Junod's profile is full of nasty and snide digs, full of words such as "crazy" and "cynical," full of insinuations that Ailes is some kind ogre. And, by the way, the piece is full of incorrect assertions. For example, Junod asserts that Ailes was behind the "Willie Horton" ads in the 1988 campaign, and asserts that "most" possible Republican presidential candidates are Fox News contributor. Both are falsehoods, but that doesn't stop this liberal NYC magazine from printing those falsehoods.
Sadly, none of those assertions are new, even if not true. They are all over the MSM. And if liberals enjoy reading them once again, they are welcome to do so. That's the problem with the MSM: It's completely self-referential and hermetic in its liberalism. That is, liberals speaking to liberals, about the same old liberal stuff.
Yet The Cable Gamer is glad that she finished the article, because there was one anecdote--more than an anecdote, a heartwarming tale of paternal devotion--that is worth recording, and sharing here.
Young Roger was born a hemophiliac, that is well known. That's why he couldn't serve in the military, for example. But here's a new vignette from Roger's life--and his father Robert's. This is how Junod tells it about Roger and his lifelong struggle with hemophilia. As you read it, you will see much of why Roger Ailes is who he is. Not only because he is alive, but because at an early age he appreciated the power of family values and voluntaristic mobilization:
The closest he came to dying was when he was seven or eight. He bit his tongue when he jumped off the roof of the garage. His mouth filled with blood and the blood would not stop, the blood soaked the sheets of his bed, and he heard the doctor tell his father that there was nothing he could do. Roger Ailes was going to bleed out through his tongue. But his father was a fighter; that is, he got into fights, and Roger admired him for it. Now he fought for his son's life. He picked Roger up, swaddled in bloody bedclothes, and drove him to the Cleveland Clinic with a police escort. At the factory where he worked, the old man tracked down everybody who had type-O-positive blood, and now he called upon all of them to come to Cleveland for his son. They did, and Roger can still remember their names, Dirtyneck Watson and the rest, men filthy from work who lined up one after another to give Roger their blood, arm to arm. " 'Well, son, you have a lot of blue-collar blood in you, never forget that,' my father said after I got through it, and I never have. A lot of what we do at Fox is blue-collar stuff."
So that's a pretty revealing anecdote about Roger. His life was saved by his father's efforts, and by his father's co-workers with names such as "Dirtyneck Watson." And that's why, as Roger says, "A lot of what we do at Fox is blue-collar stuff."
It's interesting that Junod would record the hemophilia story, and yet not see its true implications for Ailes. Why? Because he is so blinded by his liberal ideology, and his determination to slam Ailes, that he can't even see the truth in front of him.
And yet that story, plus the reality of Fox, represent the real Roger Ailes: Boy Scout, patriot, American.
Sorry, Esquire, but Roger Ailes' legend and the ongoing reality of Fox News will be around and thriving when Junod and his raggy magazine are forgotten. But thanks to this mostly shoddy piece of "journalism," we do have this fascinating story of Robert E. Ailes, who saved the life of his son, many decades ago.
