Zev chafets biography definition

This is not about politics. (Indeed, it’s not only conservatives he does this to: his profile of San Antonio mayor Julián Castro is overwhelmingly positive, and also features the subject’s mother talking about how she hates the Alamo.) Chafets, who was born William Chafets but took the name “Zev” when he moved to Israel decades ago, says he is a liberal who would have voted for Barack Obama both times. “He is the kind of guy who will always be contrarian,” said his good friend the writer Michael Kramer. “If he’s among a group of people whom you would define as right-wing, he’ll go way over to the other side. He’s a delight to talk to because of that.” Chafets's book on the Baseball Hall of Fame argues that players whom we believe or even know used illicit performance-enhancing substances should not be barred entry. Friends additionally describe a boisterous, big personality. It is not difficult to see how he could have been seduced by similar personalities once they were his subjects, politics aside. “You can’t think of an issue on which I don’t disagree with those guys—except Israel,” Chafets said, “those guys” being Fox News. “I’m not a right-winger, and right-wingers aren’t stupid enough to mistake me for one.” They are, however, evidently smart enough to recognize him as a friendly profiler. 

Partly, one imagines, Chafets does this for the gig. More than once he mentioned that a prime goal was, well, to sell books. A sympathetic, access-driven profile of a conservative in the mainstream press can birth a self-fulfilling niche. Limbaugh confirmed that he agreed to cooperate for the book after reading the profile, and that he had agreed to the profile after reading Chafets’ iconoclastic New York Daily News columns from the beginning of the last decade. 

But Chafets’s apolitical style is also the result of a distinct journalistic philosophy. “I think it’s all entertainment,” he argued. “I think reporters who go out on news stories know what th

In an upcoming biography of Fox News president Roger Ailes, author Zev Chafets reports that Ailes hasn't donated to any Muslim charities, and connects that decision to comments tying all Muslim charities to terrorism. Ailes' brand of Islamophobia is mirrored in Fox News' coverage, which has repeatedly tried to connect all Muslims and Muslim institutions with terrorism.

In his new book Roger Ailes: Off Camera, an early copy of which was obtained by Media Matters, Chafets describes Ailes' charitable giving as being spread among a variety of religious charities. Despite giving to charities of various faiths, Chafets reported that Ailes has not given to any Muslim charities, quoting Ailes as saying he would only support those organizations “if they disarm” (emphasis added):

“I've been kicked out of every damn church I've ever belonged to,” says Roger Ailes. It is a buccaneer's boast, meant to convey a hard-core irreverence. Ailes is not, by any means, a conventional born-again Christian of the Mike Huckabee variety, let alone Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. He wouldn't use the word himself, but he is ecumenical. He donates considerable sums each year to a small Protestant church near his home in Garrison, although he is not on its membership rolls. He donates upward of 10 percent of his net income to charities, many of them religious, including an annual fifty grand to the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and another fifty grand to Catholic charities. He told me he'd be glad to give to Muslim charities, too, “if they disarm.”

The implication that all Muslim charities are connected to terrorism is in line with the Islamophobic rhetoric that regularly appears on Fox News. Fox hosts and guests have a long history of invoking terrorism to attack Muslims and Islam:

• In an appearance on ABC's The View, Fox host Bill O'Reilly declared “Muslims killed us on 9-11.” O'Reilly used the claim to justify his opposition to a planned Islamic community

In mid-January 2012, Roger Ailes skipped out on his duties at Fox News to attend a basketball game. The contest featured his 12-year-old son, Zac, who plays for his Upper East Side Catholic boys’ school. Ailes, in a folding chair along the sideline, was dressed in his work clothes: black suit, starched white shirt, gold tie clip, and matching cuff links. His hair was slicked back and a pair of bifocals perched on his nose. The overall effect was that of a formal, somewhat forbidding small-town banker in a Frank Capra movie.

Ailes is past 70 and looks it, especially when he tries to walk on his bum leg. The other parents were young enough to be his children. But Zac is his only child, and perhaps the only person who could lure Ailes away from his office on a Wednesday afternoon. This was the third game of the season, and he had been there every time.

As we waited for the tip-off, Ailes ran down the roster. “Our guys,” he called them. Zac was easily the tallest kid on the team, and when the action commenced, his father encouraged him to take advantage of it. “Don’t get boxed out,” he shouted. “Use your height. Hands up on defense!” Zac hit the first shot of the game, and Ailes clapped loudly and shouted his approval. But Zac’s team, wearing red, was no match for the other school’s. As they fell behind, Ailes grew tense, barking instructions at his son and the rest of the team, but the advice wasn’t helping. During a time-out he extracted his BlackBerry for a quick peek at the standings. “Let’s see if Fox News is still on the air,” he said.

Back on the court, Zac caught a stray elbow to the eye. “Shake it off,” Ailes yelled. “Rub it out! Back on defense! Get all over them! Come on, fellas, show some heart!” But sometimes heart isn’t enough. At the final buzzer the score was 29–10. The boys headed for the locker room, but Ailes motioned for Zac, who loped over. “You made a couple of mistakes out there,” he told the boy. “You threw that one ball away. And you misse