Roger Ailes, the President of Fox News, spoke exclusively with Russell Simmons, the founder of GlobalGrind.com. Following the horrific shootings in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, January 8, 2011, Mr. Simmons and Mr. Ailes spoke about the rising tension within the media.
Roger Ailes: They knew about this guy (Jared Lee Loughner). The education system knew about this guy…they kicked him out of school and told him until he gets a letter saying he’s not going to kill anybody, he can’t come back to school. The police department picked him up five times and let him go and nobody screened him for getting a weapon…So, by the time he decided to go to a mall and and wanting to kill somebody, he was attached to nobody. He was a flag burner. He just was not attached to the Tea Party.
It’s just a bullshit way to use the death of a little girl to get Fox News in an argument.
Russell Simmons: One thing I am sick of…I really want to see the people govern this country. And I want to see the people on the Right’s voice be respected, and the people on the Left’s voice be respected-
Roger Ailes: That’s what should happen. You know, they’re using this thing…apparently there was a map from one of Palin’s things that had her (Congresswoman Giffords) targeted district. So, we looked at the internet and the first thing we found in 2007, the Democrat Party had a targeted map with targets on it for the Palin district. These maps have been used for for years that I know of. I have two pictures of myself with a bull’s-eye on my head. This is just bullshit. This goes on… both sides are wrong, but they both do it.
I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that.
Listen, I have a picture of Sarah Palin hanging from the end of a rope. They made a doll up like her and hung her.
Russell Simmons: Angry Left, angry Right…none of it’s good. We need to create a dialogue, which I’d like to be part of, that brings people together to have intellectual discussion on how to govern this country. I think the President, although he has opinions which are to the left of center in a lot of America, and I’m to the left of him…
Roger Ailes (laughs): Then you must be skinny, you can’t get between him and the wall. You gotta to be one skinny guy, man.
Russell Simmons: There’s a lot of room between him and the wall. He is very progressive, but I think he’s willing to making a lot of good deals for America. And I want to push for that.
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