The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty

by Michael Wolff

New York Times Bestseller

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Michael Wolff’s books were my foundation and port of entry for working on Succession .”
—Jeremy Strong (“Kendall Roy”)

Meet the Murdochs and the disastrously dysfunctional family of Fox News. Until recently, they formed the most powerful media and political force in the land, for better or worse. Now their empire is cracking up and crashing down.

For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers ( President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a as Fox goes, so goes the nation—into further divisiveness and awash in fake news, a gleefully polarizing company. But just as Fox has pushed America apart, now it too is coming apart. As is the family dynasty behind it.

In his irresistible trilogy on the chaotic presidency of Donald Trump—Fire and Fury, Siege, and Landslide—the gadfly journalist Michael Wolff led readers deep into the twisted corridors of the White House. Now, drawing on years of unprecedented access to the Murdoch family and key players in the world of Fox, he plunges us behind the scenes of another empire of influence, and the result is astonishing and unforgettable.

Here is Rupert Murdoch, the ninety-two-year-old Australian billionaire—a fading titan, concerned about his legacy but more concerned about profits. Here are his contentious progeny, jockeying to take over when the old man is gone. Here is star anchor Tucker Carlson, hiding out in his island homes, considering a run for the presidency while his bosses have other plans for him. Sean Hannity, the richest man in television, has his own to put the former POTUS back in office, against the bosses’ wishes. Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham is just trying to survive in the last man’s man’s world.

Empires fall. Kingdoms come to an end. As lawsuits pummel the financial bedrock and reputation of the network, anchors scramble, and the battling Murdoch heirs make the Roys of TV’s Succession seem downright Brady Bunch, Michael Wolff documents, in riveting and revelatory real time, the final days of Fox News.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Business, History, Biography, Audiobook, Journalism

Audible Audio

First published September 26, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Michael Wolff is an American author, essayist, and journalist, and a regular columnist and contributor to USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, and the UK edition of GQ. He has received two National Magazine Awards, a Mirror Award, and has authored seven books, including Burn Rate (1998) about his own dot-com company, and The Man Who Owns the News (2008), a biography of Rupert Murdoch. He co-founded the news aggregation website Newser and is a former editor of Adweek.

In January 2018, Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was published, containing unflattering descriptions of behavior by U.S. President Donald Trump, chaotic interactions among the White House senior staff, and derogatory comments about the Trump family by former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

Reviews

[Rhys Beer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and worth reading but also unenjoyable at the same time. A sad tale of how America has sold its democracy for ratings & profits. At least roger ailes (despise him as I do) had a clear & convicted world view (offensive as it was to me and many others).

Trump, Murdoch, Carlson, Hannity and the rest have no position other than self-advancement and enrichment - with zero shits given about the cost (to American democracy…and inevitably a peaceful global order). Depressing stuff 🤑 🔫

[Jim Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting look behind the scenes at Fox News and the Murdoch Empire. As you might expect it is a sordid tale of largely bad people doing horrible things to American democracy.

Michael Wolff tells a good tale with lots of inside juice that he obtains from, what appears to be, incredible access to the actual players. Here he relies heavily on his personal relationships with Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Additionally, it is clear that Tucker Carlson is a major source of some of the juiciest of the tales. Wolffe has taken significant criticism for relying heavily on Carlson's information because Carlson is such a notorious liar. I don't agree with this criticism. Carlson was there, in the room so to speak, and if Wolff is accurately conveying what Carlson has told him then I believe that is fair game for the author.

It is an interesting book. I would not say I enjoyed it given that the people involved are essentially a cancer at the heart of American democracy, but it was well worth the read.

[Ben King · Rating 2 out of 5]

mid asf. I'm not going to provide my long spiel that I normally do because I honestly didn't take away much. Wolff's writing was distractingly disjointed, often switching topics seemingly on a whim with no clear, logical path for the reader to follow.

To be fair, I thought I was picking up a book that would detail the history of Fox News and what happened that caused it to fall from grace, but instead I got a 300 page gossip fest that would only appeal to readers who knew a lot about this story before they even lifted the cover.

It is still fascinating that a 92 year old patriarch with diminished mental capacity is still the de facto ruler for a multi-billion dollar corporation...and how, even amongst his cries of hatred for the former President, his greed still prevails in churning out intentionally divisive stories to drive Fox New's bottom line. This book was honestly quite depressing as you realize the fate of American democracy and society stability is placed in the hands of such...buffoons.

[hanney · Rating 4 out of 5]

that was actually quite fascinating!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. A lot of time spent on the dynamics of the family and their different philosophies.

[Andrew Deakin · Rating 3 out of 5]

More farce than fact:

Anyone looking for a serious analysis of the status and operations of the businesses owned by ageing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is not going to find it in the 2023 book The Fall: The End of the Murdoch Empire by American political journalist Michael Wolff. Quite the contrary: the reader is treated to 200 pages of gossip, innuendo, and speculation about the Fox News network owned by Murdoch, and to a lesser extent, about the future business prospects of Murdoch's children.

Wolff contends that the $787 million Murdoch spent in April 2023 to settle a lawsuit against Fox News marks the effective end of Murdoch's time as a global media tycoon. The law suit claimed $1.6 billion damages arising from suggestions aired on Fox News that election voting machines used in the 2016 presidential election were rigged in favour of the Democrats.

Wolff may be a bit behind the play. Murdoch ended his corporate dominance in 2019, when, after several years of negotiations, he sold 21st Century Fox for $71 billion. He used the money to gift his 6 children $2 billion each, with the balance split between shareholder dividends and reinvestment in his remaining assets.

The residual assets are not insubstantial. Murdoch retains the very profitable Fox News network and related businesses in Fox Corporation, and his newspaper holdings are held in News Corporation. The newspapers include various tabloid and quality papers in the US, Britain, and Australia, of variable and unremarkable profitability.

Nevertheless, Murdoch's days of substantial dominance and influence ended with the downsizing represented by the very sizeable 21st Century Fox sale.

Murdoch remains a figure of interest, partly because of the political influence said to be wielded by the Fox News channel, and partly because of the considerable disdain vented against Murdoch by liberal interests because of the perceived politics and cultural impact of his newspapers.

Again, these are matters more of historical interest than current fact. The influence of the newspapers is very much a 20th century phenomenon, most notably in the UK, where many thought his News of the World and The Sun were able to influence votes at general elections.

That influence is much overrated. The major concern among liberals in the UK was Murdoch's commercially astute exploitation of the popular media market, which had been seriously under serviced by the state broadcasting monolith the BBC, which catered mainly to middle class interests.

More generally, the opprobrium dealt Murdoch by liberals was essentially distaste for mass market media. This snobbery was rife in the UK, but less relevant in the US and Australia, where other players also were active In the popular markets.

