Divide and Conquer

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 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.

Some of the negative reviews are purely out of fans of the network he created and that it wasn't a favorable view of either. But what should make it more broadly interesting to all but the most fringe fans of his work is that it goes to the history of the man behind the curtain and the start of the channel that changed cable news forever as well as the fall of the creator.

While partisanship is discussed what makes this worthwhile is the character study that goes beyond it. The focus is more about power, trust and a need for importance. What makes this a stellar documentary is that it doesn't get into the weeds about the politics more than necessary to show the person. While you shouldn't expect to like the character study, the man himself said 'I don't need any more enemies I have enough as it is.'

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.

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.)