Roger Ailes and Nazism...

Roger Ailes is the Head of Fox News Channel. I am not convinced that "news" is the right word for what Fox does, but to each their own.

However, it is Ailes' comments about National Public Radio (NPR) that have me shaking my head and muttering WTF is this man talking about?

Ailes said the following in reference to NPR in the wake of the firing of Juan Williams:

"They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism."

Comparing NPR executives to Nazis is absurd in the extreme. It also highlights a complete lack of understanding of Nazism and ultimately the development of the Final Solution and the holocaust perpetrated against European Jews.

Ailes remarks remind me of the content of a subject I used to teach at universities throughout Indonesia on advocacy. Advocates must be conscious of their biases and their prejudices so that they do not begin to exaggerate to the point of absurdity in trying to sustain their argument. Comparing NPR executives to Nazis is an exaggeration in a most offensive form. If Ailes was not always so focused on getting off cheap shots at liberal institutions and the liberals themselves, then his brain might have kicked into gear before his mouth did and he might have thought twice about his comparison of NPR executives and Nazis.

In hindsight he did reflect a little and offered an apology of sorts, but not to the NPR executives. Ailes offered his apology to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Part of the reason why I do not watch Fox News Channel is that there is nothing that I can reconcile with the slogans "Fair and Balanced" or "We Report, You Decide", as both are clearly misnomers for what FNC does.