Fox News CEO Roger Ailes recently renewed his contract, and he gave an interview to explain why. As one might expect, given the we-only-look-biased-because-the-other-guys-are-so-biased philosophy at Fox, he’s motivated by what he sees as the outrageously partisan media everywhere else (MediaBistro, 11/16/12):
Roger Ailes
Ailes was also sparked by what he experienced at a Washington journalists’ dinner. “When I saw the president say, ‘I know you all voted for me,’ and a thousand people stood up and cheered and applauded and then when the applause died down, he said, ‘Oh probably except you guys at the Fox table.’ I thought, ‘Am I the only guy in this room doing his job?’ They set up Freedom of the Press. The press is supposed to watch the powerful. And not throw in with them. And when I watched a thousand people stand and cheer and applaud I thought, ‘Uh oh. Somebody better do this job.'”
Ailes is talking about the White House correspondents dinner. As most people with even a passing awareness of Beltway politics know, many of the people at this event are not reporters. Indeed, outlets spend what seems like a lot of time and effort getting celebrities to sit at their tables. So whatever the audience reaction, it would not tell you much about what journalists think.
But unfortunately for Ailes, these events are recorded by television cameras, so you can see what the fuss is all about:
So there weren’t a thousand people standing up and cheering. There was laughter at a mildly funny joke, followed by more laughter at the expense of Ailes’ right-wing news outlet.
That’s what happens at these events, by the way–politicians try to tell jokes. Some are better than others. At a different schmoozefest in 2005, George W. Bush famously made jokes about not being able to find Iraq’s WMDs. The press laughed then, and then defended their laughter. Was Ailes offended by this abdication of journalistic duty?
And if you think there’s something funny about Ailes touting the his job of “watching the powerful,” Gawker‘s John Cook has assembled a collection of documents showing “how Roger Ailes watched the powerful during the Bush Administration”–including warm and fuzzy notes he wrote to the likes of Condoleezza Rice and John Ashcroft
Roger Ailes’s “outrageously partisan media everywhere” else reported that based on opinion polls Obama was likely to win, while several Fox hatemongers were sure that Romney would take it in a landslide.
Oh, and by the way, we haven’t seen any comments here lately from the the FAIR troll, who expressed confidence, again and again and again, that would Romney win big. Maybe he moved to another country.
What can we say, Ailes has long lived in his own world and hasn’t need to come to the real one for awhile. Don’t worry, I am sure the Troll will be back, and claim that Obama will “fur sure, loss the second election”. LOL
This would be a different country if the propaganda fear mongering liars at fox news did not exist.
“Am I the only one in this room doing his job?”- Go f*** yourself you fat, flatulent pig. The last thing in the world you are your fascist scumbag minions at FOX do is your “job”. At least, Ailes can be proud of himself that he has created a “news” outlet that would be the envy of the Third Reich and Stalinist Russia.
Roger Ailes and his so-called news outlet are entertainers who feed their right-wing viewers with stuff they want to hear. those clowns are dangerous to the peoples of the world, witness Afghanistan,Irak etc.
Guy like Roger Ailes are what is wrong with this country. I bet the rest of the world laughs at his Faux journalism. Go ahead and retire already…
Anybody seen the poll on who journalists voted for?it is not complete,but it is being reported that it is a landslide for Obama.Out of our top ten journalism schools and hundreds of professors- wanna know how many call themselves conservative?2%!!!!!!Students at those schools……..17%Hell no there is no liberal bias.What do the kids say? LMFAO
PS To Peter Hart.You and your staff run an “unbiased” look at the press.Lets look to them.Was the voting at fair 50/50…..a reflection of the countries electorate?Or more like 100-0% more like Philadelphia returns?Again LMFAO
Roger Ailes: “I don’t care about conservative, I actually do care about ‘Fair and Balanced.’ ‘”
Wow! He actually believes his own dishonest slogan.
PS
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tom Ricks appeared on Fox News today to discuss Benghazi and got cut off 90 seconds in for saying the network’s “emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party.”
In an email Ricks wrote,“One staff person said she thought I had been rude. My feeling was that they asked my opinion and I gave it.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/tom-ricks-fox-news-asked-my-opinion-and-i-gave-it-150300.html
Josh Voorhees at Slate notes “It’s one thing to cut off a man-on-the-street type interview that goes off course. It’s quite another to do it to someone who you’ve brought on specifically to speak in the role of expert.”
Following on from JohnQ’s comment, Fauxnews did their own Republican viewers a disservice by making them believe that Romney had the election easily won.
This is the second time FauxNews ran interference for a GOP Presidential candidate running against Obama and they’re now 0 for 2.
FauxNews’ endless support for the Tea Party emboldened that group of Republicans to take over the party’s primary process. That ended up costing the party control of the Senate for the second straight cycle.
The endless GOP debates ended up badly damaging the eventual winner.
Hell, even Romney got caught repeating fake Faux talking points…most notably the 47% comments.
PS
This is probably the best piece on how Faux (and the larger Conservative media) left their own viewers/readers in the dark
“On the biggest political story of the year, the conservative media just got its ass handed to it by the mainstream media. And movement conservatives, who believe the MSM is more biased and less rigorous than their alternatives, have no way to explain how their trusted outlets got it wrong, while the New York Times got it right.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/how-conservative-media-lost-to-the-msm-and-failed-the-rank-and-file/264855/#.UJqSwlJ-XZI.twitter
Here’s an entertaining example of how the right wing (both partisan activists and journalists] deluded themselves into thinking Romney was a lock to win…the social conservatives being the worst offenders.
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/332645
“George W. Bush famously made jokes about not being able to find Iraq’s WMDs. The press laughed then, and then defended their laughter. Was Ailes offended by this abdication of journalistic duty?”
I know this is a rhetorical question, because i know the staff at FAIR know the answer ..Ailes was one of 15 or 20 people during the “run up” to the war that probably knew all the full truth, because he was tasked by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and other republican leadership to whip up the war frenzy in public opinion and sell the whole Iraq adventure.The world will be be a better place when roger ailes goes to his eternal reward as a platinum member in the 9th circle of hell, right in between Brutus and Judas.
Random paul…let me simplify your point .FOX was for Mitt and the rest of the news media was for Obama.Obama won!Ummm thanx for that info
“let me simplify your point .FOX was for Mitt and the rest of the news media was for Obama.Obama won!”
At the risk of repeating myself, the point is the entire conservative media [radio, tv, print, internet] got the election wrong [the mainstream media wasn’t wrong as much as it was misleading by keeping up the illusion that the election was going to be close] and FauxNews’ endless Pro-Republican propaganda ended up misinforming its viewers, hurting Romney and damaging the GOP.
Here’s a sober sided article of the subject
http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-is-killing-the-republican-party-2012-11
PS
A Pew journalism study covering August 27 through October 21 found that the media treated Romney and Obama close to equally.
“With stories discussing who has leading in the polls were removed, 15% of campaign stories about Obama were positive, 32% were negative and 53% were mixed. For Romney it was 14% positive, 32% negative and 55% mixed.”
http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/winning_media_campaign_2012
PS
In my opinion, the number one reason for Romney losing was that the voters he really needed to convince to change sides, those who said that their personal economic situation was “no better (or worse)” than it was four years ago, broke for Obama by 18 points, 58-40.
Another problem with the “media influence” argument is that the group that Obama did best with, the 18-29s, are the least likely to watch TV news, listen to AM talk radio and/or read a newspaper, while the group Romney did best with, the 65 and overs, are the most likely to watch TV news, listen to AM talk radio and/or read the daily newspaper.
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