This is the night Fox crossed the line

between where the network ends

and President Trump begins.

And I’m going to tell you how we got here.

“America, you have the power.

Tomorrow, you can shock the world again.”

“Hello everyone. We are out here live on Facebook

at President Trump’s rally in Cape Girardeau.”

This is not just any rally.

It’s the night before a historic midterm election.

Control of Congress, the future of Trump’s presidency,

it’s all on the line.

Missouri is a key battleground.

And team Trump is pulling out all the stops

to fire up the base.

This is the birthplace,

the hometown of Rush Limbaugh.

There’s no more sacred ground in conservative media.

“What an honor. This is so exciting!

I have been watching Trump rallies” —

Lo and behold, word goes out,

Sean Hannity will be among the presenters.

Well, that would be astonishing.

Mind you, this is the top person

in all of cable news — Fox News’s PR department,

their phones are ringing off the hook.

Sean Hannity is supposed to be like an opinion columnist.

Fox allows him to take great liberty,

but he still has to, at least, abide

by some measure of news standards.

Talent for a news organization should not

be openly campaigning with a candidate.

It erases any line between the news organization

and the campaign.

Hannity completely denies it, tweets out:

“I will not be on stage campaigning with the president.”

He says he’s just covering the final rally for his show.

“Sean Hannity, come on up, Sean Hannity.”

That one small step for Sean Hannity

would be a giant step for the network that

pledged to make the news “fair and balanced.”

So, how did we get to this moment?

It all started with an Australian media mogul

who wanted to take on the world.

Rupert Murdoch, from the minute he steps ashore

in the United States in the ’70s,

is all about upending the elitist news environment.

He wants to blow up the entire media system here.

“With a publishing empire

in New York alone, that includes The Post,

New York Magazine, Village Voice.”

Murdoch’s expanding his empire in the United States

just as a new right-wing radio star enters the scene.

“Rush Limbaugh, talent on loan from God.”

Rush Limbaugh is a national hit — he is huge.

“That’s more like it!”

Limbaugh is a game changer

for the conservative base.

But what Limbaugh doesn’t have is the gravitas

of a news operation.

Murdoch sees a big opportunity and he

finds the perfect accomplice.

“I’m here with Roger Ailes,

who has been called the Ernest Hemingway

of campaign advisers.”

Roger Ailes was in the Nixon White House.

He knows Watergate happens because The Washington Post,

this beacon of credibility, this mainstream news

organization, takes down a president.

Ailes and Murdoch want

that kind of power.

They start in 1996.

The two men make their pitch to the base.

“So, what will our Fox News be?

It will be different

and it will be fair,

because it has to be.

Because a very large audience is begging it to be.”

“On the record. Fair and balanced.”

There was a brilliance to it.

We are fair and balanced because the others aren’t.

This makes us different.

It’s a bullhorn, not a dog whistle, to those people who

have felt left out by the news conversation.

This is for me.

For a long time,

they’re struggling to get any notice.

And then, they get a gift:

the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

It’s a salacious story tailor-made for Fox.

“Get ready with your clicker to turn your volume up.”

It gripped the base and starts to solidify their audience.

“The president’s on trial.

Our team will keep you informed.”

And everything flows from there.

“On the ground in Lower Manhattan.”

“Strike happened shortly after dark.”

They established their news division.

“Are American policies too strict or not strict enough?”

And that news division gave heft

to their commentariat.

— “Since the April deadly shooting”

“They’re gonna go after the guns.”

“Yes.”

Ailes also newsified his commentators.

“Those who want reparations for slavery are misguided.”

“Should people who illegally sneak into this country

be given a free ride?”

Sean Hannity, he’s not just in a studio in a Lacoste shirt

talking to a microphone.

It’s a news desk.

It has flashing headlines.

It’s got all the accoutrements of news.

“We can get you to jump in and listen to Hillary.”

For many years, it was fair and balanced.

“So, let me go back to the single mother issue here.”

Hannity would square off against a liberal named

Alan Colmes.

“They hate the nuclear family.”

“Liberals hate the nuclear family?”

“Let him, let her finish her point.”

“Yeah, would you stop interrupting?

I’m trying to make a point here.”

“I lost my head.”

But let’s face it,

he got his butt kicked on almost every debate.

It was fair and balanced on the surface.

But there was a lot more at play underneath it that tilted

the scales to the right.

It’s the secret of their success.

“This is a Fox News alert.”

We’re a news organization like anybody else.

And we’re going to tell you those other news

organizations are wrong.

