Ailes: "Obama is on the move. I don't know if ... Bush called Musharraf...."

[marmar]

Roger Ailes needs to be declared an enemy combatant.:grr: - OP's comment


from Media Matters:


Ailes: "Obama is on the move. I don't know if ... Bush called Musharraf and said: 'Why can't we catch this guy?' "

On March 8, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes joked: "t is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said: 'Why can't we catch this guy?' " Ailes made his comment while accepting the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation's First Amendment Leadership Award.

As Media Matters for America has noted, on January 19, several Fox News hosts touted a since-discredited InsightMag.com report that "researchers connected to" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) disclosed that Obama "spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia" and that "the specific Madrassa Mr. Obama attended" might have taught "a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims." For example, The Big Story's John Gibson said that Clinton had "reportedly outed Obama's madrassa past" despite later acknowledging that it "oesn't seem" that "Hillary's fingerprints on the story." Several news outlets have debunked the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa, and ABC News reported that the charge that Clinton's campaign was behind the smear "remains unproven and unsubstantiated."

ABC News also reported that, after the madrassa story had been debunked, Bill Shine, Fox News senior vice president of programming, issued a statement saying that the hosts of Fox News' Fox & Friends "gave too much credence to the Insight magazine report and spent far too long discussing its premise on the air." Shine noted that Fox & Friends subsequently issued a "clarifi." Shine's statement did not address Gibson's allegations of Clinton's involvement.

Media Matters for America has documented other media figures who have likened Obama's name to that of Osama bin Laden.

Ailes' comments were noted by Mediabistro's TVNewser weblog, as well as by MyDD, and The Huffington Post.

In a March 9 article noting Ailes' Obama joke, The Politico reported: "The Nevada State Democratic Party is pulling out of a controversial presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 14 in Reno and co-hosted by Fox News, according to Democratic insiders."

From Ailes' March 8 speech, as broadcast on C-SPAN's Tonight from Washington:

AILES: It is true that I said Britney Spears looked great at the Academy Awards -- and I later found out it was Jack Nicholson.

It is true that, just in the last two weeks, Hillary Clinton has had over 200 phone calls telling her, in order to win the presidency, she must stay on the road for the next two years. It is not true they were all from Bill.

And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said: "Why can't we catch this guy?" .....more

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703100002

[ShortnFiery]

1. Roger Ailes is a nasty piece of work.

He's EVEN worse than the Neo-Conservatives in Our Executive Branch because Ailes is already slithering from the impending wreckage of the Iraqi Invasion. He's half stepped and played down his role in this disaster. Like the sh*t he is, he's going to survive the BushCo. backlash, rise to the top of FAUX propaganda and keep spewing right wing lies along with Brit Hume. :(

Every time the man speaks, it's all seemingly just reconstituted right wing vomit. :puke:

IMO, the man has no morally redeeming motives, nada, none at all. :shrug:

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Ugly old bastard inside & out.

[madrchsod]

3. roger cost fox news a ton of money and prestige

i wonder what rupert thinks of roger losing ad revenue and not having his lady hillary on his network...roger pissed off the wrong people...

[iamjoy]

4. Oh, I Think It's Funny

I mean, it points out what an idiot Dubya is, that he doesn't know the difference between a terrorist and an inspiring Senator/Presidential candidate from Illiniois.

I guess that's one way of looking at it.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

5. That's how I saw it too.

It was a jab at Bush, not Obama.

[AnnInLa]

6. There is an opinion article at Huffpo

That claims Ailes was just making a joke, demeaning president bush, not Obama. Or, his whole article is satire, I can't tell. Supposedly, we Dems are hypocritical (Kerry's joke), and just don't get the Ailes joke:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/democratic-hypocrisy-or-i_b_43091.html

Democratic Hypocrisy or Is It They Just Don't Get Ailes Joke?


"And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?" Fox Prez, Roger Ailes

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.
If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Sen. John Kerry

The Democratic Party is using Fox President Roger Ailes' joke as a rationale to slowly cancel it's participation in the Fox sponsored presidential debate. They say that Ailes "joke" was meant to demean Barack Obama. That Obama and bin Laden are both terrorists.

It recalls John Kerry's clumsy joke just prior to last November's election. Radio talk show hosts followed by every politician on the right were fast to jump on Kerry for ridiculing our troops' lack of intelligence. But we in the "joke" biz understood the Kerry's poorly structured crack was meant to clearly mock President Bush; that he got us stuck in Iraq because he is an unthinking simpleton. So stupid that he couldn't tell the difference between al Quaeda and Saddam Hussein.

Ailes' joke is receiving the some of the same media criticism that hit Kerry. But Ailes was not putting down Obama. Reading the context of the joke, it is obvious that Ailes was only pointing out just how unbelievably dumb this president is; that he can't even tell the difference between Obama and bin Laden.

That took guts on the part of Ailes and if the head of Fox can say that President Bush is an blathering idiot I would hope that it would put to rest the myth that the network is a right wing mouthpiece.

I assure you that this week Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the Fox boys will be pointing out the hypocrisy of the Dems on this one; that if Kerry was mocking President's gross incompetence than they must credit Ailes for doing the same.

Democrats can't have it both ways.

Steve Young

[Cass]

7. It sounded like another jab at Obama's name being similar to Osama.

Faux had a field day with that awhile back. I'd be real surprised if Ailes was mocking Bush.

[newsdude]

8. Get used to the Obama/Osama name controversies

They've just begun.

IMO, the FNC's guy's comment was a shot at Bush for not knowing the difference.

But Obama supporters are already way to bloody oversensitive about his name.

Jeez. OF COURSE his name matters,

The United States has been at war with Bin laden (supposedly) and Hussein for the last five years.

Now we're considering electing a guy who's name doesn't sound like George Washington or Bill Clinton.

We're talking about a guy named Hussein Obama.

Given the bloody phobias about muslems all over this country, isn't it OBVIOUS people are going to have a problem with his name?

If he's nominated, the entire election will be about issues of race. And not in a good way,