The Loudest Voice (TV Mini Series)

2009 (2019)

Emory Cohen: Joe Lindsley

Quotes 

• Brian Lewis : Look at this. Hot off the press, tomorrow's edition. Listen to this. "Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire, but others do. And a newspaper like the Times needs to be alert to them, lest it wind up looking clueless or worse, partisan."

  [laughing with Roger] 

  Brian Lewis : You son of a bitch. You did it.

  Joe Lindsley : What?

  Brian Lewis : Well, it's like a game, Joe. It's like baseball. See, first base, we find the ACORN story. Right? We put it out there.

  Joe Lindsley : Uh-huh.

  Brian Lewis : Second base, everyone else picks up the story. Our story.

  Joe Lindsley : But it's... it's a fake story. There is...

  Roger Ailes : Who said it was fake?

  Brian Lewis : Doesn't matter if it's real or fake. Third base, the New York Times, the paper of record, says that if a lot of people are talking about a story, it has to be important. And, real or not, they have to cover it. Finally, a Democratic Congress just defunded ACORN without a single investigation because of us. That's a home fucking run.

  Roger Ailes : We created that, Joe. We don't follow the news. We make the news. We're changing the world.

  Brian Lewis : I don't know about you guys, I'm getting a drink.

• Roger Ailes : Joe, I grew up in small-town America. I knew the names of all my neighbors. Never even thought to lock the door at night. I want Garrison to be that kind of town. But the people who live there...

  Beth Ailes : Liberals. Balding hippies.

  Roger Ailes : Let's just say, you know, they need to be educated.

  Joe Lindsley : Thomas Jefferson said, "Education is the only sure alliance for the preservation of our liberty."

  Beth Ailes : Oh, I love that.

  Roger Ailes : So?

  Beth Ailes : Are you interested?

  Joe Lindsley : In...

  Beth Ailes : Becoming our editor-in-chief.

  Roger Ailes : Garrison... is a microcosm of America. In these dark times, with this president, we gotta rebuild America from the ground up.

  Joe Lindsley : I am honored to help in any way that I can.

• Richard Shea : At least you used a flattering photograph. Richard Shea.

  Joe Lindsley : [shaking hands]  Um... Joe Lindsley.

  Richard Shea : Oh, I know. This is my son Bobby. Well, your boss knows how to raise a stink. It doesn't seem to matter if it's true or not.

  Joe Lindsley : I stand by our reporting.

  Richard Shea : I'm doing what's right for our community. The zoning statutes are a simple way...

  Joe Lindsley : An infringement on property rights. Did you know that the original draft of the Declaration of Independence talked about life, liberty, and the pursuit of property?

  Richard Shea : And then they re-wrote it.

  Joe Lindsley : The... look, my job is to report the issues.

  Richard Shea : Your job is to carry water for your boss. Ailes is just mad at me 'cause I wouldn't give him a zoning exemption.

  Joe Lindsley : That's not true. This is... this is an issue of...

  Richard Shea : Ask him.

• Roger Ailes : Read me what you got.

  Joe Lindsley : Um... "Richard Shea and his proposed scenic protection overlay is actually an assault on property rights. His misguided attempt at sustainable living is nothing more than socioeconomic cleansing, driving out local businesses at the behest of outside environmental activists."

  Roger Ailes : That's pretty good. Write this down, write this down. Um... "One aggrieved resident said, 'My family and my business are threatened by a special-interest group interfering with my private property rights'."

  Joe Lindsley : Who said that?

  Roger Ailes : I did.

  Joe Lindsley : Mr. Ailes, it's unethical to... to make up quotes.

  Roger Ailes : You're not making it up, Joe. I just said it. I said it. I'm a resident. I'm aggrieved.

  Joe Lindsley : It's really close to the line.

  Roger Ailes : Joe, lines... are for suckers. Throw the punch, put in the quote, and publish.

• Joe Lindsley : [bringing Roger his medical pills]  What are those for?

  Roger Ailes : Uh... clotting factor. I'm a hemophiliac.

