Fuck yeah. Roger Ailes was a lucre-driven propagandist. He was a scruple-free toady who preyed upon the fear and ignorance of an older, less-educated viewing audience to drive a profitable narrative of jingoism, xenophobia and bigotry. He cared far less about the ideals and principles of conservatism than he did about pushing the things that make your grandmother scared. And, let's not lose sight of this, he was a predatory misogynist who used his power to shape a culture of sexual harassment and predation as well as directly extorting sexual favors out of underlings. Things that don't happen without Fox News: - Whitewater - Lewinsky Scandal - The Iraq War - The Birther Movement - The Tea Party Movement - "Death Panels" - Wall2Wall Benghazi hearings - The Trump Presidency And Fox News doesn't happen without Roger Ailes. Do we mourn Joseph Goebbels? Would we mourn him if Hitler had been unsuccessful, if the burning of the Reichstag never happened? Because Roger Ailes was a sociopathic reptile, an opportunistic predator whose wants and desires were for a feudal American dystopia. I hope it hurt.
I like to say the only person's death I celebrate is Scalia, but maybe I need to widen that to add Ailes and eventually Murdoch.
The Iraq War pretty much broke my decorum. I had friends who worked with Ron Silver, thought he was a great guy, respected him. All I could remember was that mutherfucker cheering on a pointless invasion. If you want respect, earn it while you're alive. Just because you can't answer for your crimes anymore doesn't mean you didn't commit them.