November 19, 2002
ARE JOURNALISTS NOT AMERICANS?
Roger Ailes-Bob Woodward Smackdown? (Lloyd Grove, November 19, 2002, Washington Post)[W]oodward wrote that when presidential adviser Karl Rove received "an important-looking confidential communication" from the news executive, he promptly shared it with Bush. "Ailes was not supposed to be giving political advice," Woodward continues. "His back-channel message: The American public would tolerate waiting and would be patient, but only as long as they were convinced that Bush was using the harshest measures possible."Yesterday, Ailes acknowledged writing Bush a letter -- a copy of which he declined to provide -- "nine days after 9/11. I had been working around the clock and sleeping on a couch in my office. I was expressing my outrage at the killing of Americans on American soil -- purely as an American citizen." As for Woodward's journalistic criticism, "I don't give a damn," Ailes said. "American citizenship is a big concept. If I had to give that up to be in journalism, I wouldn't do it. What I wrote was completely nonpartisan. I would have written the same letter to FDR after Pearl Harbor. If Bill Clinton had been president, I probably would have sent him the same memo."
Woodward responded: "What he's saying is a classic non-denial denial. Why would Rove take Ailes's personal message down to the president? Just to say that 'Roger Ailes is expressing his outrage'? Obviously, if it was significant enough for Rove to carry it to the Oval Office, it had some recommendations for policy. Why else is Roger being so furtive about it?"
I'm afraid I don't even understand the premise of Mr. Woodward's criticism--what would be wrong with Mr. Ailes making a policy recommendation? The editors of the Post make such recommendations ever day. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 19, 2002 3:29 PM
">http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/cyberalert/1997/cyb19970806.html#1
Apparently Woodward (as well as Begala and Carlson last night on CNN) has never heard of Rick Kaplan.
A fuller examination:
">http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021119.asp#4
I had no idea CNN had been running with this all day. Talk about naked opportunism.
Has Mr. Woodward ever heard of Ben Bradlee, drinking buddy to JFK.
Posted by: oj at November 19, 2002 5:09 PMtypical liberal/media hypocrisy - there's no problem with Babs faxing directions to Gephart (Gebhart), Martin Sheen making policy on TV every week, etc.
Libs couldn't win at the ballot box so they try even harder over the airwaves
I'm really at a loss trying to figure out what the people promoting this story hope to get -- Do they expect Murdoch to fire Ailes for some conflict of interest? Do they think that viewers across the country are going to turn off Fox News because Roger sent a letter to Bush after Sept. 11? What he apparently wrote was nowhere near as "jingoistic" as what Dan Rather said in support of Bush while wiping tears from his eyes during his post-9/11 appearance on David Letterman (liberals didn't get worked up about that because they knew Dan wouldn't hold to that position once the initial shock wore off).
Britt Hume was having a lot of fun with this on Don Imus' show Tuesday morning, sarcastically insinuating what some on the left really seem to believe -- that Fox News led the sheep-like masses to support Bush and vote Republicans into office on Nov. 5, and that this revalation by Woodward will drop the blinders from their eyes. It's really a desperate grasping at straws by the Post, the Times and the other media outlets.
Mickey Kaus
has the scoop - his theory is that it's just a publicity ploy by Ailes and Woodward, each playing to his expected audience.