How 'The Loudest Voice's Roger Ailes revolutionized the Republican Party and gave America President Trump
"Here in America, television news is king."
Showtime's limited series 'The Loudest Voice' is the story of a man who truly believed and embodied these words, before proving them to be true. Created by the same people that made 'BlackkKlansman' and 'Get Out', the series has the potential to skillfully challenge what we think we know about Roger Ailes' life.
Having been accused of multiple counts of sexual harassment, Ailes' legacy is now that of a predator. During his time at Fox News, he allegedly abused women, abused power and sowed the seeds for alternative facts. 'The Loudest Voice' explores this period in Ailes' life, even as Russell Crowe disappears into the despicable character on screen.
'The Loudest Voice' focuses on the events described in Gabriel Sherman's 2014 book 'The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News — and Divided a Country'. Certain lines delivered by Crowe's Ailes are chilling in their cautionary ring of what America is to become and teases how his master plan to divide the country took shape.
"Giving the viewers a vision of the world the way it really is and the way they want it to be… If we can do that then they will never change the channel," he says at one point in the trailer for 'The Loudest Voice', the vileness of its intention only multiplied by another statement: "People don’t want to be informed. They want to feel informed."
Truly believing that television is the most powerful force in the world, Ailes chewed up the truth and spit out what he wanted the truth to be during his long career, and the right-leaning population of the country ate it up. Together with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Ailes "molded Fox News into a force that irrevocably changed the conversation about the highest levels of government."
Consequently, he also became somewhat of a de facto leader of the Republican Party over the years and became media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush after meeting Nixon on the sets of 'The Mike Douglas Show'. In 2016, he took his skills to the Trump administration, after getting fired when the sexual assault allegations against him went public. Unscathed, he went on to help President Donald Trump during his campaign and used his guile to help Trump prepare for his debate.
When he left Fox News, he left a legacy behind, that of fooling the nation with selective reporting, spinning stories, changing narratives and instigating hate and inspiring insecurity. Many have claimed that it is with this crutch that Fox News continues to garner viewership and Tump continues to amass supporters.
The details of how this was anticipated, orchestrated and executed will be explored in 'The Loudest Voice', which will premiere June 30, 2019, on Showtime.