Disdain for Murdoch in the US was focused primarily on the exceptional and enviable success of Fox News. Murdoch established it in the late 1990s, after his offer for CNN was rebuffed. Fox News serviced right of centre political interests in the cable TV market, with extraordinary ascendancy and profitability under the wily leadership of political media consultant Roger Ailes.

Ailes died in 2017, and Fox News has been relatively rudderless in the ensuing years. Fox almost certainly has peaked as a business and cultural spectacle. Cable TV generally is declining, as streaming and related digital media crowd out its market. Fox rode the success of the Trump phenomenon after the latter's political triumph in 2016, but relations have cooled since the 2020 election loss.

So what does Wolff offer in The Fall that increases the general reader's understanding of these developments? Not much, regrettably.

Wolff provides considerable gossip about developments in Fox News in the 18 months preceding the settlement of the law suit, and some backstory about Fox and the Murdoch family. But the central contention, that the days of the spirited and successful Murdoch are numbered, is passé.

The gossip, however, has a certain potboiler appeal, especially if the reader is not averse to prurient revelations. Examples include the business philosophy of Roger Ailes, who is reported as declaring that Fox News caters to people 'still living in 1965, before the Voting Rights Act' (which outlawed racial discrimination in American elections), and Ailes's alleged managerial use of 'the great American blow job test.'

Not suprisingly, Ailes was sacked in 2016, when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced at the peak of the MeToo wave of feminist outrage. The death of Ailes the following year provides Wolff with one of the better moments in The Fall, when he records Fox News presenter Sean Hannity barring fellow presenter Laura Ingraham from his plane when returning to New York after the interment because she was drunk, and Hannity did not want her vomiting in the plane toilet.

Ailes's sacking provides a hook for Wolff to link to the broader Murdoch family. Wolff suggests that sons James and Lachlan were not impressed with the politics of Fox News. James is said to have wanted to manage Fox in a way that would make it 'a force for good.' Wealth is no barrier to naïvety, apparently, or as Ailes is said to have remarked, 'he's a fucking idiot.'

Wolff provides no detail on Lachlan's relationship to Fox News that the interested reader will not have read previously. Ailes and Lachlan are said to have tussled over the leadership role at Fox News. Ailes won, probably because Murdoch senior was understandably very reluctant to risk the billion plus annual profits that Fox under Ailes was generating. Lachlan thereafter retuned to Australia, where he remains, and from where he continues to manage News Corp, and more recently, the declining Fox News.

Wolff ends the The Fall with speculation on the future of Fox and News Corp when the now 92 year old Murdoch dies. He notes that the future disposition of the assets will be decided by the Murdoch family trust, in which each of Murdoch's 4 eldest children hold a one quarter share (Murdoch's 2 children by Wendi Deng have inheritance rights, but no voting powers).

Murdoch effectively made the Wolff speculation redundant, by announcing a few days before The Fall was published in September 2023 that he was retiring as Chairman of Fox and News Corp, in favour of son Lachlan. The trust may elect to sell the assets after Murdoch dies, given that both the cable TV and the newspaper businesses are past their prime. Financial exigencies and family politics will determine the outcome.

Rupert Murdoch's corporate success as an owner and developer of media assets is one of the more spectacular business careers of the last 70 years. He parlayed ownership of single provincial newspaper in South Australia into a conglomerate spanning 4 continents at its peak. His creation of the quality national newspaper The Australian remains a singular and continuing achievement, as does his stewardship of The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London. His mass media papers, tv, books, and films were enormously successful. It has been a career without equal.

Wolff adds little to this narrative, and indeed seems to relish the option of sensationalist gossip in place of substantial analysis. That could be construed as mock homage to the populism Murdoch so successfully developed in his mass market businesses.

I suspect another factor may have influenced Wolff. The high rating HBO TV drama Succession is obviously based on the Murdochs. It serves up popular theatricals in place of credible drama and nuanced characterisation. Possibly, Wolff, who is 70, and who may be feeling the need to top up the retirement funds, sensed that the money is in the sensationalism, and not in considered and evidenced analysis. If so, The Fall does the job.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a big fan of Michael Wolff's books about the Trump Administration - "Fire and Fury," and so forth. Wolff combines a Bob W uoodward "you are there" style with a tabloid journalist's eye for the sizzling zinger. In "The Fall," Wolff turns his eye to the potentially-tottering Rupert Murdoch empire and its most notorious asset, Fox News.

At times openly comparing the Murdoch family to the Roys of the HBO's delightfully profane "Succession" series, Wolff explores how Murdoch built his empire and how, as Murdoch somehow continues to run the show as a truly dottering old man, the next generation of Murdochs is simultaneously repelled by and eternally bound to Fox News. Simultaneously the family's most lucrative and most toxic asset, Fox News is a unique creature - a money-making machine resented by those who reap those millions. That is because the Murdoch family (and also the 'talent' at Fox like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson) understand that a) it is a house of cards, and b) the legions of viewers who drive the ratings are beneath contempt.

Wolff has done his homework, but when he successfully recreates scene after scene involving close conversations with a handful of people, you quickly get the sense that Wolff is only too happy to be a means by which the players in the story are settling scores. On the plus side, this means that Wolff's books are never boring, and they contain enough fact that they cannot be dismissed as mere fan fiction. But on the flip side, one cannot help but feel that Wolff and his books are one more means to an end for his subjects, and while other journalists try (or at least claim to try) to adhere to a higher standard, Wolff is only too happy to use this score-settling as a way to write another best-seller.

So I really can't say that "The Fall" is an important book, but it is a heck of a lot of fun and Wolff does provide a valuable service by allowing the reader a glimpse into the chaos and dreck that is inside the Murdoch Empire. But you could season several plates of French fries with the amount of salt you need at hand when reading this book.

Still, recommended.

[Randolph Breschini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Michael Wolff’s books…

Interesting story about Rupert Murdoch and his media empire and his personal life. Frankly, it appears that Roger Ailes is the force and passion behind what Fox is today. But when he was fired, Fox sort of was set adrift because Roger was the guiding light.

Rupert unloaded much of his media empire to Disney, leaving Fox mainly, which Disney did not want because it was too counter to the Disney brand.😳

He has six children, two by Wendi Deng, who do not have voting rights in the trust that Rupert established. His two sons, Lachlan and James, are constantly fighting.

Frankly, when Rupert passes, he’s now 92, the control over his empire and especially of Fox, well, who knows what will happen…James and his sister, Elizabeth, want to change Fox into…A FORCE FOR GOOD. But this is risky and could cost them billions of dollars in value🤷🏼‍♂️ Or…they could very well sell everything.

