What Roger Ailes Really Thinks of Donald Trump

[applegrove]

What Roger Ailes Really Thinks of Donald Trump

By Eric Alterman at the Nation

http://www.thenation.com/article/what-roger-ailes-really-thinks-of-donald-trump/

"SNIP..............


Ailes engineered these results by having his hosts ask questions designed to elicit them. As Michael Tomasky noted at The Daily Beast, “Seven of Trump’s eight questions could fairly be called confrontational or at least challenging. Five of Bush’s six were the same; maybe all six. Three of Walker’s seven. And just one or at most two of Rubio’s. And even those were only mildly so.” Kasich, meanwhile, benefited not only from his home-court advantage—and sustained applause for answers that would have brought boos in a Tea Party–dominated audience—but also from similarly sympathetic questioning.

Ratings were through the roof. With more than 24 million viewers, the debate was seen by more than three times as many people as any previous primary debate and more than almost any other cable show ever, not including sports. But boosting ratings and support for the party’s best candidates were second-order ambitions for King Roger. The first was to destroy Donald Trump. (Fox had been championing Trump before the debate, but Roger can build them up and Roger can tear them down.) Ailes set out to accomplish this task in stages. First, the moderators asked Trump whether he would promise to support the GOP’s nominee without reservation; he would not. Second, the moderators, especially Megyn Kelly, asked a series of hostile questions—with even more hostile follow-ups—that goaded the buffoonish billionaire into responding with dishonest and dismissive answers. Inarguably, Trump was set up to implode on contact.

Others fell into similar traps. Chris Christie told a fantastic story about his emotional reaction to having been New Jersey’s US Attorney on 9/11—even though Bush did not nominate him until months later. Rubio insisted he “never advocated” exceptions to abortion restrictions—even though he cosponsored legislation with exceptions for rape, incest, and cases where the mother’s life is in danger. I could go on, but truth was hardly the point here.

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In the aftermath of the debate, Trump shocked the pundits once again by turning Fox’s audience against it and forcing Ailes to sue for peace. Sure, he calls Mexicans “murderers,” mocks John McCain’s time in a POW camp, and makes misogynist comments in response to accusations of misogyny. But every time the pundits predict his demise, the polls push him higher and higher. Could it be that Ailes and company—cheered on by the likes of Bruni et al.—have created a Frankenstein (or, more accurately, a Fox-enstein)? Hooray, indeed. •



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[applegrove]

1. "a Fox-enstein" LOL!

[Fred Sanders]

2. I have zero concern about Trump amounting to anything more than the current empty suit...the

mass media can go fuck themselves after they admit they are just fucking with us.

[applegrove]

3. I can't wait for Trump to school the GOP base on the wonders of canadian style health care. They are

listening to him.

[Octafish]

4. Ailes Luvs Aryans.

Ailes was “a big fan” of Leni Riefenstahl, for one.



His boss, Lord Rupert, for another.

[applegrove]

5. Who was she? Hitler's documentarian?

[TreasonousBastard]

6. A brilliant filmmaker who worked for Hitler...

destroying her reputation by doing Reich propaganda, although no one seriously accuses her of being a Nazi.

If anything, she was probably more naive than anything else-- making "Triumph of the Will" for art's sake, not thinking much of the consequences.

[Octafish]

7. Hitler's Hagiographer.

Glorified der Smirkelgrueber and the rallies for all the world to see. Seems to have had a lasting effect, going by the postwar success of fascists, warmongers and banksters.