To the liberal media, besides President Trump and conservatives in general, there is no greater enemy than Fox News. Thus, the ensuing Hollywood takedown of its deceased founder, Roger Ailes, was an obvious move. Actor Russell Crowe appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Thursday night to promote his role as Ailes in the new series The Loudest Voice. He also bluntly explained why the network existed: “It was in his estimation that CNN, that MSNBC, CNBC, you know, C-SPAN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The Times, The Post, everybody had a left-leaning bent.”
Crowe dedicated a portion of his time to teaching the audience tidbits about Ailes he found through research for his role. Oddly enough, the musical background of Ailes was then used by Crowe (an entertainer), as a means of diminishing the value of the content of his media expertise: “So, a lot of the things you learn about Roger you have to take with a grain of salt because he was a very theatrical man, you know? And he would see things from that type of perspective…”
Never one to miss out on an opportunity to attack Fox News, Colbert offered this degrading comment: “Well, that's a lot of what he's putting together in the episode that I saw of him putting on the Fox News. It's a little less about what the news here is and what will look good on television…what will make people turn it on…truth be damned.”
Colbert then went on to claim Ailes created Fox News solely for entertainment purposes:
I mean when he was putting it together one of the things that's sort of shocking the other people, the other character he is talking to in the first episode, is his willingness to make it look good, make it sound good, to make it something that people will turn on regardless of the what the message necessarily is. Because some people have their back up against his willingness to turn it into entertainment.
Rather than scorning the network, Crowe acknowledged the success of Fox News while explaining the rationale for why it exists in the first place:
Yeah, well, what he was saying, though, is that people don't really want to be informed. They don't want all of the details. They just want to feel informed. They want to think at some point in time in their mind that they've got that covered, you know? So he was playing into that. But also, you've got to know that, you know, Roger, many, many times over the years, said if he hadn't have had seen a certain bias in media, then Fox News could have been the exact opposite because he was looking for the open area of the market. And it was in his estimation that CNN, that MSNBC, CNBC, you know, C-SPAN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The Times, The Post, everybody had a left-leaning bent, so to him what was available was a conservative audience that was being under served. And that proved to be very true because now you have one single news network which dominates half of the available audience.
The success of Fox News should serve as an indicator to all the leftist media outlets on television, the American people want to hear from both sides, not just Democratic Party talking points.
Click to read the transcript:
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
6/20/19
12:09:45 AM
STEPHEN COLBERT: Well, in your own research about him, was there anything you learned that surprised you about Ailes?
RUSSELL CROWE: Yeah, there was, because you kind of tend to see him only in the context of the Fox News. And if you know anything more about him, you possibly know that he was an adviser to three presidents, the Nixon campaign, Reagan and then Bush senior. But he began, like, in high school and college, he loved the theater, and he played piano and he loved a show tune, you know?
COLBERT: Like, musicals?
CROWE: Yeah, like musicals. At 26 he was the executive producer of the Mike Douglas show. That's a hell of a powerful position at a very young age. And after he'd done the Nixon campaign, and actually this is a very interesting thing. In 1968, he gave a quote to a guy called Joe McGinniss from a book called The Selling of the President. And Roger Ailes said in 1968, in the future political parties will become television networks.COLBERT: Wow.
That's an incredibly, you know, deep thing to have said at a time when all of us were still just getting used to the idea of television. He could see that far ahead. But yeah, in ten years in the 70s, leading up to Reagan, he tried to be a Broadway producer. And he had a minor hit with a show called "Hot L. Baltimore."
COLBERT: Oh sure, yeah.
CROWE: So, a lot of the things you learn about Roger you have to take with a grain of salt because he was a very theatrical man, you know? And he would see things from that type of perspective, what will make people -- you know, the same way as you put a Broadway show together, you know, how's the first number gonna go? What are you gonna hit them for before you break?
COLBERT: Well, that's a lot of what he's putting together in the episode that I saw of him putting on the Fox News. It's a little less about what is the news here and what will look good on television.
CROWE: What works.
COLBERT: What will make people turn it on. Exactly, truth be damned.
CROWE: Well, not truth be damned, necessarily, but truth has its place.COLBERT: Truth is not in the pole position.
CROWE; If you watch that network, the 7:00 bulletin with Shep Smith is just the news. You know? The rest of the time, it's opinion, even though it's called Fox News.
COLBERT: Oh, I will grant it that. I think Shep does a fine job, I think Bret Baier does a fine job, Chris Wallace does a fine job on the Sundays over on Fox. I mean when he was putting it together one of the things that's sort of shocking the other people, the other character he is talking to in the first episode, is his willingness to make it look good, make it sound good, to make it something that people will turn on regardless of the what the message necessarily is. Because some people have their back up against his willingness to turn it into entertainment.
CROWE: Yeah, well, what he was saying, though, is that people don't really want to be informed. They don't want all of the details. They just want to feel informed. They want to think at some point in time in their mind that they've got that covered, you know? So he was playing into that. But also, you've got to know that, you know, Roger, many, many times over the years, said if he hadn't have had seen a certain bias in media, then Fox News could have been the exact opposite because he was looking for the open area of the market. And it was in his estimation that CNN, that MSNBC, CNBC, you know, C-SPAN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The "Times," "The Post," everybody had a left-leaningbent, so to him what was available was a conservative audience that was being under served. And that proved to be very true because now you have one single news network which dominates half of the available audience.
