“Today, America lost one of its great, patriotic warriors.” So spoke Fox News host Sean Hannity, in referring to the recently deceased Roger Ailes, the former Fox chairman and CEO. It gives partisan bombast a bad name.
It’s also an insult to “great, patriotic warriors.”
You can call Ailes a communications maestro or a medium master or a revolutionary media change agent. That’s accurate because of how he maneuvered television messaging, packaged political candidates and changed the face of 24-hour news. Even if he were sleazy.
But patriotic? Not when you helped change America for the worst–from packaging Richard Nixon to morphing politics into ideological show business with Fox News. You don’t eulogize those whose ultimate mantra was “Ratings First” not “Country First.” And you don’t shower paeans on those who made Roger Stone look like a classy guy.