The battle for Roger Ailes's legacy

Roger Ailes is used to being in control.

For almost a half-century — from his days as Richard Nixon’s media strategist to his creation and expansion of the Fox News empire — he has exerted incalculable influence over the public image of politicians, presidents, even the Republican Party. Now, with his career heading toward its twilight, Ailes is in a war for control of his own legacy.

Vanity Fair will publish an excerpt from a forthcoming biography of Ailes, due out March 19, by Zev Chafets, the author of a largely favorable biography about conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh. Three sources familiar with the Ailes-Chafets dealings on the book believe that Ailes — who provided Chafets with interviews and access — is using the book to counteract another forthcoming Ailes bio, tentatively titled “The Loudest Voice in the Room: Fox News and the Making of America,” by Gabriel Sherman, a contributing editor at New York Magazine. In the wake of that publishing one-upsmanship, a strong effort has been made to discredit Sherman — with much of the criticism being leveled by commentators on Ailes’ Fox News network. Fox News pundits have taken to Twitter to call Sherman “a [George] Soros puppet,” a “phony journalist,” a “stalker” and “harasser.” He has also come under fire from other conservative commentators, anti-gun-control activist John Lott and the editors of Breitbart.com. To date, no evidence has emerged that Ailes ordered his employees to stir up the attacks on Sherman — which have gone beyond the usual confines of professional critiques and into the realm of personal insult and innuendo.