Roger Ailes: Obama 'Has Different Belief System Than Most Americans'

In an interview, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes told The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz that he thinks President Obama has rankled international allies because his "socialism" was "too far left" for them.

"The president has not been very successful," Ailes said. "He just got kicked from Mumbai to South Korea, and he came home and attacked Republicans for it. He had to be told by the French and the Germans that his socialism was too far left for them to deal with."

He also said that Obama "just has a different belief system than most Americans."

The interview is filled with revealing moments. Ailes also claims not to have known about Fox News parent company News Corp's $1 million donation to the Republican Governor's Association. He said Rupert Murdoch told him, "I hope that didn't cause you any problems."

Ailes also told Kurtz that he personally told Fox News staffers to ignore the story of Keith Olbermann's suspension, and mounted a spirited defense of Glenn Beck, who has been weathering heavy criticism from progressive and Jewish groups for his attacks on George Soros.

Referring to Beck's discussion of Soros' experiences during the Holocaust, Ailes said that the host had only been trying to raise questions about Soros' character, and complained that there are some "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use word, Holocaust, on the air."

Comments

[DanGreen]

11:14 AM on 11/22/2010

"Everywhere there's lots of piggies
living piggy lives.
You can see them out for dinner
with their piggy wives,
clutching forks and knives
to eat their bacon..."
George Harrison, 1967

[Modern Liberal]

12:36 AM on 11/22/2010

This is man doesn't know what he is talking about. Fox News is trash, spewing lies out every nanosecond. Faux News thrives off keeping Americans scared of a man who is trying to help the common people. Hopefully Americans will be able to look past this nonsense and realize who really is fighting for the middle class. And it isn't anyone whose friends with the new Speaker...

[myfatherschild]

11:05 PM on 11/21/2010

Is he an alien?

[Angrygrrl]

03:08 PM on 11/21/2010

No....it's you that has a different belief system...

you enjoy creating Faux's world view, selling it and standing by while others destroy everything you dislike for you.

[DanGreen]

11:16 AM on 11/22/2010

Say what?

[poobah]

01:23 PM on 11/21/2010

What would he ever know about what most Americans think or hold dear? I know foch snooze tries to tell them, but they are far from that successful.

[awa611]

11:55 AM on 11/21/2010

I love how these people over-use the "most Americans" phrase. They don't really care what "most Americans" want or think. They only care about forwarding their own desires and claiming everyone else wants the same thing.

[ebanks84]

02:14 PM on 11/21/2010

Ain't that the truth. You would think they personally know "most Americans" the way they use that phrase so much.

[michelesda]

08:44 AM on 11/21/2010

How could somebody from whatever planet this guy is from possibly know what kind of belief system America has?

[ebanks84]

02:15 PM on 11/21/2010

Good question!

[nbb]

08:43 AM on 11/21/2010

The same could be said in truth of the Fox Network "system of belief". It is NOT shared by MOST Americans. It's shared by the subset of mostly old, angry white people who sit in front of their TV day after day, feeding their particular set of prejudices.

[ebanks84]

02:15 PM on 11/21/2010

Amen.

[MWChris]

03:37 AM on 11/21/2010

"Roger Ailes told The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz that he thinks President Obama has rankled international allies because his "socialism" was "too far left" for them."

Huh????

Virtually ALL of America's international allies, particularly its European ones, are to the left of the US, so what is Roger Ailes talking about??? He actually believes the nonsense that passes as "news" at Foxxx News. I thought he was smarter than that.

[derekc06]

11:47 PM on 11/20/2010

A belief system that got him elected in a landslide election. And which part of his agenda has been radical socialism again?

Must have been all that junk about how: "It’s not enough for just some of us to prosper -- for alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we’re all connected as one people. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum: 'Out of many, one.'" -- Barack Obama

That junk.

[NoSandwiches]

09:19 PM on 11/20/2010

Also, I hear the President is BLACK!

I mean, who let THAT happen?

Shocking, really.

This is the very first President that I feel really absolutely shares my belief system. It is so rare that you get the opportunity to read a book like Dreams from my Father where the author clearly has no aspirations or idea that he might ever run for president and is able to genuinely share with people who he was and give insight into the man he became.

I must sadly agree that there seems to be a minority of Americans who share the belief that we are in this boat together, that we are responsible for each other and to each other, that politics doesn't have to be about bringing the opponent down.

It's lonely.

[SimianNation]

04:21 PM on 11/20/2010

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

[TFlint]

10:45 AM on 11/20/2010

What does he know about belief?

[conservicide]

05:01 AM on 11/20/2010

Roger "the Ironicator" Ails has apologized to his mother's clients for gifting them with millions of follicle pets.

[dzent1]

02:44 AM on 11/20/2010

Why do these sad, overweight, over-pampered, disgustingly rich billionaires think we think THEY have anything in common with real people? It's laughable. I'd listen to a talking frog before I'd want to hear anything Ailes has to say.

[JustSteve]

07:56 AM on 11/20/2010

Great point....

And yet millions of people listen anyway.