Roger Ailes by Thomas Porostocky - Esquire (click)
This quote, from an excellent Tom Junod piece in Esquire on Murdoch’s Fox News Gruppenführer Roger Ailes, says a LOT about the trouble with trying to shame the manipulative, or liars and con artists …
The pundits, the professors, the professional journalists, the left-wingers, the tree huggers, the liberal blogosphere, President Obama — they all keep trying to catch him on violations of rules that they follow and he doesn’t. “Frankly, Roger doesn’t give a shit,” says an associate. “He just doesn’t have the governor that other media executives have. He does things they would never do, says things they would never say.”
Yup. You cannot trust them to accede to ‘normal’ moral or professional standards — they will lie, exaggerate, distort, manipulate, cheat and steal all the way to the bitter, bitter end.
They may even win — many times — because they will go further, and do things ‘decent’ people wouldn’t — and those same decent people often don’t have the stomach for the fight with slippery, immoral characters like that.
As Junod quotes Ailes’ father:
“Remember, son, for them it’s a fight, for you it’s life and death.”
My own fights with sleazebags have had a cost. There have been wounds. But you don’t tackle a school-yard bully without expecting a few scratches, bruises and bite-marks.
It’s worth standing up to them.
It’s worth speaking out and it’s worth ‘fighting the good fight’.
But, for all your empathy, just don’t fall into the trap of expecting them to share your morals or ‘rules’ (“violations of rules that they follow and he doesn’t”) They do not.
Read Tom Junod’s insightful article in full: Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America?
– P
It’s a shame there appear to be so many of these types in the property and finance industry.
Well Andrew, as two people who have been cold-bloodedly lied to by several of the same ‘sociopaths and narcissists’ brigade, you and I are probably entitled to a smidgen of cynicism about their on-going activities and deceitful claims, huh?
Yet people fall for the patter. – P
Too true. It just doesn’t seem possible to most people that others would lie, cheat and manipulate so easily to get what they want.
Take those who use powerful beliefs, like religion, to not only excuse their mistakes in life but also to make them appear more trustworthy and therefore easier for them to manipulate others.
Many people would just not expect anyone to do such a thing and therefore take what they say at face value.
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