Is Murdoch out of touch with what is happening at his own network? Is his defense and praise of Beck an accident? That seems unlikely, given that he views the network as the jewel of his empire. When asked earlier this week by Fox Business' Liz Claman what News Corp.'s best growth market is, Murdoch said, "Our best growth engine right now is in this country." When Claman pressed for specifics, Murdoch immediately responded, "Fox Business. Fox News. Seriously."
Murdoch has quite consciously pushed Beck to the forefront at Fox News, and with him the type of paranoid, incendiary rhetoric and wild inaccuracies with which some Fox journalists are growing increasingly uncomfortable...Kurtz, now with The Daily Beast, reported that Ailes offered a "spirited defense" of Beck in the wake of his recent attacks on Soros, and that Ailes had even reached out to the Anti-Defamation League -- one of the groups that condemned Beck's "puppet master" series -- to smooth things over.
In fact, according to Kurtz's interview, Ailes' only real gripe with Beck seems to be that Beck criticizes Republicans too much. Ailes told Kurtz: "Beck trashes Republicans every night. I've said to him, 'Where the hell are you going to get your audience if you keep this up? You're trashing everyone.'"
Kurtz added: "There's one criticism that Ailes doesn't want to hear. He admonished the staff after unnamed Fox journalists told me they are worried that the divisive Beck is becoming the face of the network. 'Yeah, shut up,' says Ailes. 'You're getting a paycheck. Go on the team or get off the team. Don't run around here badmouthing a colleague.'"