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.

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.

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.

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.