Review: You Are the Message

You Are the Message by Roger Ailes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had Roger Ailes book on communication on my to-read list for decades. I recall putting it on the list because I wanted to understand how Ailes worked so successfully with Ronald Reagan during his campaigns and presidency. In the abridged audiobook version of Ailes book, which I am reviewing here, there was little to no discussion of his Reagan years. Instead, you get plenty of Ailes' anecdotes about his "formative" years in mass communication and public speaking, much of that earned while producing "The Mike Douglas Show". Strangely, this was one of my favorite shows when I was in elementary school and I still have memories of watching it with my Mom when home sick or during breaks. I remember some of his old-school talk show guests, and, again strangely given Ailes work with politicians and subsequent work with Fox News, the examples he uses are those guests, including Pearle Bailey for prepping for an appearance and Jack Benny for playing a role when in the public eye. Ailes also uses himself for examples, including one about interviewing Charles Manson illustrating taking charge of a situation. There is the expected public speaking advice, but I appreciated his showbiz examples.

The abridged audio was less than an hour. I am usually disheartened by abridgments, as cuts in abridging really can destroy plots. In this book of public speaking anecdotes and advice, you can't really tell what is missing, so this is a good book to abridge. Also, this abridgment was done with the concepts of the book in mind, especially to put your best face forward when speaking to the public. Here, this is accomplished through professional narration, multiple speakers including a number of interviewees, and strong production values that made this sound like a heavily funded radio program. You might also say this sounds like it was the soundtrack of a TV production, aimed at being concise yet friendly. For the time investment, I found this quite interesting.

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