Showing his true colors after extending an olive branch Aug. 10 to 69-year-old real estate tycoon and former reality TV star Donald Trump, 75-year-old former George H.W. Bush communication director and Fox News President Roger Ailes called again for Trump to apologize to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. When Fox News blindsided Trump Aug. 6 in the first Fox News debate, 42-year-old Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus signaled to Fox News to sabotage Trump’s campaign. Priebus was so rattled by Trump’s unexpected rise in the polls, he had no choice but to use his ties to Fox News to sabotage Trump’s campaign. When that strategy backfired, it became all-out war with Trump. It took, ironically, conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh to call Fox News out for “setting up” Trump in the first debate, prompting the dust-up with Kelly.
When Ailes called Trump Aug. 10, it was completely out-of-line, considering Trump was the victim of an RNC-Fox News conspiracy to attack Trump’s rising campaign. Anyone remotely objective knows that Fox News isn’t a real news organization anymore than MSNBC, whose left-wing antics lack political neutrality to have any credibility. Ailes’s direct involvement defending Kelly shows the extent to which his job has gotten to his head. Ailes overreacted to Trump’s recent comments about Kelly’s vacation. “Must have had a terrible vacation,” Trump said of Kelly. “She’s really off her game,” to which Ailes demanded Trump apologize directly to Kelly. If News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch had any sense, he’d call Ailes on the carpet for stepping out of line. News executives aren’t supposed to be making headlines, destroying what’s left of Fox News’s credibility.
Calling out Fox News for setting him up in the first debate gave Fox News an egregious black eye, exposing its incestuous relationship with RNC. “Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at Fox News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise,” said Ailes, bringing more disdain to Fox News with every word. If Rush calls out Fox News for slamming Trump in the first debate, Ailes should be playing it really low-key. Going after Trump for saying next to nothing exposes Ailes, not only as a partisan zealot but as having no common sense. No news organization, especially its president, wants to be the news-maker. Trump has a growing following outside Fox News to weaken the channel’s brand. Ailes’s inappropriate remarks hurt the Fox News Channel, especially with Trump’s moderate brand taking root.
Ailes defends Kelly but disgraces the Fox News Channel by exposing its right with bias and overt antipathy toward one-of-17 GOP presidential candidates. “I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults,” said Ailes. When Trump stepped into the first debate, all three Foz News moderators were prepared to sabotage him. Trump withstood unreasonable questions from Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Brett Bair. Kelly questioned Trump’s disparaging statements toward women on NBC’s reality TV Show “The Apprentice.” She knew Trump was cast as the humorous “critic,” reflecting nothing of his true views but a script designed for pure entertainment. It’s the equivalent of accusing Sir. Anthony Hopkins for really being a sadist serial killer for his role in “Silence of the Lambs.” Trump withstood Fox News’s prearranged barbs.
Ailes wants Trump to apologize but won’t admit what Rush calls the “set up” on Trump. He praises Megyn’s “professionalism,” despite knowing that all three Fox News moderators went into the debate with an agenda against Trump. “Donald rarely apologizes, although in this case he should,” insisted Ailes, acting like the pot calling the kettle black. Ailes can’t admit, let alone apologize, for adopting a pre-debate strategy of sabotaging Trump’s credibility. Trump calls into question the stranglehold the RNC and Fox News have on the Republican Party. Since founding the Fox News Channel in 1996, Ailes took the GOP away from the moderate politics of Party icon, the late President Ronald Reagan. Ailes and the RNC backed the GOP’s most extreme elements known today as the “Tea Party,” trying to turn back the clock on social safety net begun under Franklin D. Roosevelt
Looking at the big picture, Trump’s going after sacred cows of American politics, including the divisive brand of partisan politics that came into vogue during the George W. Bush administration. Going after Fox News, Trump reinvigorated the GOP’s silent majority in the tradition of Reagan, Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater. Getting into a dust-up with Trump shows why Ailes is no doubt nearing retirement. Making himself the news headline, Ailes hurts Fox News’s credibility, running counter to its motto of “fair-and-balanced.” “We are all friends of Donald Trump, but he is totally out of bounds re-igniting that fight,” said “Fox & Friends” Brian Kilmeade. No one at Fox News dares tell their beloved president to shut his pie hole. Ailes thinks going after Trump helps Fox News sagging ratings at a time then the GOP reassesses a winning formula for the 2016 presidential campaign.