A good, quick read👌🏼

[Alasdair Madden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contextualises a lot of the Murdoch family melodrama in an enjoyable (albeit slightly jarring) style, but it does at times feel like the author holds back and pulls some proverbial punches. Still well worth a read!

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have watch Succession to see it in words rather than TV was boring. I thought the book would be juicy. Instead it was boring. Instead seeing personalities coming out of the wood work was disgusting. Familiar names remember Guilfoyle, Saramucci. It became apparent these people and more only concern was getting their name in the limelight. I stopped after page 64. I was bored.

[Lynn Rainsford · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Michael Wolff exposes the MAGA folks, and reveals who they truly are. Well done

[Rahma · Rating 3 out of 5]

informative but didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too good to be true, and too late with all the damage FOX News and its mimic-replicating disinformation ecosystem have caused over the past 30 years. I recently enjoyed a conversation between Chris Hayes and Ben Smith on the Why Is This Happening? podcast; the episode is titled “A Mediapocalypse?” and they discuss the state of actual, factual news media in the United States and around the world. It’s grim, but they’re hopeful, so it’s well worth the listen. Yes, FOX News is downsizing (lawsuits are digging into the coffers, newspapers are dying, cable networks in decline, advertisers with any moral backbone are backing out), but it’s far from dead. They can create endless sock-puppets parroting the same lies over and over again, simply to keep eyeballs glued to screens, the ad dollars rolling in, and the filthy rich filthy wealthy. O’Reilly, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, Kelley, Ingraham, Carlson. Their serpent-tonged newspeak and the absolute hypocrisy of their bs tagline of “fair and balanced”, their clever mind-worm whataboutisms, their tabloid dog-whistle shlock, their constipated anger at everything they fear. Of course the vile evolution of this is clearly traced from Rush Limbaugh’s AM radio diatribes to Roger Aires’s FOX News cable agitprop, to the Wall Street worshippers prostrated before the Dow Jones Industrial Average, to Steve Bannon’s libertarian brainwashing Breitbart, to Alex Jones’s red-faced and roided redneck ragers, to all the Q-fools spawned from the Plandemic, to the MAGA-mania highjacking democracy under the guise of flag-waving freedom. This is grift supreme. This is vampiric capitalism sucking the life blood from representative democracy and enjoying every drop.

Reading this book is a long slog through the bowels of the beast, through the entrails of the Murdochs and their minions; its wading into the fetid waters of the right-wing media swamp with all its venomous, slithering creatures swarming around your legs. It leaves you feeling oily and sickened and disheartened. How did we get here? How did this upside-down-world burble up from the media tarpits? Does it matter if the uber-wealthy Murdochs hated FOX, Trump, and its disinformation while FOX unraveled truth and facts and representative democracy, simply because of the massive mountains of money it made for them? The banality of evil seeps into all levels of social hierarchy, and greed rules supreme.

BILLIONAIRES SHOULD NOT EXIST.

It must also be noted that FOX and its ilk wouldn’t exist if the US education system prepared young minds with stronger critical thinking and research skills. We’ve creating an idiocracy guided by feelings over logic, feelings over facts, feelings over truths. Of course the Right hates smart people. Anti-science, anti-history, anti-truth. An unregulated internet and pervasive tech addiction certainly contribute to this in detrimental ways. Stupidity holds no bounds. In many ways the GOP leadership is held hostage to the delusional, unhinged, and heavily armed fringe who cast anonymous death threats at everyone from Senators to local school board clerks, with seeming impunity. This is ultimately, to me, the biggest danger: a fringe directly fueled by a free-for-all internet where all the village idiots can find fellowship and share strategies like overturning election results by brute force and firepower.

The intrepid folks at Check My Ads have done some significant damage to the Murdochs' funding stream, but they need more support to keep the war on disinformation going and to stop the Orwellian 24/7 cycles of hate (https://checkmyads.org/fox/), so support them if you can.

I’d also like to mention professor, historian, author, and journalist Jill Lepore’s truly enjoyable podcast The Last Archive, which recently brought a few episodes out of the back-drawer to re-highlight how we got to where we are, with the episode about the career grifter Rush Limbaugh being quite incisive. She does a mesmeric take on Rod Serling. Check it out when able (https://www.thelastarchive.com).

Yes, Wolff doesn’t cite anything, which is just lazy and unprofessional and takes much away from this book, but the bottom-line is sound and there’s a library of corroborating evidence if one pursues it; HBO’s Succession did its best to emulate the Murdochs too. It’s a giant, sad soap opera with billions of dollars burned away to destabilize and divide societies around the English-speaking world, and enrich the top 10%, if not especially the top 0.1%.

At the micro and macro levels of the GOP and its willfully ignorant flock, FOX News played a direct role in creating a messianic cult of 1965 fantasies for Christian Caucasian Nationalism, 1930s fantasies of isolationism, and of 1840s fantasies of “freedoms” for only the privileged few.

We need to reinstate and bolster the Fairness Doctrine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairnes....) established in 1949 and repealed in 1987, which gave instant rise to bloated gasbags like Rush Limbaugh and fueled polarizing disinformation networks like FOX. Hiding behind the First Amendment to spew lies is an abject disservice to greater society, and things need to change quickly. Artificial Intelligence is already becoming more dangerous every week (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...).

Listen to NPR, watch The Daily Show, read The New Yorker. Be an informed citizen and act accordingly.

Thank you, Public Library System, for having this title available. #FReadomFighters

For those living in US counties and states turning backwards into puritanical idiocracies, The Banned Book Club is here to toss you an app-lifeline (https://thepalaceproject.org/banned-b...). Spread the word. Knowledge is power against racism, against xenophobia, against ignorance, against fascism.

[Carlee Knott · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Tucker Carlson bits were the most interesting, along with other inside stories about the Fox media personalities. However, if you're looking for an intriguing look into the Murdoch family, you're better off watching Succession. I thought this was a bit of a snooze fest.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A VERY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF FOX NEWS, AND THE EFFECT OF THE DOMINION LAWSUIT

Author Michael Wolff wrote in the Introduction to this 2023 book, “Fox News is agitprop… in the service of ever more extreme views, responsible as much as any agent for the election of Donald Trump and for animating right-wing certainties, very often utterly fake ones. Fox has helped bring the forces of reaction and racism pushed to the margins during the decades of liberal dominance … and given new pride to the illiberal impulse… On the other hand, its FOREMOST mission is not, by any practical measure, politics. It is television. More than conservative politics, Fox is ruled by technique considerations that keep something on the air, and, behind that, the internecine battles of power, personality, money… that go with fighting for airtime… having found its surefire formula, one still working at the highest ratings possible, why would it give it up? Has television… ever been ambivalent about success?” (Pg. xiii-xiv)

