Cable News Confidential

Having worked for all three major cable news channels, Jeff Cohen has witnessed firsthand how corporate media conglomerates are killing our democracy. He talked to AlterNet's executive editor Don Hazen about his experiences and his new book "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media" (PoliPoint Press, 2006). Two video clips of his appearances with Robert Novak on CNN's "Crossfire" in 1996 are also available: "For Vengeance" and "Feminist Weenies."

Don Hazen: You were a Fox on-air personality for years and are a red-blooded American progressive. Isn't it ironic that you had a semicomfortable home at the premier right-wing network?

Jeff Cohen: It was more than ironic, it was a fluke. I was allowed to stay on the air primarily because I was a weekender. I wasn't ready for prime time. I can remember a couple incidents where Sean Hannity came into the green room when our show, "Fox NewsWatch," was waiting to go on. A couple of the people started haranguing him, saying, "When are you going to have a debate with Jeff Cohen? Are you afraid of him?" I survived -- it was a media criticism show. I was able to say things that you wouldn't normally be able to do anywhere else on Fox News. I mean, I regularly criticized Fox News and Rupert Murdoch by name. There were a couple of times I thought my career was in jeopardy, but it's important for people to realize I left Fox News on my own.

Hazen: We've got a couple of clips of you going at it with Robert Novak (VIDEO: For Vengeance, and Feminist Weenies), who's been at the center of the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame scandal. Tell us a little bit about the Prince of Darkness.

Cohen: That's the funny thing about the Prince of Darkness -- he was always good for me. When you're on cable news and you're in an ideological debate, it's great to be going up against someone who seems to concede the center, and almost pushes himself to the extreme. Like when we did our debate on the death penalty and he's basically saying, "I don't care if it's a deterrent, I want vengeance." I'd already compared him to the ayatollahs of Iran, and I'd said that Western democratic countries had all moved toward the abolition of the death penalty, and he sort of said those countries are maybe too civilized.

There was an important moment -- the exact quote is in the book -- where I asked him during a break, "Are you further right of Pat Buchanan?" He said, "Well, Buchanan is taking liberal democratic principles now. I was an Eisenhower Republican in the '50s and I've moved further right every year since." He's boasting about it. When I heard that, I thought to myself, there's no one close to that on TV who can say, "I was a Kennedy Democrat in the '60s and I've moved further left every year since." What you have on TV is usually the conservative Democrats debating the conservative Republicans.

Hazen: What about Roger Ailes? Is he a genius, or does he just happen to be in a lucky spot?

Cohen: I think it's both. He's a brilliant propagandist. He was brilliant when he had 30-second attack ads going after Dukakis, and he's brilliant now that he's got 24/7 handed to him by Rupert Murdoch, the right-wing media mogul owner of Fox. It's very lucky when someone who thinks visually, as Ailes does, and is skilled at political propaganda of the lowest common denominator, and a media mogul comes along and says, "OK, you run it." Obviously Ailes had no background in journalism.

Hazen: What about Rupert? He just paid half a billion dollars for MySpace, the most popular destination for young people on the web; he now owns satellite DirecTV. Why does Murdoch seem to be smarter than the rest of the media moguls?

Cohen: He's got a little more of a killer instinct, I think. He was one of the first to global, and he always understood that you have to go immediately for the centers of political power. He endorsed Carter over Ted Kennedy because he wanted something from Carter.