Roger Ailes and Mao: Basically the Same Guy


Those bastions of objectivity over at Rolling Stone magazine have taken a break from publishing off the record comments and covering the exploits of Lady GaGa to defend America against non-liberal news bias.  Their target, of course, is Roger Ailes, President of the Fox News Channel.

As Brent Bozell at NewsBusters points out, the alleged journalist used anonymous sources to make the obvious connection that being celebrated for success at a party is almost indistinguishable from a communist dictator with 70 million deaths on his record.

via NewsBusters:

After painting a picture of employees loyally cheering the boss at a holiday party, Dickinson entertained comparisons to…Mao Zedong.

“It was as though we were looking at Mao,” said disgruntled ex-employee Charlie Reina. “It’s like the Soviet Union or China: People are always looking over their shoulders,” added “a former executive” with News Corporation. Dickinson also said Ailes runs “the most formidable propaganda machine ever seen outside the communist bloc.”

Put aside that Ailes isn’t responsible for 70 million deaths and mass cannibalism, and that his politics are essentially the philosophical opposite of communism – and OK, he’s Mao.

The anonymous sources and story of the party that celebrated the Fox News executive mass murderer were from 2002, and, other than the fact that it’s extremely old, it’s hard to determine why this would suddenly be brought up now.

That is until you take a look at New York magazine, which is coincidentally attacking the same target.  Deciding to move away from the strikingly obvious comparison with a psychotic tyrannical killer, they instead chose to strike fear in their readers with a far more damning description: The head of the Republican Party!

via Bozell:

The cover read “Fox News made a circus out of the Republican Party. And boy, does Roger Ailes regret it now.”

Reporter Gabriel Sherman blamed Fox for ruining the GOP primary field. “So it must have been disturbing to Ailes when the wheels started to come off Fox’s presidential-circus caravan. All he had to do was watch Fox’s May 5 debate in South Carolina to see what a mess the field was – a mess partly created by the loudmouths he’d given airtime to and a tea party he’d nurtured.”

So, from New York Magazine’s perspective, the tea party being nurtured is political suicide.  Clearly it is.  No one is disputing that.  Certainly not November of 2010.  Additionally, the GOP primary field has been “ruined” by the contributors that Fox hired, because after all, no one wants to talk about loudmouth idiots like Sarah Palin.

Though it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with the press narratives, I’m going to give it a shot based on these two articles and my own understanding of the mainstream media:

“Barack Obama was elected president in spite of the 50% of the country that is clearly racist and hates poor people.  This segment of the population is under the control of the two most powerful men in America: Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh (Which we’ve never seen in the same room at the same time mind you) who send marching orders out through Fox News.  Fox has employed a ragtag group of presidential hopefuls as news contributors which is at the same time hilariously pitiful because they are all so sucky and can’t win but also incredibly dangerous and deceitful because these are the most powerful people in the country and they own oil and break levees for fun and um… eat children.  But mind you, the media isn’t against Republicans per se.  They are only against every single person that is a member of the party because they are all racists or victims depending on which story is being told.”

As far as I can tell, this is how Rolling Stone & New York Magazines view the world.  Bias is not running negative stories about large groups of protestors who oppose a democrat president who happens to be black.  Bias is being happy that your news station is doing well.  Bias is employing leading voices on the right to provide analysis from the right.  Bias is asking difficult questions of the current administration.  Bias is the absence of a leftist perspective or the inclusion of a conservative one.

Objectivity is achieved only through destroying your competitor by demonizing him.

In summary, FAUX NEWS!!!


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11 Comments Leave a comment

some journalistic notes

sethasaurus Thursday, June 2nd at 4:47PM EDT (link)

Two brief, basic journalistic comments:

“…the alleged ‘writer’ used anonymous sources…”

This is incorrect. The word “alleged” implies that the validity of the term in question is dubious. Similarly, putting scare quotes around a term implies that its validity is dubious. So, you either say, “…the alleged writer used anonymous sources…,” or you say “…the ‘writer’ used anonymous sources.” Otherwise, you’re being redundant.

