Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
welcome back to booking t_v_ we're talking this week and joe mitchell
author of the book in easiest in the fossil
and eight and liberals eight your policy inside the heart of the right wing media
joe how do you think fox viewers will react or or do you have reacted since
the books but not for three weeks to your book and do you care
pick your fav fear is that say about it
as a as we have found that i fink fox viewers might actually enjoyed this book
it is it is very critical of the network but it also gives you know
an insider's perspective the as to what goes on behind the scenes i think people
who like fox might
interested in that you know it it it is a fascinating place
this park is not a complete
diatribe against font type
but let's talk a little bit about life inside the belly of displeased and
you've got hired
right out of notre dame which is a d_c_ grad i will temporarily forgive
and he had several so-called read the fox kool aid interviews before each
step up further
indeed there was one meeting we were asked if you felt the news product was
fair and balanced
share your answer to that interview question
well uh... yet that was the uh...
will be used to call the kool aid conference you know drink the fox and co
id
and my question to answer that question was basically
uh...
bones and is this the long lines of uh...
with what they sort of tell us from day one at the network is is everyone else
is
so withdrawal that we just look
conservative by comparison that was one
and after they sort of tell u from day one when you when you start there and i
think that we didn't know when you that
quick competition despair right back at them and and that that seem to satisfy
the man you move on the annex
phase your career
do you also have a moment we'll review so that you know during the day uses a
street news organizations of the murders were committed
of the events the other
that the other party line thing introspective
there are there's a clear separation between our opinion shows at night and
our
cheney shows during the day when of course that there really isn't i'd
there's a lot of apa community that goes on in those straight news shows during
the day
now usually applied through website news writing position which will cover letter
so impressed someone there that you've got an interview to be a production
assistant talk a little about that process
well i broke her
i wrote a really goofy cover letter like gary sort of
of
mitten base for a photo important like ironically self-important i think it was
and it
you know 'cause i don't think i i had at that point been applying to a lot of
jobs and gotten
very few responses uh... you know 'cause i was sort of a
it hapless tough film and television
studies major and you know i hadn't gotten typically good grades in adn
done any
internships or anything like that
i'd just sort of tossed off this letter to fox in desperation thinking it would
go nowhere and
hit update they called me back a few weeks later and say we'd love that
cover letters where it's been a
really enjoyed reading it so
that was thousand-odd situation i thought i was you know
sabotaging myself at this cover letter so you get there
use that as a disappeared
production assistant to the new york city
ritual does another
running scripts up to the broadcast anchors on the floor
you know you sat in one of these parts for their three jobs
kinda walk us through the jobs and how you progress dot to associate producer
more when you start the production assistant you are
first thing in running scripts which is a literally sitting in the control room
all day
and hitting
control key on your computer
and printing out
paper copies of the scripts now
it's on the teleprompter to the anchors a reading off a teleprompter ninety
percent of times you just printing these scripts in case the teleprompter goes
down
so most of your work is is just going it's on the anchors that skin and
getting
truck that the carpet so thats
that's gotta be a metaphor for something but i
we are not eloquent enough to uh... make that right now
uh... what once you get past that local once they'd realize that you're not more
on that you could either move on to uh... uh...
of graphics production assistants or
video
of graphics is sort of where they put the people who are a little
slower track i think that is
graphics is that uh... whether they want to bet a lot of fighting the r_d_ dairy
you know that that all the troubled stunning about this is like shop class
read yeah
that's the graphics is like
i don't know that i don't know if it's still the case it was the case eight
years ago when i was there or nine years ago at this point in two thousand four
that with with the slow people went cuz you know they were just not very good at
what they do it
uh... pa because they got all the
slow production assistants
although if if you look at what you did which works which i was like
uh... to pilot *** and i was pretty good they send you to video uh... of the
video departments and that's where you are you as a twenty two-year-old you
know recent college graduate are responsible for
almost a hundred percent video that airs on fox news channel
seen by millions of people
is kind of mind-boggling
amazing stuff
now at some point in time could you do get a promotion
but there's a great exchange between you and your high school friend map in the
bar
where you ask him point blank that i a trade away my integrity for some health
benefits of seventy four cents an hour too which is reply was no he did that
already when you took the job in the first place
uh... wanted to do it because the question
why take the job numbers but what it is day and and and move up the ladder
broadcasting is very
seductive you know it's a very exciting
endfield to be in
and
you know i i i think a lot about how exciting was the first day i was in the
control room when we got word that bob the actor marlon brando died and that
their brush to sort of confirm this news the septic it was such a uh... uh...
thrilling entry into this world so
i think more than anything maybe
want to stick around and you outside see where ones
now there were there were applications to other places along the way but it was
always like
you know nothing ever came up
uh...
annul to make it one of the fox you know i i was in
nick uh... and i was doing well when i was i was getting promoted and i kept
moving on coupon to progressively more
challenging jobs and challenging shows and then
i headed up by the riley show which is
you know which is the top of the pit box and that's like
that's the best place to be that's you know
you you sort of made it happen now
if you're already shows so at high-tax
i guess it was uh... you know
decarava's dangling in front of the the entire time and and
by the time the high aid decided i wanted to leave i'd been there i've been
there for so long and sort of seemed
you know it it's probably seems outside people ludicrous that i stay that long
but
you you blink your eyes and an eight years have gone by
that you you had to do some questions that was there for sticks to point
uh... tell us a little about joining face book under an assumed name to get
that
duke lacrosse players that were
involved in that you know refer great situation to agree to an interview
did you have any problems with that a regions doing your job
although they believe in tennessee and that was because my real name and that's
why i still have that face topic out to this day ob
but this is back when i was on the crime of the crime show called the lineup
and since i was the only
i was the youngest on the staff and the only one who could
access face book
uh...
so they said but baseball can't start messaging these kids on the deck with
prosecuting
and see if they'll talk to us
so i think that message i messaged all these kids in
you know got ignored for the most part and got a few
f u
type buddy you mails back
uh...
that bothered me
it did a little because i i was
so
highways and so far removed from college at that point and that i
felt a little weird that
there's all these college-age kids being pestered by all these adults
in the news in the she felt a little
unseemly to me
um... that whole case was awkward situation
it really was
uh... let's shift gears and talk a little bit about the backwards
technology that you worked with their name you you you thought you were
probably coming into a state of the art environment
because that's what uh... basically murdoch anil said they were going to
build
and there's this images the professionalism and graphics eclipse
essentially you will force the edit everything on old-fashioned tape decks
versus digital was that like
both boxes i i found out after i got the fox a sort of known within the industry
rabin
like they don't
they don't pay their employees that much except except the anchorage to nome
whirlpool making eight figures sub some of the from
but they're not going to employees that much they don't
upgrade equipments you know uh... by i got there the equipment they had to have
these old old tape machines that i think you've been there since the network was
founded
in nineteen ninety six
and they're all broken down and mike you know
half of them affable just out of order and
they could even fix them anymore because the manufacturer stopped making that's
how all that out of date they were her
and they were and then they couldn't get anybody could getting more new did you
take to the videotapes were one being made anymore so
but you know they have out with that system as long as they could but it was
it eventually
the starting to affect the on-air product there is you know the video who
started the book that ah...
eventually perforce basically to switch to a digital
well he did it all fashion technology but i didn't say it was often
brilliantly executed the maximum propaganda right
now when we return we'll take a look at joe's long tenure with the
love them or hate him
undisputed star of the fox news channel
all six foot four inches of miles the menace bill o'reilly himself
when our interview with job you know the fox news mall and author of an atheist
in the fox hole continues
you want to go to your t_v_
stay right here