Divide and Conquer The Story of Roger Ailes is a powerful new documentary that sheds light on the current state of social and political life in America by following the dramatic arc of Roger Ailes: long-time Republican Svengali, kingmaker of Presidents and controversial founder of Fox News.
By coaching an unrivaled stable of conservative politicians over the course of fifty years, Ailes heavily influenced Republican politics, steering the conservative movement from Nixon, to Reagan, to the Tea Party, to Trump. Under his tutelage, anger and fear became the coin of the realm, both on the ballot and in the media. With Rupert Murdoch behind him, Ailes founded Fox News and turned it into a moneymaking juggernaut. He discarded notions of traditional journalism and turned prime time television into flame-throwing TV, with an emphasis on short skirts and low necklines. Female employees who rejected his advances lost their careers. He was finally toppled when victims of his long years of sexual harassment stepped forward. The accounts of these women—raw and infuriating—are the axis around which Ailes’s story inexorably turns.
