Fox News Chief Roger Ailes: I Would Bring Back Brian Williams

Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox News, listens as anchor Shepard Smith, seen on screens in front and behind him, as Smith talks to the audience via satellite from Israel, at the Summer Televis... Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox News, listens as anchor Shepard Smith, seen on screens in front and behind him, as Smith talks to the audience via satellite from Israel, at the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, July 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) MORE LESS
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Despite calling out Brian Williams for a “dumb-ass error,” Fox News chairman Roger Ailes said in a recent interview that he feels NBC should bring back the embattled “Nightly News” anchor.

“I’d put Brian back, but I’d do it the right way,” Ailes told the Hollywood Reporter in a profile published on Monday.

“I think Brian’s a talent who made a dumb-ass error,” he added. “I’m a great believer in giving people a chance. If you haven’t actually killed someone or done something that’s irreparable, then it’s a matter of going on a little journey and never ever doing anything like that again.”

In February, Mother Jones published an article asking if Fox News superstar Bill O’Reilly had its own “Brian Williams Problem.” The the magazine spotted inconsistencies in O’Reilly’s war tales from his time as a reporter for CBS.

The questions led to a wave of subsequent investigations by the media casting doubt on O’Reilly’s work, from his claim to have been on the scene of a famous suicide (which audio tapes and several contemporaries dispute) to his statements saying he had witnessed American nuns shot in the head in El Salvador (he later said he only saw photos).

On Feb. 23, Fox News said Ailes was “in full support” of Bill O’Reilly.

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  1. He would bring back Nixon too.

  2. What’s one more liar on Fox News? He would fit right in with all but one or two of the rest !

  3. Well that settle it for me. I hadn’t really wasted a second of my time wondering if BW should come back or not, but now that this asswipe says he should then he clearly shouldn’t.

  4. Brian Williams: “You’re not helping!”

    As has been demonstrated with Bill-O’, he would never have let Brian leave in the first place… or even cared.

  5. Speaking for 99% of Liberals, you can have him.

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