Roger Ailes biographer says that Fox news has a "crumbling foundation" and cannot survive without Ailes at the helm.

Courtesy of Salon:

Salon: You write that Ailes has been “essentially running the Republican Party …” Why Ailes and not, say, Mitch McConnell, or Jim DeMint, or Rush Limbaugh, or Rubert Murdoch?

Gabriel Sherman: I think Ailes has surpassed the Republican Party. Fox is driving the set of stories and the mission in a way that – it’s not that Ailes is doing it to help the Republican Party, Ailes has his own agenda. He is bigger than the Republican Party. He has a meeting, which I report on in the book, and he expresses disdain for the Republican Party — he jokes at one point that the GOP couldn’t organize a one-car funeral. So you know, to your question, why Ailes and not somebody else, I think because there is just a legitimate power vacuum in Republican politics. I mean, the biggest power center on the right in American life right now is Fox News. It is the toll booth that Republican politicians have to go through to speak to Republican primary voters. And Ailes has created an empire that effectively controls the message on the right. That’s why I write about him being the closest thing we have right now in American politics to a party boss.

Salon: You describe Ailes’ building what his brother called a “panic room,” underneath his house, suspecting people of being spies, and believing Michelle Obama was threatening his safety when she said she was surprised to see him at an event. Do those anecdotes reveal something about Fox News as well as Ailes?

Gabriel Sherman: I think they are directly related to the culture of Fox News. I set out to write a book about Fox News. And very early on in my reporting three years ago, I realized the story of Fox News is the story of Roger Ailes. The network is a total reflection of his worldview. The paranoia, the conspiracy, the humor, the charisma. You can’t write about Fox or Ailes without acknowledging that he has the timing and the range of a comic. I mean, he’s hilarious. But all of those elements of his personality are part of what winds up on the screen on Fox. But also, most importantly, how the organization is run. The paranoia. I mean, I can’t tell you how many people I spoke to said something along the lines of, If Ailes knew I was talking to you he would kill me, or my life would be ruined if it got out that Ailes knew I was helping you with your book. And so I wanted to show [how] this conspiratorial world that Ailes has created for himself is also sort of a metaphor for the style of politics that has become so pervasive on the right — this fear of outsiders and this paranoia that has been dominant, that the GOP since 2012 has been making a vocal effort to change. But I don’t think it will change as long as Fox News continues to be programmed by a man who has this worldview. 

A little further down the page was this portion which I found especially interesting:

Salon: You mention “post-election tweaks” at Fox, and you end with the observation that “every show has its run.” Where is Fox News headed?

Gabriel Sherman: I write at the end of the book with a bit of sadness for Roger Ailes; it’s the human story, and the incredible journey that he had through show business, politics and now television news. And Ailes is 73. He is trying to re-create an America that doesn’t exist anymore. And one could argue it never existed. 

And I see both him and Fox — you know, he is presiding over an empire that has a crumbling foundation. And it still is very much an empire, but the underpinnings holding it up are weakening. 

And Ailes is clinging to power. So you can never predict when that end will come. But what has made Fox News powerful is speaking to a part of America that has continued to get older and older. And the time will come when that audience is no longer there to program to.

I have read a number of excerpts from, and interviews about, this book and it never fails to please me on a rather visceral level. 

If Sherman is right, and I actually think he makes good sense, then Fox News as an entity which can control policy within the GOP or exert control over elections has a shelf life, and we will soon see a day when they reach their expiration date and become simply another cable news channel battling for viewers. They may also become one that might be forced to report actual news in order to compete with the other cable news outlets since they will no longer be the seat of power for a political party in this country.

The question then is, what happens to the Republican party after Ailes is no longer able to run the network?

Do they also become less partisan?

Do they gain back control over their members?

Do they finally split into two different parties?

I actually don't have any idea. Looking forward to finding out though.