I would not call someone who has knowingly twisted the facts as a career a defender of the First Amendment. I would not call Roger Ailes a defender of one of the sacred tenants of our nation. He, who is the brains behind FOX News, has handed more people half truths and out and out lies than just about anyone else in the media. We have First Amendment restrictions in this country such as not yelling fire in a crowded room and not inciting others to riot. We have voting rights laws that ensure people are not harassed with voting advertisements within a certain distance of a polling place. Is knowingly leading someone astray in political issues a right that is granted by the First Amendment? Is the American electorate supposed to have their BS detectors on and be able to tell that I am about to knowingly lead them astray? What if I told them the wrong day or place to vote? What if on Election Day I put the Democratic office on speed dial and kept their line busy all day so they could not conduct business at all as was done by radio host Laura Ingram? What if I urged you with lies to vote for a President who has killed over 700,000 people and 3,000 Americans with more deaths to come? What if I called a Senator an “enemy of the state” which happened the other day on FOX News or said a day off in Congress was due to a Democrat but was actually due to a request from a Republican? What if I ask you a strawman argument because of course, “some say” that FOX News regularly includes straman arguments and receives its marching orders directly from the Republican Party. To give Roger Ailes this award is the equivalent of giving the creator of the Hummer an award for environmental excellence. What planet are these people on that give Roger Ailes a First Amendment leadership award?

Fox News Channel’s Roger Ailes will receive the 2006 First Amendment Leadership Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation at its annual awards dinner March 8 in Washington.

Ailes joins a list of past honorees that include Ted Turner, founder of FNC rival CNN; Don Hewitt of CBS; and Katharine Graham of The Washington Post.

“The news organization you have built offers, just as the framers intended, a variety of viewpoints, independent voices, and probing investigations that hold important institutions accountable,” said RTNDF in the letter telling Ailes of his selection.

RTNDF also cited FNC’s tenth anniversary last fall.

Also honored will be Bob Woodruff of ABC and Kimberly Dozier of CBS, both of whom were wounded while covering the war in Iraq. They will receive the Len Zeidenberg First Amendment Award, named after the former B&C chief Washington correspondent. The tribute to Woodruff and Dozier will include a salute to “all journalists who have been injured or who died while covering the war in Iraq.”

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H/T JoeWo for this post