He continues, “I have always found the people at Fox, including [Roger] Ailes and its various stars, easy to engage beyond politics and willing to share their stories of working there---they, too, are conscious of the fickleness of media fate, including their own. This has allowed me to write a different kind of book about Fox… Here is a television story of ego, money, power, and the unnatural obsession to be on the air. That it happens to be the far-right air, rather than television’s … middle of the road, changes the story less… than you might think… My relationship with Ailes, and the friendly things he said about me to Trump and his people, helped grease my way into an observer status in the first year of the Trump White House, resulting in … my books… What I have tried to do here is bring to life the contradictory forces that now tear at the network…my effort is to write something much closer to the private life than the public position of Fox News.” (Pg. xvi-xviii)

He recounts, “In July 2016… a sexual harassment suit was launched against Ailes by a former anchor, Gretchen Carlson… Two weeks later, the first major takedown in the yet unnamed #MeToo movement was a fait accompli, and Ailes, after twenty years as the Fox heart and soul, was ignominiously cast out… Fox had become, since Trump’s election, even more successful. It had survived the loss of Ailes---who died in his Palm Beach exile in the spring of 2017---but the loss of ratings leader Bill O’Reilly in a further sexual harassment scandal and of Megyn Kelly, the anchor who the Murdochs had hoped might lead the network to a not-so-right-wing future. Instead, Trump was not its star. Sean Hannity … revived his career with an unquestioning devotion to Trump---making himself… one of Trump’s leading inner circle of advisers. Tucker Carlson… overnight became a firebrand of the new Trump order and cable television’s ratings winner… Fox morphed into something close to an arm of the Trump administration… now [Murdoch] was helpless to control the supplication by the most powerful news outlet he had ever owned to the belligerent president. The money was just too great.” (Pg. 10-11)

In a conversation with his wife, Rupert Murdoch admitted, “This [Dominion] lawsuit could cost us fifty million dollars.’ … Fox News tolerated, and actually exalted Trump, for the ratings, and the unprecedented sums it produced for a news company. But his point of aggravation was the lawsuit by Dominion, the maker of voting machines, against Fox News for echoing the Trump camp’s nonsense charges that Dominion, as part of an international left-wing conspiracy, had helped rig the 2020 election. This is what might cost him $50 million!” (Pg. 25) [The ultimate settlement was for $787.5 million.]

He notes, “For Hannity, there was one Fox News: Ailes’s… If you had to think too hard about what was right and wrong then you were going to go wrong… ‘I don’t like brains, and you’re not a brain,’ said Ailes … [to Hannity]… Hannity’s allegiance was to THAT Fox… That’s the world they were still living in---that’s what made all the money. If that Fox disappeared, and eventually without Ailes, Hannity guessed it would, then Fox disappeared.” (Pg. 56)

He reports, “With Ailes’s ouster, and the vivid exposure of Fox’s casual and lurid workplace harassment, and… the expulsion of Bill O’Reilly amid more sensational revelations, followed then by the elevation of [Suzanne] Scott as the first woman CEO… it was dispiriting, if not shocking, to many at Fox that not much had changed… why mess with success?” (Pg. 70) He recounts, “Bill O’Reilly [had] succeeded as the most dogmatic barstool voice, meaning Sean Hannity … was always the ratings laggard; Megyn Kelly succeeded in contrast to the right-wing guys as the voice of a woman ever irritated with those… blowhard, perhaps drunken men. Tucker now succeeded with an even more glaring contrast. ‘You know, I am not anti-Semitic, and I am not anti-Black… I am anti-Catholic.’ This was the retro message of the pale face, lanky hair[ed]… WASP.” (Pg. 94-95)

He explains, “The first rule of libel law for a media company… is never to go before a jury. Ordinary people don’t like big media companies and are uneasy with the way the First Amendment seems to protect powerful organizations against littler guys. The second rule is to avoid discovery… Therefore, media companies in liberal actions have two courses: move to dismiss… Or, failing that, settle, no matter how expensive.” (Pg. 115-116)

He reports, “Beginning the events that would result in the Dominion suit, shortly before 11:20 p.m. … November 3, Election Day 2020, the election desk at Fox News, where in-house election data specialists applied their own assessment to the voting data coming into the network, decided they were satisfied that Joe Biden would win Arizona’s 11 electoral votes. Grabbing for a journalistic coup, Fox proposed to be the first on the air to make the announcement … This would prove to be an accurate call… The Trump camp… went batshit, contacting anyone in the Murdoch organization … who refused to reconsider. Trump saw it as the tipping point in his relation with Fox... Over the next several days---Biden’s victory was not called until Saturday, November 7---as the early positive numbers for Trump in key states inevitably eroded, there would be many culprits in Trump’s sights. Fox was foremost among them.” (Pg. 122-123)

He observes, “There was an internal number … at Fox that broke down exactly how much money could be credited to Donald Trump, that is, the ADDITIONAL money, the pure profit, Fox had made since Trump became the main draw, and what kind of rating boost each time slot had gotten because of him… Since the 2020 election the specter of no more Trump had haunted American media, no more so than at Fox. But… he hadn’t gone away. Now, though, they were trying to chase him away… ‘Are they f-----g out of their minds? You want to tell me what Fox is without Trump?’ … Hannity was flabbergasted.” (Pg. 161)

He recounts, “The Dominion stuff was getting intense and freaking out everybody---everybody had gotten subpoenas, everybody’s emails were going to be ripped open… What’s more, OAN, the smallest conservative news network, but unwavering in its abject support for Trump, was practically dead, dropped by key cable carriers. And the Dominion suit could bankrupt Newsmax. Trump and his Dominion [BS]… were ironically, going to destroy the competition leaving Fox free to become less-Trump television. Plus, Tucker wanted Trump out of the picture. An open Republican primary with Carlson as potential kingmaker---with Carlson as potential KING---was what he wanted.” (Pg. 163) Later, he adds, “Major cable operators, seeing the downside of Newsmax and OAN’s bad PR and little upside from their limited audiences, were dropping them---whereas Fox was too big to drop. So Fox had no reason to haggle with its talent—they were stuck.” (Pg 214)

He notes, “Hannity would merrily pursue inane and convoluted conspiracy theories, theories often shared by Trump (or vice versa), laughable to most everyone else at Fox, Fox had provided a thriving audience for them… Hannity and Trump … occupied a force field shielding themselves from any exterior conditions… A direct line to the president gave Hannity both the kind of ratings and the centrality he had never managed to achieve in his long career… Hannity’s eagerness to channel him turned them into beloved and dependent brothers. Each was quite likely the only person that other ACTUALLY did pause and listen to… From Hannity’s point of view, he never had it so good. Trump was his buffer against Fox personalities smarter than him and with better ratings…” (Pg. 164-165) He continues, “Hannity might be dumb, but he knew .. nobody had ever been as skilled at getting attention as Donald Trump and it was to Fox News that people came to give him attention.” (Pg. 169)

