TV pundit Hal Boedeker offers an interesting scoop--maybe.
In reviewing Bill Moyers' PBS special on media coverage of the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, called "Buying the War," Boedeker passes along Moyers' version of his attempt to get Ailes to come on camera for the show. According to Moyers, Ailes declines. And then Boedeker adds this teasing little item: "An assistant said Ailes is 'writing a book on how Fox has changed the face of American broadcasting and doesn't want to scoop himself,' Moyers says."
Now four points need to be made here:
First, I don't trust Bill Moyers. The former aide to Democratic president Lyndon Johnson is a professional left-liberal would do just about anything, I believe, to damage those he views as his partisan and ideological enemies. So just because Moyers said it--and this little alleged scoop is buried deep in Boedeker's article, so one wonders if even Boedeker thinks it's really legit--doesn't make it necessarily true. It is interesting to note, for example, that Boedeker doesn't appear to have called Fox himself to verify Moyers' claim, yea or nay.
Second, Ailes is probably thinking about a dozen different books. I am sure he gets pitched to write a Jack Welch-like memoir all the time. And he wrote a great book, 15 years ago, called "You Are The Message," which was and is an excellent guide to public speaking and presentation.
Third, I wouldn't put it past Ailes to be leaking half-formed information as a kind of psy-war against his opponents. One can be sure that CNN's Jon Klein, and MSNBC's Dan Abrams, and everyone else in The Cable Game, are busy digesting the possibility here, and what it might mean for them. That's Ailes--always find a way to keep the other guys off balance.
Fourth, it could be that Moyers is telling the truth.
