Who Owes Who An Apology?

> Update: 5:55pm: The Orlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker blogs about the controversy: “The size of his turnout, ultimately, wasn’t about his politics. It was about scheduling, critics’ interest in entertainment and their exhaustion after two weeks at the conference…”

On Friday, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell sent a letter to Television Critics Association president Rob Owen “in reaction to reports that about 100 TV critics walked out of a presentation” by Fox’s Roger Ailes. “I was appalled when I read news accounts” (there was only one) “about the utter lack of respect that so-called ‘fair’ and ‘balanced’ members of your organization exhibited toward Fox News Channel’s Chairman Roger Ailes Monday night,” Bozell wrote. “Such open contempt for Fox speaks volumes about their personal intolerance and disdain for any point of view that doesn’t reflect their liberal ideology.” The letter said the TCA press tour owes Ailes an apology.

In today’s Variety, Brian Lowry dutifully replies. Lowry was at the event, and Bozell wasn’t. “Certainly, the Ailes session was poorly attended,” he notes. But “unless Bozell can read minds, I’m mystified how he knows why people skipped out, given various explanations that are unrelated to politics, from deadline considerations to the fact that many press tour attendees focus on celebrity dish and care far more about gathering pearls of wisdom from Paula Abdul than Ailes or Rupert Murdoch.”

I think he’s saying that Bozell owes the TCA press tour an apology.