When I saw the preview for Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, I absolutely knew that I would never watch it in a theater. I love supporting documentaries with one important exception. I do not pay to watch evil prosper. I can sadly do it for free. It is important to analyze evil so we can recognize it when it appears and stop it before it gains any traction so I think documentaries such as this one have value, which is why I decided to watch it at home and put it in my queue; however when a documentary’s subject focuses on such a contemporary figure, I think there is a danger that it can be seen as another reward for bad behavior even if the subject is dead because then it gives an excuse for his former associates to pretend as if they still have morals for critiquing him when they were more than happy to reap the benefits of evil when he was still alive. (I am looking at you, Glenn Beck.)
My mom, who is Christian fundamentalist, regularly listens to right wing talk radio and would make more dumpster fire television choices if we had cable, opted out of watching this documentary. My mom loves television and documentaries about famous people, but she had zero interest in watching Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes! My mom watched Where’s My Roy Cohn? while claiming not to remember who he was before watching the documentary. I wish that I asked mom for more detail regarding why she did not want to watch the one hour forty-seven minute documentary. Did she not know Ailes? Did she know and could not care less? Did she know and not want to watch it out of disgust? Fame should not matter, but I love the idea that somewhere Cohn is gloating and rubbing it in Ailes’ face that he is a nobody in spite of all his behind the scenes influence. Side note: Cohn and Ailes have one friend in common-Barbara Walters! TF! Today I asked my mom if she would watch it, and a global pandemic changed her mind; however I will not be watching it again.
I regret all my life choices. I made a big mistake thinking that I could watch Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes and not be annoyed the entire time. I usually love armchair psychology, but how is it my fault that his daddy was an allegedly psychologically abusive man, he did not get the psychological help that he needed and in turn became a paranoid, resentful, domineering bully. I weep for the wounded kid, but fuck that guy even in death for infecting the world with his issues. Oh no, he did not get to do the kind of work that he always wanted to do in front of the camera. Joan Rivers wanted to be an actor, but made the best of her life without literally destroying lives. Ailes looked at the doors, and consciously or not, decided to enthusiastically walk through the wrong door and hit all the rungs on Godwin’s law as he began his descent into madness. He faithfully studied Leni Riefenstahl. You cannot make this shit up. I can empathize only so much with a man that had so much time to do better and chose never to do so, especially a man whose network seemingly exists to dehumanize anyone vulnerable, including children. He was apparently a rotten neighbor—not a discernible redeeming quality as far as the eye could see.
Every person who appeared in Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes deserves to have that lady who rings a bell and shouted “Shame” appear whenever they are in public. I hate that each of these people had a chance to get in reasonable drag by speaking in low tones as if they were appearing on NPR, sitting still with understated backgrounds to make them appear more erudite or respectable then relay stories about that time that they were hanging out with Ailes, he does something evil, and they silently let it slide, but now they are horrified and clutching pearls at his behavior because they are decent human beings, not like him! In the next breath, they want to also let us know how charming, generous and great he was. No, you do not get to have it both ways. How come no one notices and calls out how bat shit someone is before that person dies? If there was any justice in the world, all these people deserve nothing but acrimony for enabling and benefitting evil to grow. In many ways, they are worse than Ailes because they claim that they knew better or rationalized why they could be friends with him even though he was a horrible human being. A special fuck you goes to the liberals in his life who still socialized with him and knew that he was destroying the world. All of you have blood on your hands for allowing evil to feel loved, welcomed and normal. You are the reason that the world is an awful place.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes shows without a doubt that Ailes was never coy or furtive about his foibles. He cultivated them, openly discussed them, acted on them, amplified them then solidified them in the real world so his reality could take form and possess space in other people’s lives. His similarities to Harvey Weinstein are retroactively obvious black lists, private security forces who spy on others except he was more transparent about it, which means that if he does have a good trait, it is his open allegiance to evil though he did his best to reclassify evil as good. I understand that the point of this documentary is to be as dispassionate as possible, and people who love Ailes dismissed it as left wing propaganda, but if it was left wing propaganda, then there would be satisfaction through confrontation. He is dead so it is not possible, but there is never a moment when the interviewees have to answer the question why they cosigned his behavior if they found it appalling. Without this crucial question, without making people feel shame, who is the next agent of evil benefiting from silence unchallenged and loved? These people will just find the next shark to attach themselves like a barnacle to until that shark dies. How crazy are men permitted to act before they are stopped?
On a shallow side note, while watching Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, did anyone else notice that his (third?) wife seemed to repeatedly wear the same thing or was she just wearing similar outfits and I could not tell? “Roger is more important than America.” Really? Don’t cry for her, Argentina. How do these people define patriotism exactly?
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes is an important documentary to watch if you are unable to detect the glaring signs that someone should not be permitted to have any level of influence whatsoever. On a technical note, there were no subtitles offered with the DVD, but it us now available for viewing on Hulu.