Ailes: Shooting blame 'bullshit', but Fox and left should 'tone it down'

Fox News President Roger Ailes denounced attempts to tie Gabrielle Giffords shooting to Fox News and the right, but said he had told "our guys [to] shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually" in an interview with the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons for Simmons's GlobalGrind.com.

"He just was not attached to the Tea Party. It’s just a bullshit way to use the death of a little girl to get Fox News in an argument," Ailes said. "You know, they’re using this thing...apparently there was a map from one of Palin’s things that had her (Congresswoman Giffords) targeted district. So, we looked at the internet and the first thing we found in 2007, the Democrat Party had a targeted map with targets on it for the Palin district. These maps have been used for for years that I know of. I have two pictures of myself with a bull's-eye on my head. This is just bullshit. This goes on... both sides are wrong, but they both do it."

But Ailes also said he has told Fox's staff to stay away from "bombast."

"I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that," he said.