Divide and Conquer

source: Divide and Conquer

This was really well done. We all know the stories of how Ailes was taken down for harassment, but this doc shined a light on his notable (if somewhat horrific) contributions to media as we know it now. I was surprised to learn that his first cable channel eventually became MSNBC (which most likely pushed him to further extremism) and that he bought up a small town paper in his town for reasons that are slightly unclear here. I would have liked to have learned more about the other ex-wives (and the "assistant" who seems to fall off the radar once Ailes marries his third and final wife.... Liz stood by her man until the bitter end). I feel sorry for these strong shouty newswomen who continue to be used by Fox News but hopefully the climate of harassment has changed to allow them a safe workspace. I believe in their right to say it, but not how they say it. (also magical is the fact that "gender queer monster drag" actor Babette Bombshell portrayed Ailes in reenactments.)

If only this kind of behavior was behind us and finally relegated to history. His father did the damage and Roger took it out on Americans and especially women. This movie demonstrates how gullible a large part of our populace has become. How sad that men in power have led people to become so hateful towards others. Watching, I remembered how the women had to fight to be understood. The legal system did a lot to shield a lot of those evil men.

Pretty basic Roger Ailes documentary largely focused on his quirks and weird right-wing ideas. As most of this stuff on Roger Ailes it makes him out to be that crazy guy with some genius ideas about how to entice conservatives. So not quite evil nor great. But he is important. It's a good doc for sure. It's just not really a topic or person I'm that fascinated by. Roger Ailes to me just seems a bit too biased to be a great man. The doc is negative, as predicted, but not over the top initially. At the end it goes into some nasty theories about Fox News STILL being a place of sexual harassment, but that's just mentioned as a proposed guess with zero proof whatsoever. This is after we learned that Rupert Murdoch kicked out Ailes just 2-3 days after finding out there were some fairly legit sexual harassment cases. There was clearly a zero tolerance policy on this from the top and they reacted swiftly. They even initially hired a law firm to carefully investigate all claims and interview a ton of women in the company just to see if the first story from Gretchen Carlson was valid. But then most American docs have this "doomsday" style to them where they exaggerate things somewhat just like Fox News itself did 10 years ago. Still, what I have learned from these docs on bad Republican people is that they are often fairly neutral because most are produced by progressives and Democrats and they already have the story they need so they don't need to invent new rumors. In this case they can just retell the story truthfully. At the end they just have a need to take a jab at Fox News itself as they largely don't hate Roger Ailes anymore. He used to be that "evil guy" in left-wing media. Now they admit he was just that crazy old guy and not some super evil psychopath. I guess biographical docs need to be made after a person has died. Overall it's quite fine. A critical looks at Roger Ailes. But frankly I think it would be way better if it was about Fox News and how it started and came about. That would be fascinating. Seeing all the shows being created. Looking into the drama. Seeing what aired when and what interviews they did. The interesting story is the one behind the scenes here. Roger Ailes is not Fox News. Fox News today is a very changed news network. Rupert Murdoch's sons are not conservative so they don't like his media companies that they are about to inherit and to a large degree already run. Their plan is to shut down Fox News or sell it. Or maybe push it more to the left still. It has become a news channel with way more varied opinions yet it's still clearly right-wing.

Fantastic documentary about the horrible life of mega-troll Ailes. His poor wife.. so many sexual assault and rape lawsuit settlements, which led to FAUX.. errr.. Fox News firing him and his death soon after. Ailes was one of the worst humans this country has ever seen. Pure evil. His bloated, obese body reflected the ugliness inside. What a sad, tragic, insecure man. The world is a better place without him in it.

This man was a piece of garbage. It doesn't matter what his political leanings were, although they were based in paranoia and ignorance. He was creative enough, and knew people well enough, to manipulate them. Fox News is based on fear. It's based on a yearning for something in the past that never was. This man created it. And now we have this documentary.

Typical cowardly left wing hit piece written by hack hollywood types after the man is dead of course.

This is nothing more than a staged Soros backed hit piece on a right wing genius. Filled with haters, has beens and wanna bes all claiming to know Roger. Sure. It's edited to make him look evil. And believe it or not, they actually take the leap and make him a Nazi sympathizer! Unreal. These clowns should never get money to make another film.

Good historical coverage of the rise of Fox News and it's personalities. Reinforced the notion that one major difference between conservative & liberal ideologies is that personalities gravitate toward either, the innate self interest that there should be no limit on what one can accumulate for oneself (Trump perhaps) vs. those who have a sense of material personal sacrifice for the greater good. Side note: Over the years I've, quite by accident, observed a high correlation between skinny, attractive blonde females and conservative media as coincidentally this documentary also seemed to find.

source: Divide and Conquer