He comments, “Where months before, the Dominion suit might have been handled as one more overhead expense, it had now become a ticktock of corporate destiny---the fate of so many at Fox possibly riding on it. The opposing sides had gone before a mediator but Dominion, every day gaining more and more confidence about its position, refused to put a new offer on the table, and now added an ultimatum about ‘reform.’" (Pg. 204-205) He continues, “After Election Day 2022, when… the Republican wave failed to materialize… many of Trump’s chosen candidates were humiliated…. Lachlan Murdoch began to tell people that they were going to focus on Dominion and get it resolved… Murdoch seemed to further focus … on punishing Trump rather than resolving Dominion. Dominion wasn’t the problem, Trump was.” (Pg. 209)

He observes, “Fox, with its twenty-five years of propaganda, had inculcated an audience that was now militantly loyal to the message---and now the message could not be so easily challenged. Most of the Dominion discovery evidence… was that the Fox newsroom was tuned into what its audience wanted to hear, and would give them nothing less… The audience held so much power that even … the biggest bigfoot owner who had ever lived---could not interfere.” (Pg. 236)

He says of Tucker Carlson’s firing, “The announcement followed less than a minute later, with no suggestion at all as to why the network’s top-rated star would be abruptly taken off the air---not to the public at large, nor to Carlson, his lawyers, or to anyone outside Fox… for nearly two weeks his abrupt removal consistently ranked among the top [news] stories…” (Pg. 278) Later, he adds, “Carlson, in his six years in prime time, had become more Fox than Fox---that was Fox’s effective case against him.” (Pg. 285) He concludes, “Trump and Carlson… are by this time bigger than the network that made them. 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.” (Pg. 287)

This book will be “must reading” for anyone studying the Dominion lawsuit, and the future of Fox News.

[Alex Gruenenfelder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being deeply connected to the figures involved, Michael Wolff is the perfect journalist to have taken up this book. Very gossipy and filled with lots of sexual references, it definitely has the qualities of tabloid fodder, but perhaps that should not feel foreign to tell the story of the family that brought Roger Ailes and Donald Trump to the heights of power they reached. Even given its less serious tone some of the time, this is a deeply personal and highly-researched look at a family dynasty that has profoundly changed American history.

This is a book about the billionaire Rupert Murdoch, most known for owning News Corp and Fox News, but it's about more than that. This is a book about the less discussed members of the Murdoch family, alongside all of the television personalities that this family's wealth enabled. I found the narrative and drama of this book to be so compelling that it got me to start watching "Succession," which was loosely (or less loosely, depending on who you ask) inspired by the Murdoch family. I recommend it perhaps most to fans of that acclaimed show, but more broadly to those who are interested in the influence of money and media in politics.

[Gregory Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Final Chapter is Yet to be Written

Let me state firstly that I am a fan of Rupert Murdoch as a businessman. Fox News? Not so much! To grow from a couple of newspapers in Adelaide to dominate the Australian, UK and US media landscapes is some achievement! Sure, he is a newsprint junkie at heart, but he innately understood that tabloid journalism could be brought to the TV screen - and thus Fox News was formed under the misogynistic thumb of Roger Ailes. But Rupert saw the gap in the market and he did it and the credit or blame belongs to him. There were some near death experiences along the way, but he survived and he is still standing (well, probably sitting nowadays). All of which begs the perennial question, what is the responsibility of a media company to tell the truth? At one end of the spectrum it is a for-profit enterprise that will succeed or fail on its merits. At the other end, it is an institution with a public trust. Or, to put it another way, did Fox News create the emerging political and social polarization in the US or did it simply provide the platform to expose it? That's above my pay grade, but the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Wolff breaks the book down into chapters focusing on the various players, be they family members or Fox News personalities. It comes as no great surprise that O'Reilly is a blowhard, Hannity is an idiot, Kelly has tickets on herself and Carlson is, well, Tucker. Ingraham has a tough gig as the third wheel but I did not realize she hits the sauce as hard as Wolff describes. It is interesting to me that Murdoch did not more forcefully rein in his Trump-infatuated broadcasters after the 2020 election loss and the demise of Roger Ailes. It would seem like a great time to put more of a Murdoch stamp on the network - but it is hard to kill the golden goose. Wolff does a good job at explaining how Murdoch Sr (kind of senile but still engaged in the minutiae of the business and in love with the cash flow) and Murdoch Jr (kind of disinterested and an absentee landlord, but with grand designs for his own future) were pretty much powerless to stop the Trump Train from steamrolling along, or, at least, were willfully and blissfully ignorant.

The author makes note of the Trump effect on Fox News and the incremental profit that can be attributed to him. It should not be forgotten, however, that CNN and MSNBC have also benefited significantly from the train wreck that is The Donald. We all have our tribes, but never-Trumpers are just as glued to the TV to catch up on his latest rant (or crime); it's just happening on a different network with a different slant.

The author also explains how there is still a chapter yet to be written in this saga. What happens when Rupert goes to that big newsroom in the sky? The real story of succession is more compelling than the Roy clan version. The two brothers don't speak. The smartest, and most successful businessperson, is the younger sister, while the older daughter calls a spade a f@#$%g shovel, but is fairly removed from the day to day drama. How does it end? According to the terms of the family trust Lachlan will only have a 25% say in what happens. What James wants to do is pretty obvious and, given his role in selling most of the non-paper assets to Disney, it may be easier to achieve. But where Elisabeth and Prudence land is anyone's guess. If they side with James then Fox News as we know it, is DOA. If I was a betting man, I'd keep my eye on Elisabeth. It also begs the question (up to a point) of Rupert's legacy (at least in the US). Tabloid journalism may have had its day and the cable industry is going through some seismic shifts, but the quality broadsheets still hold a strong place in the public discourse and the WSJ, The Times and The Australian are important and influential voices in this discussion.

That Fox News is very profitable is a given, however it would have been instructive for the author to provide some analysis on how it makes all that money. I can't believe the MyPillow guy generates too much advertising revenue and other mainstream advertisers seem to periodically boycott the network for some transgression or other. The network is a ratings powerhouse, but I would have liked to learn more about the economics of the business (vis a vis the competition) as well as the relative importance of licensing fees and the contribution of ancillary properties.

The last chapter, Apres Moi, is the most interesting and thought-provoking --- what happens after Rupert? There are a myriad of possibilities with all parties having potential risks and rewards (also remember that, in addition to the 4 voting members of the family trust, there are two non-voting members - Rupert's two youngest kids with Wendi Deng). The trust also controls the assets of both News Corp and Fox Corp - so there are lots of competing interests at play. Who will ultimately win (aside from the lawyers)-- only time will tell.

