Monday marks the birthday of former Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, and his widow Elizabeth honored the occasion by lashing out at the cable news channel and its ruling family, the Murdochs. She claimed that Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch could never come close to Roger’s genius and that the patriarch and his son, Fox News CEO Lachlan, have created “havoc” at the cable news station:

Happy Heavenly Birthday Roger Ailes. It took you 20 years to build Fox News into the powerhouse that it was and only 6 years for the Murdochs to wreak havoc. Rupert thought he could do your job. What a joke. He has the checkbook but could never come close to your genius. RIP. pic.twitter.com/UqQHhS5Uvz

— ELIZABETH AILES (@ELIZABETH_AILES) May 15, 2023

Happy Heavenly Birthday Roger Ailes. It took you 20 years to build Fox News into the powerhouse that it was and only 6 years for the Murdochs to wreak havoc. Rupert thought he could do your job. What a joke. He has the checkbook but could never come close to your genius. RIP.

Whoa.

Ailes died in 2017 at the age of 77, eight days after falling and striking his head. He leaves behind a complicated legacy: he’s been lauded as the genius architect who basically built Fox News and led it to dominance over its rivals, but he was also accused by several women — including former Fox hosts Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly — of sexual harassment. Carlson even filed suit against the executive. He was ultimately forced out after the network hired a law firm to investigate the claims; the senior Murdoch reportedly did not want to let him go, but sons Lachlan and James were disturbed enough by the report’s findings that they urged his ouster.

It’s unclear exactly what Elizabeth Ailes is unhappy with, but the network has been embroiled in several controversies recently and parted with two personalities, Dan Bongino and top-rated Tucker Carlson, for reasons that are still not fully known. Meanwhile, they settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million after the voting machine company sued Fox for defamation for airing claims that the machines were rigged.

If you think it’s easy being a news network executive, imagine getting attacked by the left and the right. The left despises the outlet because, well it’s Fox, but many on the right are unhappy with its direction too. Many were permanently put off by the decision to call Arizona for Biden in the 2020 presidential election before polls were even closed on the West Coast — possibly causing some discouraged Republicans to not even make an attempt to cast their vote.

Then there are many — like former President Donald Trump — who accuse Fox of not fighting hard enough to question the integrity of that election and whether it was “rigged.” Meanwhile, Fox is shelling out almost a billion dollars to Dominion for doing exactly that.

As RedState‘s Nick Arama reported, Fox’s ratings have fallen “over the cliff” since Carlson’s controversial departure. (Read: NY Times: This Is the Text That Led to Tucker Carlson’s Firing From Fox News.) They still claim the highest cable news viewership during the crucial primetime hours, but MSNBC and CNN are suddenly catching up.

Reports also indicate that Rupert has moved on from Trump after the outlet was a cheerleader for him during the 2016 and 2020 elections, a move sure to distance millions of his supporters:

Donald Trump vs. Rupert Murdoch Feud Heats up, and It’s Getting Nasty

Murdochs to Trump: Thanks but No Thanks, We Prefer DeSantis

Personally, I haven’t explicitly boycotted the channel, but I realize that since Tucker left I have not watched a single hour of their primetime coverage. It’s not that I made some conscious choice; it’s just that Carlson was absolutely must-watch, and sometimes tuning in would cause me to catch other Fox shows too.

All the drama aside, I still think Fox News has been an important and badly-needed voice for our country. Not everybody is going to like every decision or every opinion of theirs, but as arguably the most powerful conservative news source in America, they’ve fought against the constant assault by the left on our values, our economy, and our freedoms.

It must not be easy being CEO of a cable news channel (but I’d take the money). If you wonder where the (IMHO) fabulous HBO show “Succession,” which is clearly modeled on the Murdochs, gets their storylines, you can be sure at least some of them come from real-life events.