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The Breakfast Meeting: The Royal Pregnancy, and Ailes\'s Offer to Petraeus

The news that Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, are expecting a baby brought wishes of congratulations from the British public and excitement among the country's news media outlets, who had a grand old time with their royal wedding in April 2011, Sarah Lyall writes. The confirmation by the royal family came early in the pregnancy because Ms. Middleton had checked into a hospital with “acute morning sickness.” Ms. Lyall writes:

Few people could be more excited than the editors of the newspapers and magazines that cover the royal family, who with any luck will have months of things to write about: What will it be, boy or girl? How fat will the duchess look in her pregnancy clothes? What is happening behind closed doors?

 

In spring 2011, a Fox News analyst visited David H. Petraeus in Afghanistan carrying a message from Roger Ailes, the head of the network: rather than accept the C.I.A. post, as Mr. Petraeus later did, he should insist on being named to the top military post, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or better yet, run against President Obama. The message was conveyed by Kathleen T. McFarland, a Fox News national security analyst, writes Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, who obtained a tape of the conversation.

  • Ms. McFarland laid out additional points: Mr. Ailes was offering to resign Fox News to run the campaign, and his boss, Rupert Murdoch would “bankroll it.” In an interview with Mr. Woodward, Mr. Ailes confirmed he had told Ms. McFarland to speak with General Petraeus: “It was more of a joke, a wiseass way I have. I thought the Republican field needed to be shaken up and Petraeus might be a good candidate.”

Michiko Kakutani on Tuesday reviewed “The Revolution Was Televised,” a self-published book by Alan Sepinwall, who writes the blog “What's Alan Watching?” The book's goal is to explain how and why a new golden age of TV (primarily cable TV, it should be said) came to be. These “great millennial dramas,” led by “The Sopranos,” but also “The Wire,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Mad Men,” and “Breaking Bad,” he writes, allowed TV to “step out from the shadow of the cinema.” Ms. Kakutani describes their qualities:

bold, innovative shows that have pushed the boundaries of storytelling, mixed high and low culture, and demonstrated that the small screen could be an ideal medium for writers and directors eager to create complex, challenging narratives with “moral shades of gray.”

Noam Cohen edits and writes for the Media Decoder blog. Follow @noamcohen on Twitter.