“I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I spoil them, as you can see”
by digby
There’s so much wrong with this I hardly know where to start:
Fox News’ founder is asking the network’s Glenn Beck haters to stop “shooting in the tent,” claiming the in-house anti-Beck vitriol is unprecedented in the company’s 14-year history.
Roger Ailes dropped by Fox’s Washington bureau Wednesday to give his staff a pep talk before the annual Radio and Television Correspondents’ dinner, mediabistro.com reports.
The topic of conversation quickly turned to conservative commentator Glenn Beck, whose hyper-opinionated commentary is a ratings boon for Fox — but also a recently revealed source of tension for the network’s other journalists.
A column in the Washington Post on Monday revealed that some Fox staffers are concerned the celebrity pundit is “becoming the face of the network.”
Ailes pointed out that the information in The Post’s column was leaked by Fox’s Washington bureau.
“For the first time in our 14 years, we’ve had people apparently shooting in the tent, from within the tent,” he told them.
But the Fox chairman clarified that Beck’s opinions were not that of the network and were firmly within his rights as a commentator.
“We prefer people in the tent not dumping on other people in the tent,” he added.
Ailes warned that people who found it hard to stand in Beck’s shadow had another option besides denigrating their own team.
“If I couldn’t defend the family, I’d leave,” he said. “I’d go to another family.”
I’ve written before that I thought Ailes operates like a mafia Don. But I’ve never seen it so explicitly expressed before:
Don Corleone: What’s the matter with you? I think your brain is going soft with all that comedy you are playing with that young girl. Never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking again. Go on.
The other shocking thing about this is that we are allegedly talking about a news organization, not a “family” mafia or otherwise. And the credibility of news organizations is supposed to rest on their loyalty to the truth, not their loyalty to one another.
I realize, naturally, that Fox isn’t actually a news organization but rather a political organization, but still, this is rather stunning, even for them. Ailes always says there’s a difference between the opinion shows and the news broadcasts. If that’s so, then the other opinion shows should have the privilege of expressing differences of opinions with Beck, and the few “news” people should be in the business of debunking him if he requires debunking (and he does — oh, how he does.) If nobody is allowed to “shoot inside the tent” they all become little Glenn Becks.
Maybe that’s the plan.
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