Fox News' Chris Wallace: Pat Buchanan “Has Said Some Very Incendiary Things,” Wasn't “Blacklisted”

Fox News host Chris Wallace said today that recently-departed MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan has said things “I'm not particularly fond of” and “has said some very incendiary things about Israel, about Jews, about blacks, about other minorities.” Wallace also rebutted Buchanan's claim that he was “blacklisted,” saying that management has a right to fire him and groups have a right to protest his comments if they're offended.

“I'm not saying that I am particularly fond of these groups either, but, you know, you don't have a right to be on MSNBC or Fox or any of these places ... [it's] the prerogative of the -- of the management and a group that is offended by your comments has the right to complain about it,” Wallace said on The Mike Gallagher Show. “I don't think they blacklisted him.”

Wallace later said of Buchanan:

WALLACE: No, well I, look, I mean, I wasn't prepared to get into a discussion about Pat Buchanan's views --

GALLAGHER: I understand, I understand.

WALLACE: -- and I don't have them, but I do know over the years, because I remember when I was at ABC, we had him on Nightline. He has said some very incendiary things about Israel, about Jews, about blacks, about other minorities, and I -- you know, look, he's entitled to say those things. It's a free country, but on the other hand, groups that are offended by those remarks are entitled to say it too.

GALLAGHER: I guess I am just so fascinated --

WALLACE: And let me just finish my thought. And an employer, be it Fox News or MSNBC or anybody else, is entitled to say, “you know what? We don't want this guy.”

During discussions of Buchanan's departure from MSNBC, several media writers have wondered if Buchanan would end up on Fox News' payroll.

Listen to Wallace's remarks about Buchanan on today's The Mike Gallagher Show:

After discussing a network's prerogative to fire its commentators, Wallace mentioned Glenn Beck's departure from Fox News' lineup.

“Now, I don't know that Glenn Beck was fired, but certainly, did it help his situation that he made such incendiary remarks that, you know, calling Obama a racist?” Wallace asked.

“One, I don't think it's true. Two, I don't think it's a constructive thing to say, and it's irresponsible for a guy who's on, you know, as part of a lineup and if you're going to say that kind of thing -- there's plenty of things you're able to say. I don't find that my freedom of expression at Fox News is curtailed but if you want to go over a certain line and you know it, and, you know, you just know in your head, what are things you can say that would be over that line, and I know it too, you know, it's just -- you know, it's like the old line of Potter Stewart about obscenity in the Supreme Court, I, you know, I can't define it but I'll know it when I see it. If you want to go over that line, you're taking your chances, and if you feel strongly enough, go ahead and do it. But don't then whine and moan and complain.”

Wallace remarked on Beck and Fox: “My point is, in the case of Fox, it's hardly that he was too conservative, it was that he was saying things that were hateful to people.”

Wallace added that he likes Glenn Beck “but I do think that he went over the line in some of the things he said. No, I -- don't get me in a fight with Glenn Beck because I actually liked a lot of the stuff he said. I thought, quite frankly, he was more interesting and entertaining and informative when he first came on the show” but “by the end” it became “a bore.”

Listen to Wallace's remarks about Glenn Beck and Fox News:

Here's a transcript of Wallace discussing Pat Buchanan's firing:

GALLAGER: How about Pat Buchanan's firing at MSNBC, care to dive into that?

WALLACE: No, not particularly, because I hadn't -- I don't know that much about it.

GALLAGHER: Well, simple --

WALLACE: No, I don't.

GALLAGHER: He wrote a book. He wrote a book and the left went after him because he wrote a book that had things like, you know, stuff he's always talked about, the end of white America, and Christian America is being --

WALLACE: Well, I was going to say, some of the things he says I don't have a -- I'm not particularly fond of.

GALLAGHER: Yeah, but you're not fond of the blacklist campaign that he -- here's what he writes. He said, “my four months absence from MSNBC and now my departure” -- he was fired yesterday -- “represent an undeniable victory for the blacklisters. The modus operandi of these thought police is to brand as racists and anti-Semites any writer who dares to venture outside the narrow corral in which they seek to confine --”

WALLACE: He has said some pretty unpleasant things.

GALLAGHER: But doesn't he make a good point, though, he says, “All the while, they prattle about their love of dissent and devotion to the First Amendment, but then they seek to systematically and silence --”

WALLACE: Well, but what did they -- wait -- what -- and I'm not saying that I am particularly fond of these groups either, but, you know, you don't have a right to be on MSNBC or Fox or any of these places.

GALLAGHER: No.

WALLACE: You know, it's obviously at the prerogative, that's the word I'm searching for, I'm very articulate today, the prerogative of the -- of the management --

GALLAGHER: See, you're so --

WALLACE: -- and a group that is offended by your comments has the right to complain about it. I don't think they blacklisted him.

GALLAGHER: Sure they do.

WALLACE: They just said, we don't think he should have a platform. Look, you know, Roland Martin at CNN, you know, who made anti -- homophobic remarks. You know, and I don't know that that's a terrible thing. I mean, if people say things that people are upset about, you have a right complain about it.

GALLAGHER: You have a right to complain about it, but what he writes this week, he said today, “Defy them” -- talking about these guys on the left that go after him --

WALLACE: I mean, do you know some of the things that Pat Buchanan has said?

GALLAGHER: Of course I do.

WALLACE: I mean, do you not find them over the line, some of the things he's said about --

GALLAGHER: Well, let's talk about what they're mad about. They're upset, for example, that Abe Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League, said “Buchanan has shown himself to be a racist and an anti-Semite.” He “bemoans the destruction of white Christian America,” he finds fault with that. And Buchanan says, yes, “I do bemoan what Newsweek's 2009 cover called 'The Decline and Fall of Christian America' and editor Jon Meacham described as 'The End of Christian America.'” “After all,” he said, “I am a Christian.” I mean, they're opinions, they're strong opinions, but he's not --

WALLACE: No, well I, look, I mean, I wasn't prepared to get into a discussion about Pat Buchanan's views --

GALLAGHER: I understand, I understand.

WALLACE: -- and I don't have them, but I do know over the years, because I remember when I was at ABC, we had him on Nightline. He has said some very incendiary things about Israel, about Jews, about blacks, about other minorities, and I -- you know, look, he's entitled to say those things. It's a free country, but on the other hand, groups that are offended by those remarks are entitled to say it too.

GALLAGHER: I guess I am just so fascinated --

WALLACE: And let me just finish my thought. And an employer, be it Fox News or MSNBC or anybody else, is entitled to say, “you know what? We don't want this guy.”

GALLAGHER: Right, we don't want this on our lineup.