There’s a friendly, unquestioning and uncritical interview with Roger Ailes posted to the Hollywood Reporter’s website today. It was written by reporter Marisa Guthrie who did a great imitation of a Fox News publicist when she gave cover to Bill O’Reilly’s fabrications on Fox’s MediaBuzz show not long ago.
Last month when "media reporter" Guthrie appeared on MediaBuzz, purportedly as an independent voice, an avalanche of new allegations had just cast serious doubt on O’Reilly’s truthfulness. I noted that host Howard Kurtz sounded surprised at how glowingly she spoke about O'Reilly. I also wrote:
GUTHRIE: Bill is at his best when he has an enemy to battle against, to fight. And I think that he’s, you know, legitimately rebutting these accusations and his audience, I think they’re on his side and they want to see him do that. And it’s actually really good TV, and you know, look, if he feels that he’s been maligned, he’s got an enormous megaphone, a big platform where he can go …and legitimately rebut all those charges.
The thing is, as we wrote about O’Reilly’s answer to the Argentina allegations and CNN noted about the rest, O’Reilly did not legitimately rebut the allegations.
Clearly, Fox News doesn’t care. But what’s Guthrie’s excuse?
Well, now it appears her excuse was an interview and profile of Ailes that came out today. In her piece, Guthrie says she interviewed Ailes in April, which was after she earned those likely Fox props on MediaBuzz.
Predictably, Guthrie’s assessment of Ailes was just as rosy – and short-sighted – as her assessment of O’Reilly.
For example, early in the article, Guthrie helpfully suggests that Ailes admires Martin Luther King:
My eyes repeatedly wander to a framed photo on a shelf over his left shoulder. It is an iconic black-and-white photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. escorting children into their newly integrated school in Grenada, Miss., in 1966.
The picture is signed by Dr. Bernice King and Dr. Alveda King, King’s daughter and niece, respectively, who attended in November the graduation ceremony for the Ailes Apprenticeship Program, a diversity education program he founded in 2004. In point of fact, though, Ailes actually knew Dr. King back in the 1960s — the two crossed paths occasionally when Ailes was a local TV producer in Philadelphia. It’s a nugget of Ailes’ ‘biography that some might find surprising.
“They certainly don’t know me,” says Ailes.
Yet Guthrie either missed or deliberately ignored the persistent race baiting that is a staple on Fox News.
Guthrie also assisted Ailes in building up his bi-partisan, “fair and balanced” bona fides:
“I think liberals have a lot of good ideas actually,” (Ailes) says. “But I’ve been pigeonholed and I’m quite comfortable with it.”
… Fox News has 19 liberals on the payroll, though they’re often dismissed as straw men.
Rather than look for herself at how liberals are treated on Fox, Guthrie turned to paid contributor Juan Williams who – shocker! – defended Ailes and even chipped in an anecdote about how Ailes got his back when Williams was “a skinny black kid with an afro covering the Reagan White House.”
Gabriel Sherman, who wrote a terrific, unauthorized biography of Ailes, had some interesting comments on Twitter:
“The thing with writing long-form about Ailes is he tries to make deals to control story (1/2),” Sherman tweeted this morning. “When I did my book, Fox PR tried insisting I couldn’t report background anecdotes that Ailes could construe as ‘negative.’ (2/2)”
Perhaps even more significant was this tweet, “amazing the way Ailes can just say stuff that’s not true ‘My job is to cover the news and do it accurately and fair.’” And this one: “After writing Ailes biography, I’ve become much more interested in what Ailes DOES rather than what he SAYS…”
Indeed.
Like I said before. We know why Ailes behaves the way he does. But what’s Guthrie’s excuse?
photo credit: Roger Ailes, Cupid via photopin (license)
Read Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ’Merka? at the Not Now Silly Newsroom ( http://notnowsilly.blogspot.com/2013/03/did-roger-ailes-dupe-james-rosen-or-did.html ) to see what all the shouting is about.
With all my love,
Aunty Headly
This horrid skycraper in midtown Manhattan is loaded with control freaks. The masses would be shock to learn that the Workplace Bullies are not the only control freaks. This disease extends to Ruthless’ other companies. Ruthless himself wrote the book on control.
Paranoid Nixon Trainee Ailes’ day-to-day activities are far more interesting than his foul mouth.