AILES SPEAKS…. Roger Ailes spent years as a Republican operative before becoming president of Fox News, which when you think about it, is largely the same thing. But for all of Ailes’ influence, he doesn’t do a lot of interviews himself, letting his Republican hosts get his message out.
It was interesting, then, to see Ailes speak freely with the Daily Beast‘s Howard Kurtz. Yesterday, that meant trashing President Obama. In today’s report, it meant going after those in media Ailes disapproves of.
For example, Ailes lashed out at Jon Stewart, saying “The Daily Show” host “openly admits he’s sort of an atheist and a socialist.”
“He hates conservative views. He hates conservative thoughts. He hates conservative verbiage. He hates conservatives.”
There was more. “He’s crazy. If it wasn’t polarized, he couldn’t make a living. He makes a living by attacking conservatives and stirring up a liberal base against it.”
I tried to interrupt.
“He loves polarization. He depends on it. If liberals and conservatives are all getting along, how good would that show be? It’d be a bomb.”
Hmm. Stewart is “crazy” and relies on “polarization”? Isn’t that what’s popularly known as “projection”?
But Ailes saves his real vitriol for the executives at NPR.
“They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda.”
There’s a lot of madness in those 40 words, but I’d note that using “Nazi” isn’t just a slip of the tongue when one uses it three times. I’d also note that, every time I turn on NPR, the “point of view” tends to be that of one of its many Republican guests.
As for Ailes’ concerns about “propaganda,” the irony is rich.