In addition, referring to an “alleged writer” is strange, as there’s no question or uncertainty that the person who wrote that piece did, in fact, write that piece. They are, indisputably, a writer. I think what you mean to say is something like, “…the alleged journalist…,” as you’re calling into question his journalistic integrity, not the fact that he actually wrote something.

Other than that, great piece!

Very valid points

Ben Howe (Diary) Friday, June 3rd at 8:12AM EDT (link)

Ask and ye shall receive. See above. (thanks for reading)

You can always find people to give you the answers that you think reinforce the facts you’ve already decided are true.


 
 

Journalist Integrity...That died a long time ago.

cja99 Thursday, June 2nd at 8:51PM EDT (link)

When you just make things up, you will be made accountable and forget anybody reading whatever you write ever again.

 

just

geah Friday, June 3rd at 7:32AM EDT (link)

call me racist today, of course I am not white or black, Oh well thats

politics.

 

Turn It Around Maybe?

westernliberal Friday, June 3rd at 4:47PM EDT (link)

What if MSNBC had 4 or 5 Democratic presidential candidates on their payroll? What might you say about that?

Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers ARE the republican party. It’s not obvious? I mean just watch any “hard hitting” interview with Hannity, Cavuto, Van Sustren, or O’Reilly with GOP presidential candidates.

Keep those lefty blinders on.

gekster (Diary) Friday, June 3rd at 5:11PM EDT (link)

Of course with blinders, it is very hard to see the light.

They say Republicans are for the rich, Democrats are for the poor.
If they need more voters,
then they have to make more of who they are for.

We are there in the various Tea Party groups, leaderless, but not rudderless.
We steer always toward the Constitutional principles this nation was founded upon.
Erick Brockway

I’ve gone from
“Hope and Change” to
“Hopeless and Changeless”

 

Umm, Fox News is not the Republican Party

civil truth (Diary) Friday, June 3rd at 5:18PM EDT (link)

And the Fox commentators are not the anointed spokespeople for conservatism.

(And I will defer to others more qualified to discuss media personalities.)

But to your bigger point, you can point out rich folks supporting Republicans, I can point out rich folks supporting Democrats. Get over it – rich people, like the rest of us, are going to give donations and fund projects that are in their self interest and in accord with their philosophic beliefs. Or does it only count as demerits if they give to those on the opposite side of the political divide.

Again, the bigger problem is the incestuous relationship between government and big business/big labor that intensifies inequities by a positive feedback system (like heating cooking oil in a pan).

Break up the collusion, which is not by making government more powerful. How many more intrusions into our lives do you want before you wake up and smell the coffee (Free Trade and organic only, if our Washington busybodies would have their way).

The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis

Don't you mean "Fair Trade"? nt

aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 3rd at 8:10PM EDT (link)

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke

 
 

It would definitely be an improvement, and the arguments

earlgrey (Diary) Friday, June 3rd at 5:22PM EDT (link)

would be more rational. It would also move the network more towards the center. Great Idea.

 
 

ITS CALLED ENVY

mramerica Friday, June 3rd at 5:47PM EDT (link)

Proverb says, “Envy is better worth having than pity”. In Fables, John Gay writes, “Fools may our scorn, not envy raise; For envy is a kind of praise”. It should be clear ro all sensible people, that those on the poltical left cannot contain their outrage and envy at Fox News and conservative talk radio for their success. Whereas liberal failure to connect with the people, is cause for concern.

 

Too funny.

aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 3rd at 8:12PM EDT (link)

“Put aside that Ailes isn’t responsible for 70 million deaths and mass cannibalism, and that his politics are essentially the philosophical opposite of communism – and OK, he’s Mao.”

Yes, and put aside the fact that I’m not Asian, haven’t caused the death of millions, and that I’m his philosophical opposite — and OK, I’m Pol Pot.

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke