Dean Jepson: Ailes’ firing too late to save us from monster he helped create
How ironic that Roger Ailes is being fired now. After spending decades developing his brainchild, Fox News, into America’s most effective propaganda machine he doesn’t get to take his final bow with his Frankenstein creation – Donald Trump.
In discussing the power of TV with Richard Nixon in the ’70s, Ailes felt it was a perfect medium to form political zombies. His reasoning was, “People are lazy. With television you just sit-watch-listen. The thinking is done for you.” He couldn’t have been more astute.
Denouncing all things progressive and scientific; using ambiguous statistics; promoting misconceptions; recreating history; and outright lying to an audience in which 25 percent never finished high school has culminated in this year’s GOP presidential candidate. Donald Trump is a megalomaniac who suddenly wants to help the middle class; an authoritarian who avoided military duty, but is willing to send young American soldiers into harm’s way. He is Vladimir Putin’s patsy, who knows weak minds want to obey perceived strength. Trump’s lack of geo-political awareness could destabilize the world.
Some say Trump doesn’t want to win this election, and upon closer inspection, maybe Ailes chose to separate himself from the monster he created.
Dean Jepson, Turlock
This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Dean Jepson: Ailes’ firing too late to save us from monster he helped create."