“How Fox News women took down the most powerful, and predatory, man in media”

It’s much worse than you think.

I’ll never forget my ex-wife telling me a close family friend was a dirty old man. We were in Vermont and Harry told Kim to twirl around, like Vanna White on “Wheel Of Fortune.” I grew up with the man, I thought he was harmless. But she knew…the iceberg was huge beneath the surface.

“New York” is a challenged magazine. Not long ago it went to every other week publication. It’s making headway with its website, but it’s fallen out of the national discussion, it no longer captures the zeitgeist, as it did in the Clay Felker years. But it’s not alone, the same thing can be said of “Rolling Stone,” all the rest of the mags run by old men who are protecting their print product despite all the action moving to the web. If you think that money is everything, then you know nothing. Roger Ailes was far less rich than Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, but he shaped the national discussion, he was far more powerful. And isn’t it interesting that Facebook is now a hotbed of news and Bezos bought the “Washington Post”? He who controls the dialogue owns America. It’s about hearts and minds, not wallets, which those who have no chance of earning what the Wall Street titans do would be smart to realize.

And speaking of Wall Street titans, “New York” was purchased by Bruce Wasserstein, Wendy’s brother, who made a fortune in banking but was always more interested in writing. He’s dead now, pursue your dream or come to realize you’ve wasted your life, or left too much on the shelf, even if you did get some spoils.

So we live in an era where everybody’s fighting for attention and as a result fewer messages are ultimately heard, certainly not at length. You know Hillary Clinton’s talk of “deplorables”? Turns out that was only half of the quote, read Charles M. Blow’s piece yesterday to find out that Hillary was lamenting the state of the disadvantaged:

“…but that other basket of people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t even really matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.'”

About the ‘Basket of Deplorables’

Bingo! If only those who felt Hillary didn’t care about them heard that. Here Hillary is saying the right thing, and that gives me hope.

But the story is only about her health.

We’re inundated with lists of articles to read. As if these wankers are providing a service. They’re not. Because I don’t click through, almost nobody does, and when they do they oftentimes find stuff written so poorly it’s unreadable.

But Gabriel Sherman’s article on Ailes is not unreadable, it’s RIVETING!

LOOKS

Good luck making it if you’re not beautiful. That’s all Roger was interested in, gorgeous women. If you played by his rules, which included touching, degradation and maybe even sex, not only could you get on the air, you could get a William Morris agent… And once you stopped playing ball, the opportunities evaporated. William Morris never called back. You lost your shift, your contract was not renewed.

CIRCLE THE WAGONS

Everybody’s afraid. Call it Michael Jordanism. The most famous athlete of the nineties, who refused to take a side because it might piss off some sponsors. Is that the American Way, being beholden to the man? I think it’s great football players are kneeling down for the National Anthem. It shows they’re THINKING ABOUT IT! Instead of my country right or wrong, a nation of groupthink, they’re cogitating and expressing an opinion. Good for them. Dialogue always illuminates the issues. Does wearing a flag pin make you a better American? Does saying “God Bless” in every speech make you righteous? Whenever people refuse to think different, to test limits, the country is doomed.

TALKING POINTS

The war on Christmas, gay marriage, Fox News set the agenda, quite consciously. And he with the biggest microphone wins the war. Because in a factless world we vote with our emotions, and we align with those we believe in, and believe everything they say. It’s scary that most people are unable to discern the truth, unable to analyze facts, but not as scary as the power of one man to sway our entire nation.

We have institutionalized sexual harassment. Baby boomers and Gen X’ers think it’s par for the course. And they’re too afraid to speak up. This is a more pervasive problem than rape, not to denigrate that crime, but the truth is the average male may not undress you, but he’ll ask for untoward favors and halt your progress in the organization and if you complain he’ll say something about it being your time of the month, even call you a whiny bitch. And if you push hard enough you might get a check, but along with that comes a nondisclosure agreement so tight that you can never talk about what happened, ever.

There is hope for the future. Millennials seem to be more enlightened. And the next Murdoch generation is not as right wing as the prior, never mind not blindly going along with anything that makes money.

And I believe the departure of Ailes will cripple Fox News. That’s the story of organizations, leaders make a difference. They usually cannot be replaced. And when they’re gone the operation falters. Because the leader, especially the founder, built the damn thing, and has a vision for how it all works out.

Respect those who’ve been to war and come back triumphant.

But don’t accept their success at face value. Dig deep. Look for the flaws. We’re all human, we all have foibles, and the more winners are torn down from the pedestal the more they’ll be humanized and will worry about what the public thinks.

Roger Ailes nearly single-handedly moved the United States to the right. That’s the power of media, that’s the power of news.

Meanwhile, music and film keep chasing bucks instead of power. They can move mountains, sway opinions, but they’re too afraid of alienating one damn person.

Roger Ailes alienated plenty and he won.

Until he lost.

But there are so many other males in corporations who have not been caught. Whose bad behavior has been tolerated because coin has rained down.

That’s not enough.

Then again, if the average person knew how many corners were cut to achieve success… Play by the rules and you lose, cheat and you win.

But that does not mean we can’t push back.

And we can start by pushing back against sexual harassment.

Jews know not to tolerate anti-semitism, they speak up, challenge people whenever they see it and are despised for it.

But let the Jews be a beacon. The oppressed have to stand up for their rights, they have to cry foul.

And, oh yeah, Roger Ailes made anti-semitic remarks too.

We’re all victims here.

We all need to inform ourselves and stand up for what’s right.

We can start by reading this article.