Roger Ailes Is King

Barack Obama Is President

        King Ailes                 President Obama
And how the King evolved:

        This montage -- Donald Trump vs. Megyn Kelly -- reflects two facts of political and media life in the United States: {1} Roger Ailes is America's unelected King; {2} Barack Obama is America's elected President. Because President Obama has spent two-terms and going on 8 years as leader of the richest and strongest nation in history, everyone knows who he is. On the other hand, King Ailes is not well known nationally or internationally by the general public, and even less people in the U. S. and around the world understand why he is more powerful than Obama in the wild, wacky, weird, and wonderful {at least for television pundits} world of America's money-crazed, pundit-driven political arena. The Trump-Kelly confrontation incredibly dominates this week's news in America because Trump, incredibly, is the leading Republican presidential candidate while Kelly, as a high-profile Fox News anchor, wants to destroy Trump, as least politically, so her preferred candidate, Marco Rubio, gets the Republican nomination. The Trump-Kelly warfare surfaced when Kelly anchored a Republican debate on Fox and from the get-go tried to humiliate and destroy Trump with a series of asinine, puerile questions. Thus, the Trump-Kelly clash reached malevolent and galactic proportions this week when Trump refused to participate in a second Fox debate anchored by Kelly. Raving about whether it helps or hurts Trump will mesmerize the news media, which essentially these days means pundits. But that's of little interest to me. What fascinates me is the fact that Trump vs. Kelly, whether Americans realize it or not, is merely an example of the changing, and already changed, American landscape, which, as an offshoot, leaves Mr. Ailes King and Mr. Obama President.

     
       Rupert Murdock was born a very rich baby in Melbourne, Australia some 84 years ago. A colossal array of media properties in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, etc., made the adult Mr. Murdock a billionaire. The billions multiplied existentially when he came to the U. S. His properties now include News Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox, publishing giant Harper Collins, The Wall Street Journal, the Fox television enterprises, etc. But the politically astute Murdock's most notable achievement has been Fox News where, almost two decades ago, he hired Roger Ailes, who was merely a conservative/right wing Prince at the time.

    Roger Ailes has taken full advantage of Rupert Murdock's vast media empire, using his position as Chairman and CEO of Fox News to elevate his personal stature from Prince to King. It is no surprise that Ailes was Murdock's choice. As a right-wing Prince, Ailes was largely responsible for making Presidents out of Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. In his spare time he accomplished other gems such as showing Rudy Giuliani how to become Mayor of New York City.

         The Roger Ailes effect on Fox News has transcended the news media in the United States, not to mention the political landscape. And that's how an un-elected and un-appointed King evolved.

     While Roger Ailes has single-handedly made the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity into major television news anchors, his most beautiful anchor-creation, Megyn Kelly, is now also the most controversial. {Photos are courtesy of mediamatters.com}. Thanks to the ascendancy of businessman Donald Trump onto the political scene, Megyn Kelly has become THE NEWS as opposed to REPORTING the news. As a right-wing propaganda machine, Fox is far more concerned with proselytizing Americans than with providing them news anyway. As a result, a typical prime-time hour {at 9:00 PM with a midnight repeat} for Kelly is to spend half her time jostling with cheap and convenient Talking Heads promoting Marco Rubio and the other half cavorting with cheap and convenient Talking Heads debunking Donald Trump, whom she obviously considers the chief threat to Rubio's advancement to the White House. Unfortunately, Megyn Kelly and Fox now constitute what passes as Television News in today's mass media/punditry quagmire.

       As a Fox anchor, and as Fox's lead moderator when it hosts Republican debates, it's not much of a secret that Megyn Kelly's primary task -- with the ultra-powerful backing of Murdock and Ailes -- is to promote the presidential ambitions of Marco Rubio while tearing down anyone who might stand in his way, such as Trump, Obama, Clinton, or even Kelly's obvious second choice, Ted Cruz. Amazingly, such tactics have essentially eliminated whatever plans Fox, in the beginning, might have had to actually cover the news but, just as amazingly, Fox has become the most effective and dynamic propaganda machine in U. S. history, leaving radio pundits like Russ Limbaugh in its wake.

        The Fox News recap of this week's second debate, as with its first debate in Cleveland, will expound endlessly on THE WINNER: Marco Rubio!! Exposing Rubio's shortcomings, of which there are many, is not allowed on Fox.

        Meanwhile, Donald Trump is caught between a rock -- Mr. Ailes -- and a hard place -- Mr. Murdock. The vice is Trump's own creation, for leading the polls in a Republican presidential race ahead of the apparent Ailes-Murdock favorite, Marco Rubio. {And if not Rubio, Ted Cruz}. The polls, fortunately, seem to indicate the American people prefer a non-establishment {meaning a not bought-and-paid-for} President. As for conservative Republican voters, they are mostly left out in the cold as prime propagandists seem to favor only bought-and-paid-for right-wingers. The resulting Republican chaos will probably elect a hated and very beatable Hillary Clinton as the next President.

   While the aforementioned book -- "The Fox Effect" -- effectively explains how Roger Ailes and his Fox News machine pushed the conservative Republican Party into the Far Right stratosphere, it doesn't adequately delineate the overall effect of one man, backed by one multi-billionaire, reshaping the political narrative in the world's most powerful and most influential nation. The far-right grip on one of America's two main political parties essentially is resulting in a one-party nation, China, now poised to creep past the United States in essentials such as...the economy, the military, and international influence. With that being said, there is perhaps one American politician who could stem that untidy, shall I say, tide.

       Beyond doubt, Senator Elizabeth Warren is by far the most qualified American to be the next President of the United States. But there is a problem, not with her but with the money-crazed system. She has refused constant pleas to enter the 2016 presidential sweepstakes. Her refusal is based on her heartfelt belief that the money-crazed system is primarily tailored for those who will sell their politics and their souls to the highest bidders -- ala Clinton, Rubio, Cruz, Bush, etc. Elizabeth Warren refuses to enter such a fray, and the United States will suffer because of her decision.

Enough said!!!!!!

And by the way:

        Meet Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski. {Photo & data courtesy of: Vibe.} She is a 22-year-old Cuban-American from Chicago. It's been known that she is a genius in Physics since she was 14. She zoomed through MIT and is now getting her PhD at Harvard where she is called "the next Albert Einstein." She has already been offered mega-jobs by such people as Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon. You can Google Sabrina but don't try to find her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. She is too smart and too busy being the next Einstein to waste her time on social media.

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