They’re lying to you.

“These people are not journalists.

These are not news channels.

What you just saw is nothing but left-wing propaganda.”

“This was a retweet” — “All right, whatever it is.”

“And it came from sources” — “I told you whatever it is,

you shouldn’t tweet, ever!”

One thing you have to do if you

want to run for president as a Republican,

it is believed you must visit

Rupert Murdoch at the Fox headquarters

in Midtown Manhattan.

You have to inform him of your plans.

So, Trump informs Rupert that he is running for president.

And Rupert is eating soup.

And as we hear this story,

he doesn’t even look up from his soup.

Rupert is not ready to buy into the idea of a Trump

presidential run, let alone, a Trump presidency.

Ailes has the same reaction.

And the sentiment comes through loud and clear.

Trump’s getting pounded on Fox.

“Loser?”

“Loser is Trump, who seems to think

this campaign is about him.”

“It is simply bad anti-terror policy

to overreact and prohibit Muslims, even if you could,

which you can’t!”

“I find him offensive.”

“I don't think you’re a first-time offender making

a personal crack at a woman.”

“I just think that belief in Trump is misplaced.”

It would drive Trump crazy.

And he would call Ailes and yell and it gets to the point

where Trump’s own staff has to try to keep him away

from the television.

And then there’s the bitter proxy war with Megyn Kelly.

It begins on the national debate stage.

“You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs.”

Trump is furious.

“You know, you could see there was blood coming out

of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever.”

“This afternoon, Fox chief Roger Ailes demanding

Trump apologize for his latest Twitter tirade

against host Megyn Kelly.”

What it settles into is this really interesting

power struggle,

because Ailes doesn’t take orders from candidates.

“Before we get to the issues,

let’s address the elephant not in the room tonight.”

Trump doesn’t take orders from anybody.

“Donald Trump has chosen not to attend this evening’s

presidential debate.”

They both need each other.

Trump needs the Fox audience.

Fox needs Trump’s ratings.

So, there’s just this battle for control of effectively,

really the party.

“Donald Trump is the front-runner.”

Thirty seven percent to Kasich’s 34.”

“Trump is leading in Idaho.”

“All my money on Trump.”

Fox might have been hard on Trump, but it didn’t matter.

The base loves him.

It’s looking like Trump’s probably

on his way to becoming the Republican nominee.

“We rarely see black chips here at this table.”

Trump isn’t a Murdoch kind of guy in terms of temperament,

in terms of policy.

But Murdoch and Ailes have to make a choice:

Get behind Trump or risk losing

their base and their ratings.

“This is the great wall of Trump, I guess? I don’t know.”

In March 2016, Murdoch

sends a signal: He’s ready to get behind Trump.

He tweets out the Republican Party

would be quote, mad not to unify.

Over the course of several weeks,

you see the different parts of the Murdoch empire

get behind Trump.

“So, big news today is Donald Trump has agreed

to sit down with yours truly.”

The big moment comes when Megyn Kelly goes

to Trump Tower to make peace.

Trump visits Ailes for lunch

at the Fox headquarters and that’s another

breaking of the bread — the truce is complete.

“Roger Ailes, the architect of the Fox News Network” —

But a few months later, literally as Trump’s

cinching the nomination,

Ailes is ousted over sexual harassment allegations.

“Rupert Murdoch, who hired Ailes” —

Murdoch takes the helm.

He’s back in the newsroom.

He’s part of the action.

It’s just a wild, fun ride.

Through most of the summer,

everyone, including Trump, still

thinks that Clinton’s probably going

to win.

Rupert Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch’s sons,

James and Lachlan, all believe the true future

of the network is with a Megyn Kelly.

Someone who can be Trump critical —

“Mr. Trump is off base” —

and can appeal to sort of moderate centrist,

suburban Republican women and ideally, some independents.

They need to grow.

“Hillary Clinton has called Donald Trump

to concede the race.”

Trump winning starts to change this calculus dramatically.

And we start to see a shift in Fox’s primetime lineup.

“Donald Trump’s son” — Greta Van Susteren? Gone.

“He’s right here to go on the record.”

“I have decided to pursue a new challenge.”

Megyn Kelly, she lands a big job at NBC.

Gone. Bill O’Reilly’s also forced out

over sexual harassment allegations.

Suddenly, their primetime is far more pro-Trump

than it ever was under Ailes.

The new faces?

The hard-right commentator Tucker Carlson.

“Admit the world's poor they tell us, even if it

makes our own country poorer,