Fox contributor: 'Petraeus and I were having fun'

Ailes, Petraeus (Fox News/Getty/File)

The Fox News contributor who relayed a message from Roger Ailes, the network's chairman, to Gen. David Petraeus during a 2011 interview in Afghanistan urging him to run for president says the details of her interview--reported by the Washington Post this week--have been blown out of proportion by the network's detractors.

"The past 24 hours have taught me more about the media than all my years working for Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan or contributing to Fox News," McFarland, a former national security and Pentagon aide, wrote in a post on FoxNews.com. "A conversation that began in jest and that led to a passing comment at the end of my interview with General David Petraeus has turned into a firestorm of speculation and an attempt to denigrate Fox."

Near the end of their 90-minute conversation, McFarland relayed the message from Ailes: If President Obama offered Petraeus the job of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he should take it. "If you're offered anything else," McFarland said, "don't take it. Resign in six months and run for president. OK?"

"And I know you're not running for president," McFarland added. "But at some point when you go to New York next, you may want to just chat with Roger. And Rupert Murdoch, for that matter."

"Well, Rupert's after me as well," replied Petraeus, who seemed to laugh off the idea. "Look, what I have told people is, I truly want to continue to serve my country if it's in a, you know, a quite significantly meaningful position."

The Post's Bob Woodward obtained an audio recording of the conversation, which was published on the paper's website.

McFarland's comments to Petraeus were prompted by a conversation she had had with Ailes, a former adviser to Richard Nixon, before leaving for Afghanistan. "Tell [Petraeus] if they don't make him chairman of the joint chiefs, he ought to jump into the presidential race to stir things up," Ailes told her, according to McFarland.

"I know now that Roger was joking, but at the time, I wasn't sure," she wrote.

Woodward "was way off base to characterize it as a serious attempt to get him to run, or to give him political advice," McFarland wrote. "Petraeus and I were having fun."'

"I realize conspiracy theorists have used this off-the-record interview to claim it was some plot to put Petraeus in the Oval Office," she continued. "But it was little more than one defense analyst (me) trading some political gossip and laughs with one of the country's most important military leaders (Petraeus). Perhaps those same conspiracy theorists should ask themselves some different questions: Why was an audiotape created of what was supposed to be an off-the-record interview with just four people in the room, which General Petraeus himself said several times was off the record? I certainly saw no recording device, nor did I give my permission for the interview to be taped."

On Monday, Ailes confirmed to Woodward that he did give McFarland advice to deliver to Petraeus, but it was meant in jest.

"It was more of a joke, a wiseass way I have," Ailes said. "I thought the Republican field needed to be shaken up and Petraeus might be a good candidate. It sounds like she thought she was on a secret mission in the Reagan administration. ... She was way out of line. ... It's someone's fantasy to make me a kingmaker. It's not my job."

Petraeus was appointed CIA director in September 2011. He resigned last month after admitting to an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, his biographer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/fox-news-ailes-petraeus-mcfarland-tape-191341028--election.html

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