Fox News host and best-selling author Glenn Beck fired back Monday against Huffington Post blogger Arianna Huffington's allegations that he is "inciting" Americans to violence, countering that such accusations are "completely ridiculous."
On the Sunday talk program ABC's This Week, Huffington asked Fox News CEO Roger Ailes if he were concerned that Beck "talks about people being slaughtered, about who is going to be the next in the killing spree."
Ailes replied that Beck was referring to massacres by Hitler and Stalin. But Huffington insisted: "No, no, he was talking about this administration."
Alies then said, "I think he speaks English. I don't know, but I mean, I don't misinterpret any of his words."
When Huffington continued on the attack, the top Fox News executive rattled off several examples of aspersions that Huffington had published about Ailes on her blog. "Then it really went nasty," Ailes said, "and I thought, 'Gee, maybe Arianna ought to cut this out,' but...."
In discussing Huffington's allegations on his radio program, Beck revealed that Huffington tried to recruit him last year to write for her Web site.
"Arianna Huffington, I would like you to explain this," Beck told listeners.
"The last time and the only time that I've ever seen you or spoken to you, you asked me to write for the Huffington Post and tried to convince me that it would be good, because you are so open minded and everything else.
"Now, were you trying to incite people, when you asked me to write for the Huffington Post? Or are you going to deny that? It was, I can tell you when it was. It was at the Time Most Influential 100 dinner last year when I was an absolute nobody. But I was on Fox News and I was saying the same stuff."
Beck and his team of on-air contributors suggested that Huffington had an ax to grind because he ignored her offer.