http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2003/10/29/165339.shtml
Fox News' Ailes Speaks Out
Broadcasting & Cable magazine has named Fox News Channel chairman Roger
Ailes its first Television Journalist of the Year because under his
leadership, "Fox News is kicking tail."
FNC's policy of being fair and balanced has other news executives "squirming
or screaming," the magazine noted.
Highlights of an interview with Ailes in this week's issue:
a.. On Iraq: "It's easy, in hindsight, to say this was oversold or that the
media over-covered it. It seems to me that, if 15 countries in the United
Nations declare that the weapons of mass destruction exist and are some sort
of imminent threat, not to cover that would have been irresponsible. It was,
I believe, national policy, under Clinton, to remove Saddam Hussein and go
to war, if necessary."
a.. On journalists' claims of neutrality: "The concept that the journalists
are totally objective is crazy. They have friends. They have an education.
They've gone to some school where some professor spun their brain out.
They've got a view of life. They've got history. They've got parents.
They've got people they like and socialize with. They have a view based on
their experience. And they bring all that to journalism. Their job is to try
to sort through that and get to as much truth as they can get to, which is
what we do, every day."
a.. On taxpayer-subsidized media bias: "I know the misconceptions at NPR. I
know the agenda. There are no conservatives on NPR. None. You can't get
one."
a.. On the media's pack mentality: "At times, there's a little bit too much
group-think in journalism. And I am constantly trying to find out what the
facts are, and present the facts."
a.. On journalistic blunders: "We asked him [Geraldo Rivera] to apologize
for a rookie mistake. He got off the helicopter, had one source; it was a
Northern Alliance source. He said this was a friendly-fire incident or
something. He went to air with it, immediately. He should have checked it
with another source. ... But we haven't had a Tailwind, where you have 200
journalists for two years do a report and have to retract it and pay
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines."
'No Pro-life Women Working in Newsrooms'
a.. On slanted coverage of abortion: "If somebody asks you to do a story on
abortion, it's very hard, because there are no pro-life women working in
newsrooms anywhere in New York. ... I've been told by many women they'll
never acknowledge that [anti-abortion] position in a job interview; they'd
never get hired in a news organization."
a.. On the leftist bias of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times: "Well,
they've become advocacy journalism. You either do it, or you don't. And they
do it. [Ousted New York Times Editor Howell] Raines clearly was driving an
agenda."
a.. On critics who claim FNC is conservative: "The more they call us that,
the more viewers watch us, because the American people think the rest of the
media [are] too liberal."
Who's Really Pro-choice
a.. On FNC's patriotism: "I was at an event at the Museum of Television and
Radio, and I was the only journalist in the room who happened to have an
American-flag pin on. A bunch of other guys started kidding me and said,
'Oh, he's from Fox; he makes everybody wear the flag.' I said, "No, I'm just
not like ABC; I don't insist they not wear it. You all disagree with my
wearing it, and nobody here is defending my right to wear it.' Morley Safer
said, 'Anybody who wears it on the air is pandering to the audience. Would
you let a guy wear a peace symbol?' I said, 'Yeah, it's not my business.'
"There are things I'm a little iffy on: taking babies' lives. But I'm really
pro-choice on flag pins. I'm pro-choice on Haagen-Dazs ice cream. I'm
pro-choice on steaks. I said, 'I'm pro-choice on a lot of stuff.' I said, 'I
thought maybe you guys could understand this better if I just gave it to you
as pro-choice. I want to wear a damn flag pin, here or on the air, tough
luck. And if you don't, it's none of my business.' It got real quiet after
that."
Chris Wallace: Fox News Is Fair
Meanwhile, some Fox fans are upset that the network has hired Chris Wallace
from the unabashedly leftist ABC to be anchorman of "Fox News Sunday," but
he's already defending his new employer's fair and balanced coverage.
Hampered by the nattering nabobs' groupthink, he didn't always feel that
way, he admitted to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz.
"I had the same conception a lot of people did about Fox News, that they
have a right-wing agenda," said the son of CBS left-winger Mike Wallace.
"I'm a straight newsman - I plead guilty."
But months of watching Fox convinced him: "Its reporting is serious,
thoughtful and evenhanded. ... If they wanted someone to push a political
agenda, they wouldn't have hired me."
"Do I have political opinions? Absolutely. But I vote for the person, and I'
ve voted for Republicans and Democrats and independents over the course of
my life. I feel very strongly that you try not to let that affect the way
you report the news. I'm taking Fox up on its slogan."
Ailes called Wallace "one of the best interviewers in the business. ... I
have no idea what he thinks personally, but he asks tough questions of
everybody."
Wallace said Ailes asked him only one remotely political question: "Can you
wake up in the morning without assuming the U.S. is in the wrong?"
That's a question the rest of the media establishment ought to ask
themselves.
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