Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes (2018)
Director: Alexis Bloom Run Time: 107 min. Release Year: 2018
Starring: Babette Bombshell, Catherine Corcoran, Glenn Beck, Roger Ailes
Country: United States
Language: English
Broadcast News: Journalism on Film
In partnership with Columbus Underground, a seasonal series examining the state of journalism. Reception begins at 6:00pm, followed by a panel discussion at 7:00pm and presentation at 7:45pm.
Panelists include Ann Fisher (WOSU Public Media) and Dr. Eddith Dashiell (Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism), moderated by Dace de la Foret (Gateway Film Foundation Director, Nationwide Insurance)
Learn more about the series here.
About the film:
“Everybody has an agenda. You have to see what it is they’re after. Then you can manipulate them.”
—Roger Ailes
Alexis Bloom charts the rise and fall of the late Republican Party booster and controversial Fox News mogul who went down in flames amid multiple sexual harassment allegations.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes (2018) is the personal, political and just plain surreal story of Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Variously called a bulldog, a kingmaker, and the Ernest Hemingway of campaign advisors, Ailes was the wizard of Oz. As a key advisor to Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush he shaped more than fifty years of American political history. But he collected talent like dolls and became consumed by paranoia about his own personal security. After creating a ratings powerhouse, Ailes was forced out of Fox in 2016 amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Ailes died in May 2017.
The film premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and screened numerous festivals, winning the Best Documentary Award at the 2018 Hamptons International Film Festival.
About the panel:
Ann Fisher, WOSU Public Media
Fisher is Host and Executive Producer of “All Sides with Ann Fisher” on 89.7 FM WOSU Public Media in Columbus, Ohio. She joined WOSU in 2009 after nearly 30 years in the newspaper business, beginning with her hometown newspaper, The Grand Rapids Press, followed by The Blade in Toledo, and The Columbus Dispatch. She has covered politics, public affairs, culture, media, and business over the course of her career.
Dr. Eddith A. Dashiell, Ohio University
Dr. Eddith A. Dashiell, a native of Shelbyville, Tennessee, joined the E. W. Scripps of Journalism in 1992 after a seven-year career as a broadcast journalist. Dr. D. currently serves as the School of Journalism’s director. During her 30 years at Ohio University Dr. D. has also held other administrative positions, such as associate director for undergraduate studies, director of studies of the journalism program in the Honors Tutorial College, director of O.U. summer high school journalism workshop, associate dean for graduate programs in the Scripps College of Communication, assistant provost for multicultural graduate affairs in the [then] O.U. Office of Graduate Studies, and assistant dean for undergraduate studies in the Scripps College of Communication.
About the filmmaker:
Alexis Bloom is a filmmaker born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Bloom produced widely for the National Geographic Channel, and for BBC World in her early career. She has worked in America since 2001, and has produced extensively for PBS Frontline on both investigative pieces and international stories. She was a producer on the Emmy Award-winning PBS show Rx For Survival (2005) and was also a producer and director on the NOVA series This Emotional Life (2010). In 2014, she was the recipient of the Producer’s Guild of America Award in 2014 for We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013), a feature documentary for Universal Pictures that Alex Gibney directed. In 2017, Bloom was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, and also for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016), a documentary film she made for HBO. For Divide and Conquer (2018), she was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.
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