Overall I would say that there are better books about Murdoch out there. It probably reads a bit old nowadays but the William Shawcross biography is compulsory reading as is "The Loudest Voice in the Room". This book comes across as being a hurried job and trying to cash in on the popularity of the HBO show which was largely based on the Murdoch clan.

From a grammatical standpoint, reading the book was a little challenging given the number of run-on sentences employed by Wolff. I like a comma as much as the next man, but, in all seriousness, how many is too many, and how long can a sentence be, before the audience, eyes glazed over, begins to lose focus --- my point exactly.

[Erich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Wolff’s The Fall offers a fascinating look at the inner workings of Fox News, the dysfunctional Murdoch family with its infighting and out-of-touch patriarch, and, most notably, the network's larger-than-life personalities who truly steal the spotlight.

As the new Trump administration takes shape, this book provides valuable insight into what we might expect—the moral qualities (or lack thereof) driving these individuals—leaving readers to draw their own conclusions.

May God help us all.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

MEH. Michael Wolff has done better, and although it proved an interesting insight into the Murdochs, it was way too presumptuous about what these figures were specifically thinking at specific times, and I found that weird. Just narrate the story and scandal as it happened instead of trying to narrate their inner thoughts. Maybe the story just wasn't juicy enough to make an entire book out of without that filler.

[Debbie Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to the Fox News Follies, A Farce, or as Michael Wolff chose his book title, 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.”

[John McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the title or by Michael Wolff's gossipy account even if you can pass through the convoluted writing punctuated by parenthetical statements, semicolon-punctuated afterthoughts, and
sentences that, in a couple of cases, meandered for a half page. Don't get me wrong. The book is interesting, but a book that should have taken me about 3 days to read took a week because of the way Wolff writes.

Wolff, to his credit, does pretty well summarize the travails that a lot of liberals like me might not pay much attention to because we simply don't watch the Fox channel. But they do have some problems, not the least of which is an ownership family that detests Trump and air personalities who have made their names by kissing Trump on the lips every night.

Roger Ailes had it exactly right, I think, when he told Wolff that Fox geared its audience to what audiences were thinking in 1965. That also describes a demographic that Fox captures. But the reality is that Lachlan Murdock who is supposed to run the company is AWOL. Rupert is just checked out--he hates Trump but can't rein in his staff who are paid millions. The children are fighting over control of the company and programming decisions, looking to the day when Rupert dies (you read that correctly, not when he retires--he's in his 90s now--but when he dies, and they make no secret of it).

Although the Murdoch Irrevocable Trust is not the principle subject or even a major focus of the book, it could prove to be the portent which most accurately describes Fox News' troubles yet to come. The Nevada courts complicated life for Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, deciding well after the book was published, that Rupert, consistent with the common law of trusts, can not, by amendment of his irrevocable trust, revoke rights which vested specific rights irrevocably when the trust instrument was signed by Rupert, the trustor. Rupert's intent in trying to amend the irrevocable trust vested sole voting rights to 4 of his children (Lachlan, Prudence, James, and Elizabeth) and the putative amendment Rupert sought Court approval of would have rescinded those corporate governance voting rights to all but Lachlan. From a lawyer's point of view, Fox becomes seemingly ungovernable if some compromise isn't achieved by and among the 4 heirs, and it is decidedly contrary to Lachlan's best interests because only Lachlan believes he can control the Fox News destiny and dynasty created by old man Murdoch. Even the 3 children opposing Lachlan and seemingly benefitting from the Nevada Court's ruling can't get it together about what it is, exactly, they want, either. This a stew made for lawyers and financial advisors to feast on for years, and if I, an assuming soul not privy to the Murdochs' hearts, were to project a solution, it would be to sell as soon as possible, reap the rich pickings while they are the richest, and not wait until Trump goes away, Fox declines, and the "all hands on deck" signal is given, because it will as Fox's fortunes decline.

What I gleaned from the morass of facts confronting (or is it besieging) Fox is that Fox is given to thrive as long as Trump is alive and in the public eye. But a reckoning will arrive, perhaps in my lifetime, probably after the start of a war of corporate governance of historic proportions, one that will dwarf almost any other preceding it unless 3 of the four Murdoch children recognize the impossibility and cost of trying to wrest control and decide just to sell, and then, take the money and run. Right now, FOX has real value but what value is there when Trump leaves the stage? Some other dysfunctional person out there can buy Hannity and Ingraham's contracts and whatever other FOX assets have value and who thinks he or she or it will have the option of continuing the Fox money machine, which, of course, assumes that MAGA will live on and the ghost of Trump will haunt midtown Manhattan. Which is to question, who knows what the company is worth with Rupert gone (he won't retire) and Trump, well, somehow not relevant or as important.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Wolff tells the story Fox News through chapters named for and devoted to the major players. The profiles include Rupert Murdock and three of his four children (now adults) from his first wife and key personnel at Fox News.

You see how this unusual enterprise is structured. While there is a board, there is not much mention of it or its members since the family has most of the voting shares. Due to the trust set up to benefit the 4 children of Rupert’s first wife, Lachlen, James, Elizabeth and Prue will inherit this voting block. While they agree on the toxicity of Fox News, they don’t agree on what to do about it. Will they maintain the current laissez-faire strategy, which is to do noting and reap an earnings stream in the billions?

Fox News is the biggest and most profitable of the Murdoch companies but it is virtually unsalable. Right wing organizations cannot afford it and other corporate media consider it toxic. The Murdock's sold off their entertainment businesses to Disney in 2019. This netted the “children” $2 billion each and left the company with mostly assets in industries that have peaked: newspapers and cable TV.

Without Fox News, this appears to be a company in decline. Wolff does not say what the end will be… only that it could be coming soon when the 92 year old Rupert no longer calls the shots. Lachlan and James are expected to duke it out for the top spot… but neither seems to have vision or work ethic. With so many family members with access to lawyers and dependent on the Fox News earnings almost any decision can be litigated.

While the corporate problems recur throughout the book, there is more human interest content than there is about “end of Fox News”

You learn of Rupert’s awkward personality and his loneliness. His hands off approach allowed Roger Ailes to develop Fox content: extreme right wing politics, anger, racism, sexism and resentment. You find out what Rupert thinks of his staff. As an old fashioned Republican he is appalled by Trump. His small steps to curb the content are not followed showing how hard it is to rein in stars with large audiences.

