Shortly after New York magazine published their profile of Fox News head Roger Ailes, Rolling Stone unleashed their own 10,000-word behemoth on the world, covering the same topic but with a different tone and focus. Ailes is portrayed as cunning, vicious, and incredibly powerful. But Slate’s Jack Shafer doesn’t see it that way:
There are few facts in Dickinson’s well-reported pile that I’d take issue with—Ailes has worked hard to establish his credentials as a malicious man, absent of scruples. But I draw the line at “fearing” Ailes or being daunted by his Fox News “power,” the two searing take-home messages in Dickinson’s piece. Ailes can’t be a very fearsome or powerful media monster if he failed to prevent the election of a freshman senator—a black, liberal freshman senator with an, um, exotic name—to the White House!