Fox News vs. Obama: Roger Ailes on the attack

What does the Fox News chairman mean when he says Obama has a "different belief system than most Americans"? And is that comment "fair and balanced"?

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes says the network "tends to be more direct" in challenging presidents than its rivals.
(Image credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes let it "rip" in a rare interview with The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz, defending his network's "fair and balanced" coverage, trashing his competitors, alternately chiding and praising Fox stars Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, and criticizing Obama's "socialism." At one point, while discussing the president, Ailes asserted that Obama "just has a different belief system than most Americans" — a statement Kurtz calls a "rather loaded phrase." What is Ailes talking about? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about Ailes' comments)

Whose beliefs are out of sync?: Ailes' "nauseating twaddle" is dangerously unglued from reality, says Joe Klein in Time. Does he seriously believe a "moderate Democrat like Obama" is a "left-wing socialist"? His network sure seems to. But Ailes' paranoid "mouthpieces" Hannity and Beck "represent — on a good day — the views of maybe 30 percent of all Americans," so if anyone's beliefs are out of step with America, it's Ailes'.

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