You see Tucker Carlson unmoored since being fired. There is no market for a former Fox host. Fox competitors are small and cannot afford him. More moderate Fox recruits to the corporate channels have not worked out. Tucker does not seem to guess that he, as the top draw for viewers, was sacrificed in the Dominion trial to save the settlement from approaching a billion dollars.

You see James and Lachlan Murdock competing and dropping out. Neither seems to actually work. For instance Lachlan runs NY operations from Australia.

Elizabeth has vision, and has developed and run a production company of significant size. She is the most accomplished of the Murdock offspring. She does not seem interested in taking charge, and I doubt James and Lachlan have even considered a role for her.

The family feels the anger of their friends and colleagues over the poison Fox pumps into the public square. Was Jerry Hall’s anger over Fox News a factor in the Hall-Murdoch divorce?

Hannity loves Trump (we all know this). He defied the company directive not to put him on the air. Viewer data, which Fox can see in real time, shows that the audience loves Trump too. This defines the Fox problem… there is no way to change course when the market loves what it is getting.

Wolff’s talent does not come through in this book. I’ve read Wolff’s "Fire and Fury", "Landslide" and "Siege". This book does not come up to those standards. Some of the writing is so impressionistic it is hard to know what is meant. This happens in small ways, but in some places it is thick. The chapter on the Dominion trial is hard to follow due to this style. Also, it may also be that this content doesn’t lend itself to Wolff’s humor..

While the above are weaknesses, I think the problem is that the book is primarily filler covering over scant information on the title topic of how Fox News ends. It is still an OK read if you are interested in the Murdock family.

[Neil Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fresh from his trilogy on the chaotic Trump presidency, author & columnist Michael Wolff turns to chronicling the decline and break-up of Rupert Murdock’s empire which essentially began with the 2011 phone hacking scandal & subsequent closure of the News of the World, the sale of media assets to Disney, and now the Dominion lawsuit arising out of Donald Trump’s false claims around the 2020 presidential election. Murdock, at 92, inevitably won’t live forever, and the break up of his empire and squabbling of his offspring over the spoils has already begun. Wolff open the book with a fictional obituary to the mogul and closes it with an epilogue imagining the immediate events post his demise.

Murdock and his brood are pure Succession, the major theme of Wolff’s book. The patriarch himself is naturally Logan Roy, with Roman as Lachlan, Kendall as James and Siobhan as Elisabeth. Life imitates art or is it vice versa. Although the book proclaims itself to be about the decline of the Murdock empire, for the most part it is a diatribe about Fox News, both the albatross around the dynastic neck as well as it’s golden goose. With a fly-on-the wall style narrative (Wolff boasts his direct access to Murdock and his family for his earlier biography, even though this was a considerable time ago, as well as his conversations with Fox founder Roger Ailes), the first 2/3 and most of the final third is a brash, garish diatribe of imagined (or reported, who really knows) conversations and events around the personalities and events of the perplexing and bewildering cutthroat world of cable news politics, filled with exclamations, idiotic dialogue and annoying rhetorical questions. The narration in the third person singular present tense runs like the narration of a Scorsese mobster movie, but fails to being any sense to the unintelligible rambling of right wing talking heads like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Megyn Kelly. All it does is depressingly illustrate how fake news and demagoguery have blurred the lines between truth and lies and become central to America’s culture wars.

If this were journalism it would be firmly in the camp of The Sun, diametrically opposite to the FT. The trash talk of Wolff’s cast of characters is mirror by his trashy, chaotic and poorly constructed style. No doubt though Mr Wolff can look forward to the distinct possibility of 4 more years of a Trump presidency to squeeze a further few books out of, although quite how he will gain any inside track or insider view is difficult to imagine with his being personal non grata in Trump circles and with his old reliable source Steve Bannon firmly sidelined.

[Heather Turiello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Wolff’s The Fall is an extremely eye-opening explanation of the motivations and intentions of the Murdoch family in the management of Fox. I had heard that the Murdoch’s themselves do not subscribe to the brand of conservatism espoused by the talking heads on Fox, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. How in the world can you allow such an insidious propaganda machine to drive the American democracy off a cliff without some intention of creating a neoconservative, oligarchical wasteland of the US?

Rupert Murdoch is simply motivated by ratings. Period. As they rolled out Fox, they looked at it like a “variety show” or tabloid television. As they have said in Court, as entertainment only. They began to grow the news station and they kept a mix of what they considered serious news blended with tabloid shows. These tabloid shows had very little fact and zero journalistic value, but the ratings were high, so as the station grew, they increased the mix until there was almost no “real news.”

The book also goes into the legacy of Roger Ailes, who was a misogynistic pervert and only hired women for their sexual attraction and “f*ckability.”

And the talking heads all know they are lying. They are all desperate for ratings and know they can get away with saying anything, the crazier the better, to get ratings. Truth be damned.

On a personal note, I lost my parents to MAGA and Faux News. My mother thinks highly of “Dr. Laura” and Sean Hannity. Hannity who is known for being incredibly stupid, and Laura who is known for being a stumbling drunk who throws herself at all the men for attention. The behind the scenes on these people is really sad and disgusting. They really do represent the seediest underbelly of American culture.

The Murdochs are all very liberal democrats and are Obama and Biden supporters. The younger generation is hoping to “right the ship” and make Fox into a real news station. To fix the damage they have done to Democracy. They are all spoiled billionaires and have no real accountability for the incredible damage they have done to our country and generations of families who are split.

Fox is responsible for Trump, for Tucker Carlson, for our vulnerability.

The book is fantastic. But if you are a Fox fan or a conservative, be prepared for the most incredibly painful cognitive dissonance of your life. It’s gonna hurt.

[Rosalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was an interesting book, not just because it shows how little Rupert Murdoch cared for: truth; democracy; and integrity, but how none of the Murdochs who have been involved in running News Corp and Fox News (and I am including James in this) really have any idea of what they are doing or how to run multimedia, billion dollar companies. The only person who does is Elizabeth Murdoch and she will never get the top job because she is a woman!! I think that this outdated thinking is as a reason why the empire is failing as the Dominion case is. That perhaps is the most ironic thing, that if Elizabeth had been more involved perhaps the Dominion case would never have happened. But that is just speculation, on my part. Michael Wolff highlights what has been noted in other places that Rupert Murdoch is only at home with print media and a fast paced newsroom, not the 24/7 feed of places like Fox news. As a result this has meant that he has appeared to be out of his depth in Fox News, hence Roger Ailes, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
Michael Wolff has given us a close account of the way that the Murdoch empire crumbled in the 12 months or so from Winter 2022, until Winter 2023 and the events that have caused such havoc in the Murdoch family and empire. While Michael Wolff does give a lot of time to the family dynamics and highlights just how dysfunctional a family they are, this is important as the family dynamics have been crucial for the way Fox News was run. It allowed for Roger Ailes to have so much power and control not over just Fox but over Rupert himself, and created such a toxic environment for a number of people, mostly women that would start the bomb ticking on this vast empire.
Michael Wolff writes well, he does get too involved with personalities and who said what when, rather he gives us a close look at a man who is toxic, cares for nothing but profits and money and yet wants the affection of his children. Rupert Murdoch has had the power to make and break governments both here in Australia and elsewhere most notably America with his support of Trump, but now that power is diminishing and he is unable to stop it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of, nor do I ever watch, Fox News. I mean, I have caught bits and pieces of it, but I am content to ignore it. I have read Fire and Fury, also by Michael Wolff, and found it insightful and well written. So I looked forward.

