisor to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan do? He reached out to one of his best buddies, the king of right-wing radio: Rush Limbaugh.

According to Sherman, however, Limbaugh turned down Ailes’ offer to join the Fox News team, telling a friend at the time, “Roger is really trying to get me to come back. Why would I do this?”

Beyond being close friends, Limbaugh and Ailes had worked together previously. From 1992 to 1996, Limbaugh had a syndicated TV show for which Ailes was an executive producer. Yet the shared history was evidently not enough to convince the talk radio legend to get in front of the television cameras once again and join the Fox News team.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/01/13/book_roger_ailes_tried_to_bring_rush_limbaugh_to_fox_news/

[nxylas]

1. From a strategic point of view, it was probably better for the RW that he failed

Having Rush on Fox Noise would have been putting all their dog's eggs in one basket. Having some half-dozen or so different media outlets allows them to create a nice little closed circle where Fox Noise quotes Rush and Rush quotes the Washington Times and the Washington Times quotes Breitbart.com and Breitbart.com quotes Fox Noise.

[House of Roberts]

2. I remember Rush's tv show.

They pulled the plug on it right after Clinton was re-elected. The first couple of times I saw it, I thought it was parody, like The Colbert Report. When I realized Limbought was serious, I stopped watching it. It was on real late after Nightline, on my local ABC affiliate. I'd stay up to watch Nightline, but then I needed to be in bed.

[Blue Owl]

3. Gonna need some more pry bars for that job

n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

4. Limbaugh has a face made for radio.

He casts a spell over his audience on his radio show. He seems to whisper directly into the brains of his audience, because they all repeat everything he says on his show. On tv, everybody gets to see the ugliness that oozes from him while he spews his garbage. TV breaks the spell; he doesn't seem so brilliant and knowledgeable to them. He just looks like an ordinary guy from the office who has hemorrhoids and anger problems and unhealthy obsessions. I suspect that on some level, Rush knows this, and he probably has self-esteem issues.

[underpants]

5. We aren't supposed be reminded of the 2006 landslide

Glad to see it mentioned again

[BumRushDaShow]

7. The media wants us to forget that Democrats gained 31 seats in 2006

and took back control of the House after 12 years of Getrich's nightmare.

They want us to wring hands about the 17 needed in 2014 to regain the House.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. A fool and his money is soon parted

The show back then was a FAIL and since then, Rushbo the Hutt charges other fools to live stream him while he's on the air.

Ironically, the late '90s and into the 2000s was when several stations were doing simulcasts of talk radio shows (the earlier period being pre-Faux Snooze), notably CSPAN (and later MSNBC). I remember that was how I found out where Joe Madison had gone (XM Radio), where one of his shows was simulcast I think on CSPAN, and that's when I immediately got my XM subscription (now SiriusXM) and discovered Randi Rhodes & Tom Hartmann & Cenk & Bill Press & Stephanie Miller. Shame I have to pay for it but it's worth gaining some sanity being in a dark blue city infested with RW talk radio (outside of the lone AA talk station).