Roger Ailes made a good point on Wednesday: "Why the silence? Where are the journalists on the Bill Clinton-mugs-Chris Wallace story?" You know, all those people who run committees and centers, and institutions and institutes, all dedidated to a free press, free speech, civil dialogue, etc. Where are they? They are as silent as the proverbial lambs.
It's fair to say that if a conservative had attacked a liberal reporter the way Clinton attacked Wallace on last Sunday's "Fox News Sunday," then these self-declared, tax-deductible guardians of public morality would've all been on the case defending the aggrieved liberal--demanding that the offending conservative apologize, admit that's he mean, etc.
And that's what Ailes said on Wednesday afternoon, in an interview with the AP's David Bauder. Clinton launched "an assault on all journalists," the Fox chief said, and he's right.
"If you can't sit there and answer a question from a professional, mild-mannered, respectful reporter like Chris Wallace, then the hatred for journalists is showing," Ailes added. "All journalists need to raise their eyebrows and say, 'hold on a second.'"
But if the journalistic establishment is raising its eybrows, it's doing so off the record, because the AP clearly failed to find anyone to take up for Wallace. But the wire service did manage to uncover Steve Rendell of the lefty Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, who sniped that Ailes was "whining." Thanks Steve; you really stuck up for a free press with that quote.
But fringe-leftists aside, the real question is whether or not the MSM establishment will stick up for Wallace. As noted, Wallace is one of them, by background, although he always distinguished himself by being neutral ideological and self-effacing to the point of being almost shy. In other words, Chris Wallace was, and is, a reporter of the type that most reporters say that they strive to emulate. (Whether those others succeed or not is another question.)
But now Wallace has discovered that a lot of his pals when he was at ABC aren't his pals now that he's at Fox.
But Wallace does have one pal where it counts: Roger Ailes, his boss. Ailes has never run from a fight in his life. Nor shirked the principle of press freedom.
That makes Ailes a hero. Sadly, he's a rare hero in this lib-lopsided media world. Unique, in fact.
