On Monday night, Arianna appeared on Countdown With Keith Olbermann to follow up on her back-and-forth with Roger Ailes concerning Glenn Beck and Fox News. Olbermann's introduction sums it up perfectly. Transcript and video clip are below.
Earlier in the day, Beck used his radio show to flatly deny using certain language when discussing the Obama administration, even though readily available video evidence proves him wrong. For more insight, read Arianna's latest blog post on Beck and Ailes, "Glenn Beck Goes After Me, But Forgets His Show Is on Video and Lies About Things He 'Never, Never' Said."
WATCH THE VIDEO
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It's not every day that the head of a cable news network appears on TV to give credence to the claim that his network lies... by lying himself... so transparently that common sense alone gives him away.
Universe, Roger Ailes. Roger Ailes, universe.
The Fox News super genius appeared on ABC's "This Week" as part of the roundtable... and fellow panelist Arianna Huffington, our guest presently... called on Ailes to answer for the damage his network does to the country.
Ailes, claiming that bad blood between his network and the White House is now largely past... also claimed that Glenn Beck when he said that people are **going** to be killed--future tense... he was talking about Hitler and Stalin... who, of course, are dead.
CLIP:HUFFINGTON: Aren't you concerned about the language that Glenn Beck is using, which is, after all, inciting the American people? There is a lot of suffering out there, as you know, and when he talks about people being slaughtered, about who is going to be the next in the killing spree...
AILES: Well, he was talking about Hitler and Stalin slaughtering people. So I think he was probably accurate. Also, I'm a little....
HUFFINGTON: No, no, he was talking about this administration.
AILES: I don't -- I think he speaks English. I don't know, but I mean, I don't misinterpret any of his words. He did say one unfortunate thing, which he apologized for, but that happens in live television. So I don't think it's -- I think if we start going around as the word police in this business, it will be...
END CLIP
"Word police," of course, is what Fox calls what everyone else calls journalists... editors and producers who, yes, police even the words I am reading to you now... to ensure, say... relative fairness and comparable accuracy.
Today, Beck said, quote, "If I used the word 'slaughtered' it wasn't in a context of Mao, Stalin or Hitler, it was in the idea that the truth is being slaughtered by this administration. Not saying that the administration is going to slaughter anyone."
CLIP
BECK: And when you see the effects of what they're doing to the economy, remember these words: "We will survive." No, we'll do better than survive. We will thrive, as long as these people are not in control. They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered.
END CLIP
I guess that wasn't English. Ailes's disdain for "word police", not only a slur against whomever at Fox still considers themselves journalists, but also explaining why he sees his goal not as journalism but as ratings, as you'll see in a moment.
Warning: If your head is fragile it may explode from his argument that when the president met with the GOP, Fox stopped covering it... because Fox is trusted, because Fox covers everything.
CLIP
AILES: I'm not in politics, I'm in ratings. We're winning.
HUFFINGTON: Roger, you clearly are in ratings, but if you are in ratings, can you explain to me why FOX went away from the meeting the president was having in -- why did you go away, 20 minutes before the end?
AILES: Because we're the most trusted name in news.
HUFFINGTON: OK and on that note...
WALTERS: I thought we were the most trusted name in news.
AILES: And we believe two liberal polls have now proven it. And the reason is we cover everything.
END CLIP
The "trust" claim, referencing a new poll in which a plurality says it trust Fox News, more than other news outlets... (apparently lumping MSNBC in with NBC).