From “The Promise, President Obama, Year One” by Jonathan Alter:
“There was a history between Obama and the network. After he wrapped up the nomination in June 2008, Obama visited the News Corporation offices in New York with the intention of making peace. He chatted amiably with owner Rupert Murdoch, who openly admired Obama, but the conversation turned tense after Roger Ailes joined the group. Obama explained that he hadn’t been granting interviews to Fox because the network was buying into bogus stories like the one about his being schooled in fundamentalist Muslim madrassa in Indonesia.
“Ailes responded huffily that Fox was just reporting the news. Murdoch, who was visibly embarrassed by Ailes’s ungraciousness, extravagantly complimented the candidate, and the meeting ended wth an informal agreement by Obama to resume relations with Fox. He granted a long interview with Bill O’Reilly, as well as one to Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
“ But when Murdoch passed the word inside News Corp. that he was planning to endorse Obama, Ailes threatened to quit. Murdoch, knowing that Ailes was a cash cow for his company, gave Ailes a five-year contract, endorsed McCain early, and let Ailes move News Corp. even further right. (This didn’t sit well with some of Murdoch’s more liberal children, who despised Ailes.) Obama placed a courtesy call to Murdoch during the transition but wrote Fox off.”
