The Loudest Voice

A fine overview of a pivotal figure in American socio-political history and an insightful piece of cultural anthropology

Through Fox, Ailes helped polarize the American electorate, drawing sharp with-us-or-against-us lines, demonizing foes, preaching against compromise.

• Gabriel Sherman; The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country (2014)

That a news executive was essentially running the Republican Party was a remarkable development in American politics. But it was an outcome Ailes foretold. After the 19__68 campaign, Ailes spoke of a time when television would replace the political party, that other mass organizer of the twentieth century. With Fox News, that reality was arguably established.

• Sherman; The Loudest Voice in the Room

The viewers Ailes was trying to attract did not want television to tell them what happened in the world. They wanted television to tell them how to think about what happened in the world – the news itself would be secondary.

• Sherman; The Loudest Voice in the Room

Although it may seem bizarre to more rational minds, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of protective face masks has somehow become a partisan issue in the Divided States of America. Those on the left argue that masks should be worn, must be worn if necessary; those on the right see the mandatory wearing of masks as an infringement on their civil liberty (and an affront to God, apparently). Those of us lucky enough to live elsewhere in the world look upon the US in bemusement, watching as the social fabric becomes more and more tenuous by the day. But how does a country get to this point – how does it become so fractured and ideologically at odds with itself that even the issue of breathing has become a political battleground? It's easy to blame Trump – he is, after all, as incendiary as he is incompetent – but this division was gestating before his...

Im conflicted.
This was both a very hard watch and at the same time, very enthralling thing to watch.
Ol' Rusty wiped the floor with this mesmerising performance and his Golden Globe was well deserved (I dont not have enough adjectives for this). Although I personally have not seen a bad performance from him, his acting recently has been reminiscent of his time in the 90s and early 2000s where he was willing to take edgier, more complex roles. Here, he has tapped into his sinisterly menacing side in a way that he has not done since Hando in Romper Stomper. I cannot gush enough about his performance.
Nor can I fail to mention the other main actors (Watts, Miller, McFarlane, Wallis and even McBurney in a small role as Murdoch), who all brought their A-game to this mini-series.
The writing and direction; makeup (bloody hell they did such a good job on Crowe and Miller and McBurney); sound and set designs and score all make this fit perfectly into the time frame it inhabits. My only query with it was why it also didnt show how Fox influenced Bush Jnr's elections, but 7 episodes more than got its message across. (And if the absolutely outstanding Chernobyl hadnt have come out in the same year, I could see this wiping the floor in awards.)

So, why am I conflicted?
Spending 7 hours of my life with someone like Ailes was hard...very hard. I watched this series in 3 sittings.
I sometimes work intensely for long times with people whom are hard to be around and whose priorities sometimes leave a lot to be desired. But Ailes was something else... Watching his two-faced, racist, sexist, elitist, sociopathic tendencies be given so much free reign and power without balance was excruciating at times (again Crowe's acting - wow).
I want to recommend this series as it is compelling and should be essential viewing into how the MSM can really change what we perceive as news and influence (rather than report) what happens in our day to day lives. As well...