Fox host Ainsley Earhardt didn't just eulogize Roger Ailes, she all but suggested he should be memorialized on Mt. Rushmore.
I do not like to speak ill of the dead and I do sympathize with the Ailes loyalists who have been reeling for almost a year since his ouster in the wake of sexual harassment allegations. Who could not feel for Fox News’ Janice Dean as she sobbed on air after the news of Ailes’ death was announced, then explained his kindness after diagnosis of multiple sclerosis?
However, one should not deny that the network that Ailes started became a cesspool of sexual harassment, racism and divisiveness. James Murdoch, CEO of the parent company is reportedly embarrassed by the network. That's not counting Ailes' own predatory behavior.
But Earhardt’s eulogy could have been written by Ailes himself:
EARHARDT: Roger believed in hard work … Many people out there would say that he saved this country by starting the Fox News Channel.
[…]
He went out in such a sad way but who doesn’t have sins, we all have our sins, we all have our cross to bear and Roger I will love you forever.
Earhardt closed by saying, “I hope that you rest in peace, Roger, and I hope that you are at peace.”
I will go along with that last part. The man's life ended in disgrace and I doubt the $40 million he received in severance was enough to erase the pain.
So I harbor no malice toward Ailes nor his family but I won’t pretend he was something he was not, either.
Watch Earhardt below, from the May 18, 2017 Fox & Friends.
Sorry, but I don’t mind speaking ill of the dead if they really, truly deserve it, like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, my mother-in-law.
Remember in Ghost, when the two bad guys were killed and as their ghosts rose from their bodies, they turned around and found themselves horrified upon being dragged to down to hell by growling, snarling little demons?
I picture that look on Ailes face as he’s disappearing.
I know one thing, Charon’s gonna need a bigger boat if he thinks he’s going to float Ailes across the Styx.
I know, I know, I will burn in hell for posting this.
It is not a matter of speaking ill of the dead to note the destruction this man gleefully and willfully visited upon this nation and the world. It would speak ill of the dead to not be mindful of the many people in nations around the world who suffered in horrifying and cruel ways as a result of his behavior. The body count is truly staggering, if you include the vicious legacies of the Nixon, Reagan and W Bush foreign and domestic policies – and all of that was celebrated, promoted and very much made possible by the work of one Roger Ailes.
It is not a matter of speaking ill of the dead to note that this man happily promoted divisiveness and viciousness as a way of life, cheapened the public discourse in the United States, and championed the most hateful elements of society in spreading vile racist and misogynist sentiments – and simultaneously emboldened the worst among us to not only behave as childish bullies but also somehow take pride in that behavior.
It is true that this man ended his life in disgrace, but one doubts he would ever have acknowledged it. In the same way that Bill O’Reilly now petulantly insists that some grand conspiracy caused him to act so horribly as to become a liability to even an organization like Fox News, Ailes similarly never took any responsibility for his behavior. (I note that O’Reilly is now so desperate for public acclamation that he is frantically taking a regular slot on Glenn Beck’s failing radio show. One presumes he is doing so to warm the seat for Ted Cruz, who should wind up there in the next few years, as soon as he is either voted out of office or chooses on his own to go to punditry as a profession – like Jason Chaffetz just did.)
Weep not for Roger Ailes, or even for his family, which enjoys untold millions reaped from the horrors he willfully inflicted upon this world. It is said that the true measure of a person’s life is whether they made the world a better place by their having lived in it. The notion of leaving the campground a little cleaner than when you arrived there. If we apply that measure to Ailes and his life, it is a sad truth that he left the world an angrier, nastier and more divided place – as a direct result of his willful actions. He personally profited from these actions and was proud of them. He is no more worthy of anyone’s sympathy, even at this time, than any other public malefactor.
We should absolutely remember Roger Ailes, and we should remember what he did in life. And we should remember that the continuing viciousness of Fox News and the Right Wing of this country owe much to Ailes. We can mark his passing, but there is no cause to mourn him.
In a way, I despise her less than the vast majority of her colleagues who are there for the limelight and the filthy lucre, with no regard for principles, self-respect or the calamitous damage they have inflicted on the fabric of America.
Correct. He saved it from facts, logic, science, actual journalism, mature political debate, equality among the sexes, anti-racial discrimination, anti-xenophobia, anti-homophobia . . .
.
They are the ‘libtard’ haters who can’t get the first whiff of Trump lying, incompetence or corruption. On cue, they parrot the Fox News meme if you’re conservative and you don’t agree with the news it’s all a bunch of liberal lies, fake news. If you don’t believe it, it isn’t true. How convenient.
I agree with Ellen. My default is to not speak ill of the dead. That said, there are some people who are fundamentally a cancerous rot on America or the world so it’s unseemly to not expose them for what they are.
I have many dear friends who are Fox News addicts. They’ll write me off as a liberal hater. But realize until I witnessed Rush Limbaugh’s short-lived TV show – Roger was one of the producers – I voted reliably Republican. That ended when after watching a show or two in horror until Rush compared blacks to monkeys in a zoo. No kidding. No exaggeration. That was the end of the GOP for me.
So I have a long history with Roger. Longer than his gig at Fox News creating a propaganda factory which today divides America and has released a wave of toxic populism resulting in neo-fascist Trump.
I stick by what I said before: I piss on Roger’s grave. Good luck in Hell convincing Satan to vote a straight Republican ticket, Roger. 👿