Roger Ailes, NPR executives and #NPRgoesNazi

By Melissa Bell



Roger Ailes (Reed Saxon/AP).

Update: 3:56 p.m.

After a day of negative commentary over Roger Ailes comparision of NPR executives to Nazis, the Fox News executive has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League, Politico reports.

"I was of course ad-libbing and should not have chosen that word," Ailes wrote in a letter to Abe Foxman, ADL's national director. "but I was angry at the time because of NPR's willingness to censor Juan Williams for not being liberal enough."

Meanwhile, a satirical Twitter hashtag became popular on the micro-blogging site, comparing NPR to the Nazi regime. #NPRgoesNazi changed popular NPR show titles into Third Reich-inspired titles. While some saw the tweets as humorous, others were disturbed by the imagery. "It's sick. The Holocaust is not comedy fodder," tweeted Jake Tapper, ABC News correspondent.

11:49 a.m.

In a wide-ranging interview with Howard Kurtz, Roger Ailes has said President Obama "thinks differently" from most Americans, Jon Stewart is "crazy" and Bill O'Reilly shouldn't be in trouble for making beheading jokes.

But one comment seems to have pushed the online world over the edge: The Fox News executive compared the top brass of NPR to Nazis. The comparison to Nazis is often bandied about on the top-rated news network, but the response comes just days after Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said that he wishes the cable news programs would go away. "It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future."

Here are some of the initial reactions to Ailes's comments: