Would you like to blame Bill Gates for Roger Ailes creating Fox News? You could harbor that grudge if you so desired after watching Alexis Bloom’s bracing biopic documentary “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” because it’s one of the fascinating tidbits of speculative psychology in the grand narrative of a dark-hearted, power-thirsty mogul’s stranglehold on our divisive political discourse.
It seems that in the mid-90s, flush from his many years helping Republican candidates like Mitch McConnell get elected, Ailes was content to be a talk-show magnate, running his brainchild America’s Talking, a CNBC spinoff network that was the first real attempt to launch an all-chat-show channel with a wide audience reach. (Ailes hosted one of the shows, a celebrity interview hour.)
But when NBC partnered with Bill Gates to start MSNBC, they gave the software billionaire the transponder used for America’s Talking, effectively ending Ailes’ baby. Steamed and spiteful, according to the documentary, Ailes went straight to Rupert Murdoch and started his 24/7 assault on libtards (and truth) while continuing the ongoing harassment of women that would eventually sever him from his empire in 2016. Less than a year into the Fox-anointed Donald Trump presidency that defined his poisonous influence on America, Ailes died.
“Divide and Conquer,” built on interviews with associates, journalists and victims, doesn’t try to pretend Ailes invented Fox News purely out of revenge. Earlier we learn that when he was known as the media-savvy wunderkind who helped make Nixon TV-presidential in 1968, a memo circulated — thought to be written by Ailes — outlining an idea for “GOP on TV,” a way to send conservative-oriented news items to local stations around the country and bypass a critical mainstream press represented by the big networks. That idea never materialized, but when you look not only at Fox but also at the affiliate reach of right-leaning Sinclair Broadcasting, Ailes looks more and more like a guy destined to completely shape America’s media-political complex.
The America’s Talking story is just one juicy coloring in a clear-eyed documentary that indicates Ailes’ manipulative genius and epic paranoia were always there — they were just waiting for the perfect storm of money, power and communications expansion. And it happened a few times: When he joined the Nixon camp from his producing gig on “The Mike Douglas Show,” when he started spearheading effective lowest-common-denominator campaigns for Republicans and finally when he fell into Murdoch’s arms.
Austin Pendleton remembers his Warren, Ohio, schoolmate as “witty and intelligent.” His “Mike Douglas” colleague Kenneth Johnson remembers Ailes’ fascination with Leni Riefenstahl’s depiction of power in “Triumph of the Will,” and how he used its angles to make Nixon look heroic for a TV campaign special. By the time Ailes was turning Fox into the most successful of the news networks, he’d bought fully into an us-versus-them mentality. According to Alisyn Camerota, a former Fox host now on CNN, Ailes — who carried a gun and believed gay terrorists and Muslims were after him — thought there was a war between the American way of life and “evil.”
But the only evil in Ailes’ story that feels immediate and dangerous is his own behavior, illustrated in stories of people like interviewee Kellie Boyle, who recounts how a sexually rebuffed Ailes had her blacklisted when she was starting out as a political consultant. The biggest names on both sides of the Fox News culture-of-sexism issue — Gretchen Carlson, whose harassment suit helped bring Ailes down, and Bill O’Reilly, whose own allegations against him led to being ousted at Fox — aren’t interviewed, but their quickly rehashed stories here play like direct results of an objectification of women, and a power-mad mindset, that were longtime Ailes traits.
Bloom also dives into the Fox chairman’s quixotic, unwelcome attempt to take over the small upstate New York town he and wife Elizabeth had moved to, bringing the strategy in the movie’s title to a sleepy council election and the running of a local paper. The irony is too rich; the guy who made his name being able to read any room he was in for enemies and weaknesses couldn’t gauge how unwelcome his malicious tactics were in his own community.
There’s an attempt to evoke the later years of Charles Foster Kane in the worsening paranoia and battle-ready positions of Ailes’ old age. A couple of crisis consultants also spill the beans on his war room after Ailes’ victims went public, and even Glenn Beck describes a J. Edgar Hoover-like exchange with his old boss that sounds like power-through-blackmail was one of his trips.
None of this will probably surprise you, and it certainly won’t make you feel sorry for the most consequential media czar of the last few decades, whose ugly spawn continue to wreak unfair, unbalanced havoc on our electorate. But if you’re looking for a quick medicinal shot of how we got to Trump in the White House, the bracing “Divide and Conquer” feels like one of the more alarming civics courses you’ll ever take.
Timeline of Fox Sexual Harassment and Other Scandals, From Roger Ailes to Bill O'Reilly (Photos)
The sudden ousting of Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz and the suspension of Fox Business Host Charles Payne this week are the latest signs of a sea shift in the Murdoch-run entertainment giant in its response to allegations of sexual harassment and other questionable behavior by executives and on-air talent.
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July 6, 2016: Gretchen Carlson files lawsuit against Roger Ailes Former “Fox & Friends” anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, who denied her claims.
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July 9, 2016: Six other women claim Ailes harassed them Former Republican National Committee field adviser Kellie Boyle and model Marsha Callahan were among the six women who accused Ailes of previous harassment. Ailes denied the claims.
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July 19, 2016: Megyn Kelly says she was sexually harassed by Ailes Amid an external law firm’s investigation into the multiple claims against Ailes, then primetime host Megyn Kelly told investigators that she had been harassed by Ailes years ago. Kelly wrote in her memoir about talking to investigators about the allegations.
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July 21, 2016: Ailes resigns Fox News announced that Ailes had resigned as network chairman after two decades of dominating cable news, walking away with a $40 million severance package.
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Jan. 10, 2017: Bill O’Reilly settlement comes to light News surfaced that the “O’Reilly Factor” host had previously settled with Juliet Huddy, a Fox News employee who claimed he tried to derail her career after she rebuffed his romantic advances.
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March 8, 2017: Fox News settles with Tamara N. Holder Fox News paid former on-air contributor Tamara N. Holder more than $2.5 million following allegations that Fox News Latino vice president Francisco Cortes tried to coerce her into performing oral sex on him.
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March 24, 2017: Fox News comptroller Judy Slater sacked Fox News has fired longtime comptroller Judy Slater after an internal investigation concluded she had engaged in a pattern of racist comments and behavior; several of the employees later filed lawsuits against the network over the incidents.
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April 1, 2017: Claims against O’Reilly settled for $13 million A New York Times investigation found that O’Reilly and Fox News had paid $13 million in total to five women who had worked or appeared on “O’Reilly Factor” over the years and made claims of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior.
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April 3, 2017: Another lawsuit against Ailes and Fox News Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky filed a lawsuit accusing Ailes of sexually harassing her. She also alleged that Fox News co-president Bill Shine retaliated against her for making the claims. Ailes denied the allegations, and Shine declined to comment.
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April 19, 2017: Fox News cuts ties with O’Reilly Fox News announced that O’Reilly would not return to the network following its external investigation into claims of sexual harassment.
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April 21, 2017: Debbie Schlussel claims Sean Hannity invited her to his hotel Former Fox News guest Debbie Schlussel claimed that primetime host Sean Hannity had once invited her back to his hotel after an event they attended, and that she was never invited back to Hannity's show after she rebuffed his advances. The host denied the claims. Schlussel later clarified that she did not consider the encounter to constitute sexual harassment. "I thought he was weird and creepy," she told LawNewz.
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April 24, 2017: Andrea Tarantos files her own lawsuit Andrea Tantaros, a former host of the Fox show “The Five,” filed a new lawsuit against Ailes, Shine and other network executives, claiming that an extensive online harassment campaign had been waged against her. Fox News sought arbitration and called Tantaros “not a victim” but “an opportunist.”
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May 1, 2017: Bill Shine resigns Following Roginsky and Tarantos’ lawsuits, Fox News announced that Shine was exiting the network.
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May 19, 2017: Bob Beckel fired at Fox News Fox News fired “The Five” co-host Bob Beckel after he was accused of making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee. Fox News human resources took less than 48 hours to investigate the incident and recommend dismissal, a network executive told TheWrap.
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June 19, 2017: Investigation by the state of New York The New York State Division on Human Rights launched an investigation into Fox News, over her sexual harassment claims by former “O’Reilly Factor” guest commentator Wendy Walsh against O’Reilly, Walsh’s attorney Lisa Bloom said. O’Reilly has denied Walsh’s claims.
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July 3, 2017: Fox Sports fires Jamie Horowtiz Jamie Horowitz was abruptly ousted from his position as president of Fox Sports National Networks amid allegations of sexual harassment against Horowitz, an individual familiar with the matter told the New York Times. Horowitz’s attorney denied any misconduct.
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July 6, 2017: Fox Business suspends Charles Payne Charles Payne, the host of Fox Business’ “Making Money,” was suspended by the network due to an investigation over a three-year relationship with a married political analyst who appeared as a guest on Fox Business and Fox News, the Los Angeles Times reported. Payne denied allegations of sexual harassment, calling them an “ugly lie.”
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Here’s everything you need to know about accusations that the company has faced so far
The sudden ousting of Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz and the suspension of Fox Business Host Charles Payne this week are the latest signs of a sea shift in the Murdoch-run entertainment giant in its response to allegations of sexual harassment and other questionable behavior by executives and on-air talent.