If Roger Ailes weren’t already employed as head of Fox News, his interview with the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz would be the mother of those politically incorrect statements that get you fired from other news organizations and then quickly hired at Fox (see: Williams, Juan). The second of the two-parter is out today, and the 70-year-old exec, who’s paid $15 to $20 million a year to keep Fox News hitting its audience targets, took advantage of the fact that he can say pretty much whatever he wants without repercussion from the Republican base. But first, let’s get to those genocidal vermin over 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. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.”
Points for originality! Gratuitous Third Reich analogies usually leave out the party’s seldom-discussed left wing.
Points for originality! Gratuitous Third Reich analogies usually leave out the party’s seldom-discussed left wing.
After initially praising Jon Stewart, Ailes’s mood soured when it came to The Daily Show’s criticism of the cable news. Ignoring the fact that Stewart screened clips of both Fox and MSNBC at the Rally to Restore Sanity, Ailes said, “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.”
As for Bill O’Reilly’s quip about beheading Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, who was friends with Daniel Pearl, Kurtz says Ailes couldn’t resist, “Well, I would have cut a little lower.” The Fox News honcho quickly rescinded the comment, saying he shouldn’t joke about beheading (or castration, presumably). Oh, c’mon, who wants to stop with Nazi name-calling? You gotta find a way to differentiate your crazy from everyone else’s.
Fox News Chief Blasts NPR ‘Nazis’ [Daily Beast]
Related: Roger Ailes: Obama ‘Just Has a Different Belief System Than Most Americans’
