Conservative: Fox News helps us get our message out 'unfiltered'

Last month, former Virginia Senator George Allen spoke at a luncheon of the conservative Heritage Foundation about how Republicans "need to use the new media ... so we get our ideas, our solutions, out to folks unfiltered."

He went on to cite Fox News as the one television news source that could be counted upon to pass along the Republican message without filtering.

"If you can't get it through some of the, let's say the mainstream media that is not necessarily on our side, there are other ways of doing it," Allen remarked. "Cable's been great. We wouldn’t have Fox News but for cable. You’d be stuck with the three broadcast networks. And Fox is rated very highly in viewership."

"So there’s a lot of ways we can get our ideas out," Allen concluded. "I think folks who pay taxes, work for a living, and care about their families are going to be much more comfortable with our solutions."

Allen's speech, which was delivered in early June, has been attracting notice since it was aired by C-SPAN on July 5. After a clip was posted online by Media Matters, Think Progress commented, "Allen isn’t the first Republican to recognize Fox News’ value to the GOP. Most recently, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) walked back criticism of Fox, saying he’s 'glad' the network is there to 'counter to what the rest of the media has out there.' But also, perhaps Allen owes Fox some gratitude after some of the network’s pundits ignored and even defended his outrageous 'macaca' slur."

Allen, of course, is best known as the former Virginia senator who lost to Democrat Jim Webb in 2006 after using the racial slur "macaca" to describe an Indian-American member of Webb's staff who was filming one of his campaign events. Allen now runs a lobbying firm in the Washington, DC area and heads the American Energy Freedom Center, an anti-regulatory group backed by the oil industry.

This video is from The Heritage Foundation, uploaded by Media Matters July 6, 2010.