Roger Ailes, the man who shaped Fox News into what it is today, passed away in May 2017 . Before founding the network in 1996, Ailes spent years working in entertainment, and made a brand out of sensationalizing news. Matt Taibbi of The Rolling Stones claimed in an editorial following Ailes' death that, "The presidency of Donald Trump wouldn't have been possible had not Ailes raised a generation of viewers on [Fox's] paranoid storylines."