joining me now, author zev chafets.reat to have you here. >> good to be here. >> lou: congratulations on the book. i want to start with calling roger ailes though most powerful man in america, how close to true is it? >> you know, this came up with -- when roger went to the white house for the christmas party. he was in the reception line and, the day before somebody else had called him that in print, and, so when he got to the president, obama sauid, he' the most powerful man in america and roger leaned into him and said, mr. president, don't believe that, i served that bs up myself. >> lou: which he might have done. >> probably did. >> lou: and also characteristic of roger to deflect. and to be self-deprecating. he is -- and i've had the privilege of working for a long time, in the business. there is no more feared executive in television news. i would say in television, period. and certainly, the news media, than roger ailes. >> he's feared and he's respected. give us a sense of the character that he reveals, as you

joining us zev chafets author of the new book "roger ailes off camera." to him this week and he said i pick zev to write this book. is this authorized biography? >> no, not at all. i had written a book about rush limbaugh and the roger ailes book was a logical continuation of that. i pitched the book to him and he said he wanted to do it. so, there we were. >> now, we just heard him say that he has as many liberals on fox news as he does conservatives, but you write that his liberals are there, by and large, for the same reason, you say, conservatives are at the other networks as foil and token. it's not exactly fair and balanced. >> i don't think it is fair and balanced at any of the networks or any of the news organizations, really, at this point. that's kind of a pretense that people who actually understand how media is done don't really believe. fox has a lot of very bright and very articulate and very good progressive people on it. but, there's no doubt that, for example, what i was writing about, if there is a group of, let's say, four people discuss

award-wing columnist and author zev chafets presents an inside look at the life of the president of fox news. in "chasing gideon: the elusive quest for poor people's justice," karen houppert chronicles the stories of defendants in criminal cases who ri lie on their constitutional right to a free attorney. she also recounts the history of gideon v wainwright. columnist w. james antholm in many his book, "devouring freedom." dan fagin examines a small new jersey town damaged by industrial pollution in "toms river." columbia university professor ira katz nelson discusses what his believes are the causes and consequences of the new deal in "fear itself: the new deal and the origins of our time." look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for the authors in the near future on booktv and on booktv.org. >> the simple fact is that we're all getting older together, and we're not the same, our fertility rates have dropped dramatically, and we're beginning to have an inverted pyramid that does not -- it makes our challenges as it relates to entitlements and social security even

award-winning columnist and author zev chafets with an inside look at the president of fox news in "rogerailes: off camera." in "chasing gideon," washington post magazine writer karen houppert chronicles the stories of defendants in criminal cases who rely on their constitutional right to a free attorney. she also recounts the history of gideon v. wainwright, the u.s. supreme court case that led to the extension of this right to indigent defendants in state criminal cases.