Someone Tell Hannity: Roger Ailes Is Sponsoring A Fox Diversity Program

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has lent his name to a Fox News diversity program, the Ailes Apprentice Program, that trains aspiring minority journalists. Someone should alert Fox News hosts, such as Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, who decry the existence of diversity programs in America.

Today, as part of Black History Month, Fox & Friends ran a segment on a program designed to help inner city youth in Philadelphia. The report was done in conjunction with the Ailes Apprentice Program, but Fox didn't spend any time discussing what the Ailes Apprentice Program is. A quick check of Fox News' website, however, reveals that the Ailes Apprentice Program is aimed at “promoting diversity in broadcast & cable journalism.” And video on the Ailes Apprentice Program's home page states that the program is aimed at “educating, mentoring, guiding, and inspiring young minorities.” Graduates of the program receive “a bonus.”

Ailes Apprentice Program

Somebody should alert Fox's two biggest hosts, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, to the fact that Fox News has an affirmative action program. Because they won't be happy. Hannity has even asserted that affirmative programs violate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision for America.

When Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that she was a beneficiary of affirmative action, Hannity declared that she was actually a beneficiary of “reverse discrimination” and said: “So much for Dr. King's aspiration that future generations would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Judge Sotomayor, she seems to disagree.”

O'Reilly has also shown staunch opposition to race-based affirmative action, saying that he believes there should be affirmative action based on income level, but “I want no color involved, because I don't believe color is the American way and we should be dividing or separating or valuating anybody on color.”

Opposition to affirmative action is hardly limited to Fox's two biggest stars. Fox Business host John Stossel mocked affirmative action programs by holding an “affirmative action bake sale” where different races were charged different prices for baked goods.

Not to be outdone, Fox News' website Fox Nation highlighted a story that mocked “diversity” as the “most important buzzword” for liberal colleges and called an affirmative action program “institutionalized racism.”

So, we'll expect howls of outrage from Fox News employees at their boss's betrayal of Dr. King's legacy. That should come any day now.