In the wake of Donald Trump's Twitter temper tantrum about Megyn Kelly last night, Fox News chief Roger Ailes put out a statement defending Kelly and kinda sorta demanding an apology.
Last night, after Kelly and Fox's Chris Stirewalt legitimately questioned Trump's immigration plan, Trump went on another Twitter tirade against Kelly with more personal and sexist attacks. Today, Ailes responded.
In a statement issued to both the media and read on Fox News, Ailes said the following:
Donald Trump's surprise and unprovoked attack on Megyn Kelly during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is disturbing. Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at FOX News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise. I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults. Her questioning of Mr. Trump at the debate was tough but fair, and I fully support her as she continues to ask the probing and challenging questions that all presidential candidates may find difficult to answer.
Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should. We have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied by anyone and we’re certainly not going to start now. All of our journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way that has made FOX News Channel the number one news network in the industry.
If you ask me, this "demand" for an apology is weak tea and falls well short of what Kelly deserves. Especially since Ailes almost certainly approved of Kelly's debate questions and of the substance of last night's discussion (even though he tried to distance himself). In fact, to date, Ailes has pretty much thrown Kelly under the Donald Trump bus along with contributor Frank Luntz.
So while this statement is a step in the right direction for Ailes, it hardly indicates any significant journalistic independence.
Watch Fox host Jon Scott read Ailes' statement on the air, below, from the August 25 Happening Now show.
Graphic of Megyn Kelly by DonkeyHotey
“…Roger Ailes makes The Guinness Book Of World Records.—- FATTEST MAN EVER TO WALK A TIGHT-ROPE.”
LMAO! And when Jabba the Ailes inevitably falls off this tightrope, you can add the following entry to the Guinness Book Of World Records:
WORLD’S WORST EARTHQUAKE: was caused by Roger Ailes falling off a tightrope — IT MEASURED 9.5 ON THE RICHTER SCALE!
;^)
This feud has taken off and it will get much worse in the coming weeks.
Prepare the popcorn. Coming down the pipeline.
1. Ailes receives very bad news
2. Hannocchio is in shock
3. Elite GOP Washington Power Machine has a plan with the Foxies.
4. Trumpster’s mole
5. Allies of Fox “News” turns against them.
“All of our journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way…”
The scary thing is that there are a lot of people that actually believe those statements.
As for Media Whore Megyn? I have little or no sympathy for someone who touts the FOX propaganda line night after night, screeching her insanity about Jesus & Santa being white. You want to be respected as a journalist Megyn? Give up your gazillion dollar paycheck and kick FOX to the curb. Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say – whore.
On the other hand, even a lot of the hard right know that Trump is Fox’s Frankenstein. If Ailes doesn’t rein him in, or play a significant role in reining him in… Fox may be sunk. they may be sunk off Trump already, their base is dividing over him, once he stops being a media draw, they could see their ratings drop like a stone.
Not that I feel sorry for Ailes- Hell, what little I felt sorry for Kelly is based on how readily she’s thrown under the bus for things other hosts are propped up for. And she burned through that goodwill so fast that it went back in time.
