Trump: The Inevitable Result of Fox News Lies And Conspiracy Theories

July 26, 2016

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNews.com

For historic irony, the timing was perfect. Roger Ailes being dumped by Rupert Murdoch on the same day as Donald Trump completes his hostile takeover of the Republican party.

It’s doubtful that Trump would be more than a New York tabloid curiosity if not for the fantasy news machine Ailes built. While he was increasing his cable network’s ratings Ailes also was raising fear and anger temperatures for millions of his faithful viewers. That fear and anger erupted with colossal force this year to propel Trump to the nomination. In Trump’s acceptance speech it spewed spectacularly, a seething sea of lies posing as truth and hate dressed as virtue from an egomaniac shouting "me fix" while wielding a baseball bat. Trump is the antidote to all the pseudo ills Ailes had been pumping up for years. How playful of the political gods to choose this very instant of Ailes’ greatest achievement to cast him from the media mountain top.

A thousand years ago, Omar Khayyam wrote “The moving finger writes and having writ moves on; nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it.”

Ailes may be gone, but now we are stuck with his creature, Trump. Years of Fox News haranguing about President Obama’s birth certificate can’t be unsaid. Non-stop character assassination of those who consider political compromise central to a democratic system can’t be erased. The dismissal of government itself as useless and corrupt can’t be retrieved.

And so the multitudes converged on the town square with their pitchforks and rather than chase him out of town, they elected Frankenstein’s monster as their leader.

To be sure, Roger Ailes had help in the form of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and countless others. But Fox was radical right's Mecca. And as Fox persuaded its viewers to buy into its anarchistic view of the value of government, it gave them no reason for satisfaction. There always were new enemies, new threats, and ultimately no way to believe their side could win. The combat was the thing that kept Fox ratings high, not the victory.

Well, big surprise, now they’ve won. They have a candidate who revels in conspiracy theories. Obama’s birth certificate and complicity in terrorism attacks. Trump’s father and Kennedy’s assassination. Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster’s murder.

They have a candidate who creates his own reality. The world’s not warming. Muslims in New Jersey cheered as the Trade Towers fell. Illegals are pouring over the border and murdering everyone.

Roger Ailes cashed in big promoting such nonsense. A study found that 72 percent of references to climate change on Fox in 2013 were misleading. Eight separate investigations of Benghazi resulted in nothing to prosecute. Democrats, liberals---pick your culprits---were waging war on Christmas. Frauds like these kept Fox News watchers riled up, angry, and watching--—as Fox News produced a billion dollars in profit each year for the Murdoch media empire.

Now we’ve reached the inevitable end of this road to nowhere. From Ailes’ scorched earth politics has emerged the savior Ailes’ viewers were praying for. And the result is someone Trump’s ghost writer considers a “sociopath.” He told New Yorker writer Jane Mayer “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”

Gary Trudeau, in his July 24 Doonesbury comic strip said much the same thing with fewer words. All of the Doonesbury characters are shown staring at their TV sets, in open-mouthed disbelief after watching Trump’s acceptance speech.

“How do we unwatch that?” says Doonesbury’s wife. “We can’t,” says Mike Doonesbury, “We take it to our graves.”

Roger Ailes has helped re-brand the Republican Party. With Ailes now gone, maybe there’s a chance his creature won’t destroy the world.

(Joe Rothstein's new novel, The Latina President, is now available on Amazon)