[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 151 (Thursday, November 18, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H7581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MR. AILES SHOULD APOLOGIZE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, yesterday Roger Ailes, the president of Fox
News, decided that there were Nazis running around a competitor news
organization. He called the executives at National Public Radio
``Nazis.'' He said, and I quote, ``They are of course Nazis. They have
a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys
don't want any other point of view.''
Mr. Ailes also said, after a diatribe against President Obama and
against Jon Stewart of Comedy Central, and I quote, ``There are left-
wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can use the word
`Holocaust' on the air.''
Mr. Speaker, I find those words to be very offensive and
inappropriate. Relatives of mine were among the millions of Jews and
others who died in the Holocaust. At the hands of the Nazis, acts of
brutality and mass murder were carried out, the likes of which the
world had never seen.
If Mr. Ailes is the president of Fox News and claims to be fair and
balanced, he should keep his comments to himself. If he wants to be a
commentator, then he should be so. But if he wants to pretend to be a
so-called fair and balanced president of a major news organization, he
ought to know better than to utter such hateful words.
To use the word ``Holocaust'' in the same sentence that he uses the
word ``rabbi,'' although he clearly meant rabbi in another connotation,
is doubly offensive. And to use the word ``Holocaust'' cavalierly to
connote any situation in which somebody or some group feels aggrieved
is offensive again.
Mr. Ailes should apologize for these despicable statements of total
insensitivity that should not be connected to a president of a major
news organization.
Later today, I will send him a letter demanding that he retract and
apologize for these despicable statements.
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