A senior Fox News executive is refuting the account we posted earlier today of a meeting between Roger Ailes and Simon Greer of Jewish Funds for Justice regarding comments Glenn Beck made about the holocaust.
Fox News SVP of Development Joel Cheatwood tells TVNewser, “Never did we talk about Glenn ‘crossing the line.'”
Cheatwood says that during the meeting, he and Ailes explained Beck’s perspective that the holocaust is one of the worst events in history and should be handled with a tremendous amount of sympathy. They reinforced that everyone in the media needs to be sensitive around this topic.
Cheatwood said he felt it was an “honest, open, dignified meeting,” and that Greer’s account as it appeared in the Yahoo! article “didn’t bear any resemblance to the truth.” “The story basically — as I read it — indicated that Roger Ailes and myself had agreed with Greer,” he told us.
“We absolutely stood behind Glenn Beck 1000%,” he said.