Riveting ... By no means an ideological critique of Fox. Wolff is well aware of the network’s journalistic shortcomings, but the topic does not really interest him; indeed, one of the book’s funnier throughlines is the author’s digressive scorn for other media reporters ... It makes for an entertaining read. Wolff is interested in power and personalities, and in The Fall he offers countless lacerating portraits of the latter, and their variously effective efforts to obtain and deploy the former
A prologue in the form of a deadpan mock obituary — by far the most sober and judicious stretch of pages in this cornucopia of innuendo and convoluted prose — sets up a headlong tumble through 18 months of uncertainty and upheaval at Fox News and among its custodians in the Murdoch family ... It’s not that he thinks Fox (or Trump) is a joke, but rather that his professed ability to suspend political judgment allows him to be amused by the inner workings of power rather than appalled by its outer manifestations ... He doesn’t rely on clearly individuated anonymous sources either. Instead, assertions of fact and judgments of character emerge through a hazy collective consciousness ... The real subject of The Fall is the schism between the former president and the network that had served as his de facto propaganda arm ... The dirt-dishing and tea-spilling makes for queasy fun, and the clash of big personalities is diverting, but compared to the gaudy circus of Trumpworld, this show feels a little tame.
Wolff’s prediction that Murdoch’s death will signal 'the end of Fox News' is shaky, since his own book shows again and again how Fox succeeds not because of Rupert Murdoch but in spite of him ... Wolff has been embedded in the trenches of Fox for a while, surfacing with a haul of filthy quotes and anecdotes sewn together with casually insulting insights ... Perhaps because there is no believable end to Fox in sight, the book’s conclusion feels rather weak.
I am for you, dear readers, that friend who reads a poor book about television on your behalf so you can pretend at dinner parties that you have read it. This book chronicles the recent history of Fox News and its relationship with the Murdoch family. An important subject. Without the support of Murdoch and Fox, there may well have been no President Trump. A good subject but not, sadly, a good book ... As a journalist I look for evidence that what I am reading is true. But here, where I wanted sources, I got unattributed gossip. Entire conversations between the Murdochs and their apparatchiks are recorded without the reader being given supporting evidence ... The book we need, the book that would be worth you spending several hours reading, would be one that does indeed take Fox News seriously because of its role in undermining public trust in the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Impressionistic, gossipy, rich in conclusive statements that arrive unburdened by attribution, and doesn’t feature an index ... There are no major or shocking revelations this time round, but instead psychological portraits of the main characters in Murdoch’s American business ... No one emerges from these pages with much credit. It is like an unfunny version of Succession ... On a basic level it’s a very old story – one of immense greed and its corrupting influence – but Wolff modernises it with endless layers of psychological insight that become a little repetitive and redundant.
