U.S. News' Paul Bedard, who would be snapped by the Post to be the Reliable Source if they had any smarts, recounts the slap-counterslap-countercounterslap between Newsweek's Jonathan Alter and Fox' Roger Ailes this past week. If nothing else, the incident is an interesting example of how a reporter can use a blog to get something out that their publication would never allow in its pages--and the potential consequences.

It all began when Alter wrote a satirical piece last week entitled, "If Watergate Happened Now," and explaining how the emasculated press corps would never have gotten to the bottom of the lies and half-truths in the right-dominated echo chamber that exists today.

Roger Ailes took umbrage at the idea that he would ban a word from airing on Fox, and decided to fire back. As Alter reports on the Huffington Post, "Today I heard that his stooges were out peddling a story to the press that I was guilty of a conflict-of-interest and should have disclosed in my column that I twice unsuccessfully sought employment at Fox News and now do part-time work under contract to NBC News and MSNBC."

Well that post really pissed off Ailes and the friendly media relations team at Fox. They turned around and gave Ailes' private letter to Alter to Bedard's Washington Whispers column. Although it stops just short of blaming the Armenian Genocide personally on Alter, the letter managed to bury a few knives in him and twist them for good measure:

June 7, 2005 Jonathan Alter

Newsweek
251 W. 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

Dear Jonathan,

I was disappointed by your recent cheap shot about me in Newsweek. First, you didn't disclose that you have been paid by MSNBC, our competitor. Second, you have no basis in fact for what you said. In nine years of the Fox News Channel, I've never banned any word, phrase or story, and in fact have often said the inclusion of everybody's point of view is necessary to avoid bias. I did work for Richard Nixon's campaign over 37 years ago for about five months as a TV producer. I had no editorial control. I was 28 years old.

You've done some good work in your career. I wish you'd get back to that. The Fox News Channel didn't report something that just got people killed nor have we fired our executive editor, our top producers, our anchors and we don't have a former attorney general investigating our journalism. I thought you were a better man and a better journalist.

Roger Ailes
Chairman & CEO
FOX News Channel