GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean discussed the merits of various media outlets Monday night, unsurprisingly finding themselves on polar opposites of the debate.
Dean spoke positively about NPR, even in the wake of a recent controversy concerning the firing of correspondent Juan Williams over statements he made on Fox News, while Rove claimed that NPR's audience was like Saddam Hussein.
NPR "tell[s] it as they see it, and they usually get it right," Dean said of the radio outlet at a University of Delaware forum, according to Politico's report. And Fox doesn't get it right because Fox is a particular offender at making news instead of reporting it."
Rove reportedly interrupted: "45 percent of NPR listeners were Saddam Hussein."
Along with his strange criticism of NPR, Rove also blasted the New York Times and other print organizations, saying that they were "overwhelmingly liberal."
"They are systematically liberal, either politically or culturally, and they are unaware of it," Rove said, according to Politico.
Predictably, Rove claimed that Fox News and the Wall Street Journal were the solution to the woes of these outlets.
There's "a greater diversity there than I see in other networks," Rove said of Fox News. "NPR won't tolerate Juan Williams, but Fox will."
Rove then lauded the Wall Street Journal, home to his regular column and another progeny of News Corp, the massive media company owned by Rupert Murdoch, which also controls Fox News, the company that pays Rove as a contributor.
Rove's swipe at NPR is consistent with a Republican position -- even at the upper ranks of their leadership -- that has arisen since its decision to fire Williams.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor recently explained that the personnel shakeup could even lead to the GOP seeking to slash federal funding for the radio conglomerate.
"In light of their rash decision, we will include termination of federal funding for NPR as an option in the YouCut program so that Americans can let it be known whether they want their dollars going to that organization," Cantor said.