The Cable Gamer was thrilled to see Fox News chief Roger Ailes on ABC's This Week" just now. Barbara Walters gets huge credit for putting together a genuinely all-star panel.
The discussion was mostly about Barack Obama and the State of the Union address, but there was a little go-round on Glenn Beck and Fox News, with Arianna Huffington and Paul Krugman on the attack. Ailes stuck up for Beck, although he was careful to say that Beck had apologized for calling Obama a racist. As Ailes said, it's live TV, and things happen. But when Huffington said that Fox had used nasty language, Ailes was ready with counter-punches, rattling off bad things that had been said about him on The Huffington Post. And TCG only wishes that Ailes had noted all the hatred that Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz are routinely spewing out.
What was truly impressive was the way that Ailes shifted the discussion, however briefly, to national security. After Krugman had been talking about the economy, mostly critical of Obama, Ailes allowed that he considered the economy to be the "second" most important issue. OK, Walters asked, so what was the first?
"The safety and sovereignty of the United States," Ailes answered immediately and blunty. He cited the underwear bomber--the near-tragedy in Detroit on Christmas Day. And he came close to saying that America needed profiling for terrorists; as he said, it's not the Norwegians that we're afraid of. Pow!
Ailes has a different quality to him than most conservatives, who tend toward the George Will/Tucker Carlson model of high-churchy Toryism. Ailes, from Warren, OH, seems to keep his red state/blue collar way about him. It's refreshing!
Even more interesting is Ailes on the topic he knows best, which is television. Asked to give Obama advice, he said, go into a room and think through what he really wants--what he really wants to do as president. Get away from the political hacks and advisers, who have--Ailes didn't say this, but everybody knows it's true--brought his presidency to the brink of ruin.
And Ailes had a great story about Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, about how they got things done, settling matters through compromise over drinks and Irish jokes. Obama should, as Ailes suggested, invite the Republican leadership over to the White House to watch the Super Bowl. That would be the way to get things done.
Yet it's interesting that Ailes would suggest it, since it would not, by definition, be on TV. Let's face it: TV thrives on conflict, the more public the better. So Ailes was suggesting a problem-solving mechanism that would, one could say, hurt TV ratings.
But it's country first with Ailes. And that's important to remember, as we watch Fox, because amidst all the free-for-all-ing, there's always a sense that Ailes is looking out for the country.
