Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN [Hardcover]

Scott Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2004

How brutal is the cable news business? When Fox News CEO Roger Ailes learned that Paula Zahn was negotiating with archrival CNN, Ailes fired Zahn immediately. When a reporter pointed out that Zahn had boosted ratings for Fox, Ailes replied, “I could have put a dead raccoon on the air this year and gotten a better rating than last year.”

Crazy Like A Fox tells one of the most dramatic business stories of the past decade—the war over cable news. In 1991, with its coverage of the first Gulf War, Ted Turner’s CNN reinvented the television news business and became a global brand name. In 1995, NBC and Microsoft pooled their enormous resources to create MSNBC. But by 2003, both had been dwarfed in the ratings by Rupert Murdoch’s seven-year-old Fox News Channel. How did Fox News pull off this amazing victory and how is its success— and its alleged right-wing slant—changing the entire media world?

Scott Collins provides a shocking account of corporate arrogance and intrigue, with all the brash personalities and back-room dealings involved in the war for ratings. He offers inside tales about a virtual Who’s Who of American television: not just corporate players like Turner, Murdoch, Ailes, Walter Isaacson, and Bob Wright, but also on-air talent like Paula Zahn, Bill O’Reilly, Connie Chung, Phil Donahue, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, and Larry King. Collins also shows what happened behind the camera during the biggest news stories of our time, including the 2000 election, September 11, and Gulf War II.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Basing the story on interviews with many of the principals mentioned (including news types like Paula Zahn, Connie Chung, Bill O'Reilly and Brian Williams and other media types like Ted Turner and Roger Ailes), Collins, himself an experienced journalist currently working for the L.A. Times, paints a picture of how competition, ratings, personality and simply being in the right place at the right time can mean the difference between great success and second place. Showing how the news became a major player in the cable world, Collins traces history from the early days of CNN and founder Turner through the major news events and behind-the-scenes wrangling, sniping and celebrating that have created today's three-horse (CNN, Fox and MSNBC) cable news race. By being the most unconventional, the most hungry and, yes, in some instances the most crafty, Fox, from Rupert Murdoch on down, has managed to become (at least for now) the most talked about player in cable news. Collins presents a story that will be palatable to media insiders and casual observers alike. While its title is slightly misleading (this is really more a story of how all three major cable news channels got to where they are today), there is so much in this juicy tell-all that satisfies both a journalistic sensibility and a human enjoyment of "dish" that no matter how the author has titled the book, it's an entertaining read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Scott Collins is the television editor of The Hollywood Reporter. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and Brill’s Content.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (April 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591840295
• ISBN-13: 978-1591840299
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Current Events > Mass Media

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars News Junkies won't be able to out it down., July 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN (Hardcover)

I am not an avid reader. I read books here and there. But never, never, have I bought a book and read it ALL in one day. I received this book today from Amazon at around 6pm. By 12:30 that night I read the last page. What a fantastic story. While Roger Ailes is the main focus of this boo, the author has a difficult time staying on track. He'll bring up a interesting story and then seem to go on a tangent before wrapping it up nicely at the end. While the cover of the book toutes this as how Fox beat CNN, it's more of how CNN lost it's crown. Interesting stories include Paula Zahn's exit and Greta Van Sustren's arrival. Over all quite a read for any cable news junkie. I admit I am a loyal Fox Fan, but it's still quite a take on the corporate news world's cutthroat business.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A breezy book about the cable TV media wars, April 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN (Hardcover)

This is the story of how Roger Ailes outsmarted lots of folks to take Fox News to the top of the cable TV news business. It is also the story of how MSNBC never has been able to gain traction as a result of poor leadership and many mistakes (such as spending millions to set up a Dononhue show that was doomed to fail from the start). This book also tells the story of how Rick Kaplan badly damaged both ABC (Food Lion Special) and CNN (Valley of Death Special). The sad news of late is Kaplan is now president of MSNBC--like Peter Arnett he keeps showing up like a bad penny. I gave the book four stars because too many issues are covered superficially, because the author is too critical of Tom Johnson (a thoroughly decent person and a fine print and TV journalist) and because he fails to give proper credit to three individuals who were largely responsible for CNN's excellent coverage of the Gulf War of 1991, Ed Turner, Bob Furnad and Judy Milestone.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fox In The Hen House, May 23, 2005

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN (Hardcover)

I would have to agree with some of my fellow reviewers here that the title, cover art and dust jacket description would lead you to believe that the book is about the rise of the Fox News channel. I assumed the book was going to be a blow by blow account of how the network was set up and the decisions that went into the make up of the channel. Well what the book really is about is the decline of CNN from number one to number two in the cable news race with a bit of the under dog reporting about the meandering and somewhat hapless MSNBC. What the book does deliver is an interesting look at the cable news business over the last ten years and just how unprepared and seemingly unable CNN and MSNBC are in competing with the new kid on the block Fox News.

What the story tells you in not so many words is that the real story here is not who is on each network reading the news or how much this or that budget was to cover any event, but that Fox News has a very clear and defined mission. They know who they are and who their audience is and that is one of the primary secrets to their success. No matter if you love them or hate them, the management team at Fox News has a bee line into the heart of their audience and they provide a product that has become indispensable to their fan base. We also learn that MSNBC is a business case in search of a message and an audience. If one of the new networks should have been the leader based on corporate synergies then it should have been the folks over at GE. What happened is a case study in chasing your tail.

Overall I found the book very enjoyable. It is written is a very readable and entertaining manner. I did not find a bias in his reporting, I think he maintained a fair review down the middle. The focus on CNN is either due to the fact that they were number one and lost the race or that they might have been more open to a reporter from the LA Times then the group over at Fox News. Either way, I do feel obligated to knock my review down one star given the inaccurate descriptions on the cover of the book. I am sure this was a marketing ploy given the popularity of Fox News, but it was dishonest all the same. If you are interested in cable news then this is a good book to get an overview of the latest battle.