The chief of Fox News, Roger Ailes, has made some interesting comments about television show host Jon Stewart and they are sure to raise some eyebrows. Ailes claims that when the two were at a bar together, Stewart admitted to Ailes that he was a socialist. The comments were made by Ailes during a talk at Ohio University on Monday night. The points made by Ailes were tweeted by journalist and media lawyer Jonathan Peters.
Ailes made the claim that Stewart “wouldn’t do well without Fox. And he basically has admitted to me, in a bar, that he’s a socialist.”
The favorite target of Stewart seems to be Fox News, so Ailes has made his thoughts about Stewart pretty clear in the past. Back in 2010, Ailes issued similar comments about Stewart when he called Stewart ‘crazy’ and said he ‘makes a living by attacking conservatives.’ Ailes went on to criticize other media outlets for bias. He said that “Media Matters writes all of the primetime programming for MSNBC. MSNBC is out of the news business and Brian Williams, a sincere newsman, wouldn’t want to be caught dead over there.”
Ailes claimed that the only difference between television shows airing on Fox News and CNN or MSNBC is “Fox invites liberal voices to engage in dialogue.”
Ailes went as far as criticizing the Associated Press and the New York Times. Ailes described the Associated Press as ‘tips to the left’ and the New York Times as ‘a cesspool of bias’ that employs reporters who are ‘a bunch of lying scum.’
Ailes decided to retract some of his attack against the New York Times as a top executive from Fox News said that Ailes regrest his language. The top executive also said that Ailes feels the paper has actually been fair towards Fox News under the direction of executive editor Jill Abramson.