This week's Television Critics Association meeting in Pasadena, Calif., will probably be best remembered for MSNBC anchor
Keith Olbermann's antics donning a Bill O'Reilly mask and Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes' calling Olbermann's behavior "
over the line."
But what didn't get as much attention was the behavior of members of the Television Critics Association, who walked out en masse when Ailes spoke to the organization.
Their decision to stage a walkout, writes
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell in a letter to Television Critics Association President Rob Owen, demonstrates that the journalists are "nothing more than cynical hypocrites."
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, calls on Owen to apologize to Ailes. His antagonists, which numbered about
two-thirds of the 150 attendees in the room, were apparently protesting Fox News' "conservative spin."
The Ailes episode was
first reported by Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald on Wednesday.
The following is Bozell's letter to Owen.
July 27, 2006
Rob Owen
President
Television Critics Association
Dear Mr. Owen:
I was appalled when I read news accounts about the utter lack of respect that so-called “fair” and “balanced” members of your organization exhibited toward Fox News Channel’s Chairman Roger Ailes Monday night. Such open contempt for Fox speaks volumes about their personal intolerance and disdain for any point of view that doesn’t reflect their liberal ideology.
Sources at the meeting reported that two-thirds of the 150 attendees in the room walked out in protest of Fox’s “conservative spin.” Can you imagine the uproar that would follow if even a fraction of those attendees walked out on Dan Rather or CNN’s Ted Turner? Ironically, the very people who promote “freedom of the press,” “tolerance” and boast of “diversity of opinion” have demonstrated that they are nothing more than cynical hypocrites. Frankly, they don’t deserve to call themselves journalists.
Perhaps your members should familiarize themselves with the standards and ethics of their industry. Only then can they begin to practice what they preach: fair and balanced reporting.
Roger Ailes is owed an apology.
Sincerely,
L. Brent Bozell III
President, Media Research Center