  Joe Lindsley : Seriously?

  Roger Ailes : I wasn't supposed to live past my teens. Spent a lot of my childhood in hospitals. Hanging upside down trying to get the blood to flow. But my dad wouldn't hear it. Pushed me just as hard as any other kid. What about you? How do you get on with your old man?

  Joe Lindsley : My dad... wasn't into bonding. Sometimes he would come home... everything was just wrong. And I... I had to deal with that.

  Roger Ailes : My dad would reach for his belt at the drop of a hat. I'd cry and cry. It took me a long time to realize that crying wouldn't make him stop. He would keep going until I stopped crying. Know what it looks like when you beat a hemophiliac kid? It's not good. Eh. All for the best. Made me tough. Life is struggle, Joe. Never forget that. It's a fight, it's a con, it's a grudge match, and it's a game. The only important thing is... that you win. Why don't you get some sleep? You and I... we got a lot of work to do.

• Roger Ailes : Now, I bet you're sitting there thinking, "What the hell am I doing here?"

  Joe Lindsley : Uh, the thought had crossed my mind, sir.

  Roger Ailes : Well, now, you see, Joe, recently, Beth and I purchased a local newspaper upstate.

  Beth Ailes : In Garrison, where we live.

  Roger Ailes : The Putnam County News and Recorder. Now, I'm a TV guy. Don't know a damn thing about newspapers, so I reached out to Marty Singerman, and in turn, he reached out to you. And you put together that list of conservative editors that might run the paper. I liked that list a lot.

  Joe Lindsley : Thank you, sir.

  Beth Ailes : And you went to Notre Dame?

  Joe Lindsley : That's right. I started my own paper there because I felt the Notre Dame Observer skewed too liberal.

• Roger Ailes : I tell you, Joe, this story is gonna be huge.

  Joe Lindsley : Yes, but is it news?

  Roger Ailes : It's newsworthy. We report, they decide, remember?

  Joe Lindsley : But it's been manipulated. We can't even see the journalist in the room, it's selectively edited...

  Roger Ailes : Ah, maybe this is one of those moments when your idealism runs into a wall called knowledge. You trying to tell me you don't think the New York Times is selectively edited every single goddamned day? Hmm? Bias... is everywhere. That's the way it works. And we try and shine a light on corruption... anywhere we find it.

  Joe Lindsley : I guess.

  Roger Ailes : No. No guessing. No equivocation. That's the way it is. It's like your work with the paper. You've expanded that conversation. Now everybody in the town knows about Shea and his zoning issues. That's down to you. You got a big future in this business, son.

• Joe Lindsley : And it escalated from there. Other folks joining in, folks getting heated. I thought... I thought they were gonna call the cops.

  Roger Ailes : That Shea is such a drama queen.

  Joe Lindsley : He seemed like a nice guy.

  Roger Ailes : Oh, yeah, nice guy, like Stalin was a nice guy. Hey, he's got kids of his own. Didn't stop him butchering 40 million people.

  Zac Ailes : That's a lot of people.

  Beth Ailes : Roger.

  Roger Ailes : What? It happened. I'm supposed to say it didn't happen? Stalin, Russian. Bad people.

  Joe Lindsley : Shea seems to think that, um, the zoning issue is personal with you.

  Roger Ailes : Yeah, just like it is for every single citizen in this town. It's personal. You're shaking things up, Joe. Just like a newsman is supposed to. That's great.

• Roger Ailes : Listen to me, Joe. There is a whole world of people out there who don't know what to believe. They're so twisted up by the liberal media, they don't even know who the good guys are anymore. Now, you tell those people what to think, you've lost them. But if you tell them how to *feel*, they're yours. I started this network with nothing. Everybody just going around saying, "Roger Ailes, he's not a news guy, Roger Ailes is gonna fail," just laughing at me. Take a good look around this room. These people, they keep us on the air. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

  Joe Lindsley : But journalism...

  Roger Ailes : Is history. Yes, son. And history gets written by the winners. And we... we are winning.