Over the weekend I caught up on some reading and noticed the level of swipes recently taken at Fox's CEO Roger Ailes. I thought, really? Why are some so obsessed with Roger -- obsessed to the point that they are so so so busy taking swipes at him? Is it Roger's success that makes them all crazy or is it their inability to beat him or do better than he does? Or is it a combination of both? Or is it some simmering old grudge? Or worse, it is some fanciful thoughts about conspiracies? I don't get the obsession. I think it is old-fashioned jealousy about his success. He has and is beating everyone else.
Of course, if Roger were not enormously successful -- he did take his network from zero to #1 and hold it there for 10 plus years -- there would be no swipes. It is true that people don't pay much attention to losers. You feel sorry for losers -- you don't need to try to beat them and you don't need to try to smear them.
And if you look at those taking a swipe at Roger, you will see they are all the 'usual suspects' -- those who would love to have his success or love to beat him at his game... or are using his success to somehow vault them into relevance.
I also read with some amusement all the Fox conspiracy theories. I thought, really? Do you know that I have been at Fox News Channel for 10 1/2 years and Roger Ailes has never directed me to say or do anything? No Kool-aid here...
I don't know about you, but I admire success. I compete with successful people and I try to beat them. But you beat people by being better at your job than they are at theirs -- not by trying to take them down to your level or smearing them.
Finally -- sometimes you can judge a person's success by the level of sniping and attacks.