Wolff's text covers all of the major figures associated with Fox News: The Murdoch family (Rupert, Rupert's third wife Wendi Deng, Rupert's fourth wife Jerry Hall, Lachlan, James, Elizabeth, and last even though she was first, Prudence), the Fox hosts (Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Stephen Colbert--ha ha, okay, not Colbert; I just wanted to see if you were paying attention), the executives (Viet Dinh, Roger Ailes, Suzanne Scott) and so on. The book also details the stinging enmity between the Murdoch children in their efforts to wrest control of Fox News from each other. And, staggering amounts of money bear mention: When Murdoch sold of a bunch of his entertainment entities, each member of the family pocketed two billion smackers.

I didn't really like the book for two reasons: First, I find the subject of the Murdochs to be a crashing bore. Children with billions of dollars bellyaching at each other over who gets control of the sandbox; really? I couldn't find much reason to shed too many tears over the various Murdoch crises. And second: I was not aware that Fox News had fallen. As mentioned earlier, I don't follow Fox News, but I hear that it's still going strong, the Murdochs notwithstanding. Michael Wolff really is a gifted writer. He write with organization and erudition, and he even evokes a belly laugh or two. But I could not bring myself to care about the subject of his misnomered book.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Several years ago I read Mr. Wolff's book "Television is the New Television." I thought that it was brilliant. It was a super smart analysis of media trends that pointed out important things that I had missed though I work in the business that the book describes. Then I read "Fire and Fury." Meh. Not so great but it was interesting to get a somewhat inside view of dysfunction in the early years of the Trump White House. Then I read "Too Famous," and he lost me. It was the worst kind of tabloid journalism, and the chapter that made Jeffrey Epstein look like a semi-reasonable person as it mocked the rich and famous people who fawned over him made me seriously doubt whether I could continue to trust Mr. Wolff. I was hoping that "The Fall" as a media story would be more in the vein of "Television is the New Television, " but it isn't. This book is another load of snarky B- attack journalism. It was hard for me to keep reading. There is a lot that I agree with in Mr. Wolff's analysis of the history of Fox News and the Murdoch family's relationship with it. It's interesting how Roger Ailes turned it into something a hundred times more successful than anyone imagined it could be and that at the same time was anathema in many ways to the Murdochs. Rupert Murdoch is a conservative, but not that kind of conservative. Unfortunately, Mr. Wolff puts forth his thesis with sarcasm and backhanded language that frequently devolves into outright mockery. It isn't constructive. It's as if he thought that he needed to take on Fox News by employing a Fox News attitude and personality. I don't want people on my side to be that way. It only makes things worse.

[Thom Disch · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the title of the book. Unfortunately the author is living inside his own head. Fox News has not ended. It appears to be as strong as ever. The end of the Murdoch empire is only a result of Rupert Murdoch dying.

Had I researched the author I would have realized that he is a bias liberal author who appears to hate everything conservative. I did read the entire book and according to the author everyone at Fox Mews hates everyone else at Fox News. Everyone in the Murdoch family dislikes everyone else in the family. Fox management all try to avoid anyone in the Murdoch family and avoid talking with the on air talent. That said it raises two questions. 1) How does Fox (contrary to the books title) continue to hold the leading spot in most cable news surveys when all other news channels/programs seem to be declining? 2) how does the author, who has nothing positive to say about any one of the people mentioned in the book, obtain so many negative comments and insights into all of the key players at Fox and in the Murdoch family? He must be an amazing interviewer to get everyone to spill so much dirt on their family members and coworkers.

I’m not saying that Fox appears to be a good or positive environment. I don’t think it is. But, I was hoping for something more insightful and less biased.

From a writing perspective, the author takes shortcuts which make the book difficult to read. For example he refers to Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, and Lachlan Murdoch as simply Murdoch often leaving the reader wondering which one he is referring to.

[Avid Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a Wolff piece, you relish the tale but can't avoid the convoluted "Wolff" style. It's like a continual conversation with himself, correcting, adding, accenting...."and he was a leader - only who was being led..." '...said he was gay - or it was said he was gay or Ailes said he was gay or someone said Ailes said he was gay". The constant corrections, and adjustments can be maddening yet effective.

The FOX "ethos" and the Murdoch's endless dysfunction combine to produce the Dominion trial. We see lives upended, ingratitude, mockery, snobbery and it's not one-sided. "Lefties" come off just as hateful, scheming, revengeful and obsessed. It's only the superior quality of their conversation that is more acceptable. Their news rooms are as cut throat and misogynistic, differing in their attitude toward outright cheering and conspiracies - both encouraced by F

It's gossipy with great characterizations. Hannity, grateful for his luck, Carlson, the deep thinker wannabe president, Ingraham, never able to catch up with the guys, Murdoch, powerful yet paralyzed, the ungrateful sons and daughters. Trump remains distant, the ignorant showman. But was it the end or even the fall? This summer (9/25) FOX is as crazy, rabid and conspiratorial as ever yet it's beating ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN & MSNBC! What is the lesson?

[Richard Block · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who's Afraid of Michael Wolff?

Everybody ought to be. Wolff is a bright yellow journalist who, like a tick, lands on his victim's body, learns all its vital signs and history and sucks the victim dry. This is his second and last visit to the body of decrepit Rupert Murdoch and his unholy empire and provides a ridiculously entertaining insight into his horrific family and of course, Trump.

Wolff claimed Trump was way too dumb to organise January 6th and was dead wrong. Trump played him like a fiddle, and it seems, also played the Murdochs with brilliance and success. For a chronic moron, Trump is an unstable genius. Murdoch, on the other hand, is shown to be a rigid, limited dolt, whose empire stands no chance of survival. He is no Logan Roy (the Succession scion). He lacks the wit and imagination. Wolf dismantles him and his family with ease.

Yet he still underestimates Trump. Murdoch may have helped him get close to Trump, but Trump clearly has Wolff's number. But you won't give a damn if you want a brilliant, National Enquirer look at Murdoch and Trumpworld.

Another best seller? Maybe but it deserves to be.