Look who’s inherited the mantle of George Bush: media mogul and CEO of Fox News’ parent company, Rupert Murdoch.

It seems he draws the line at consuming his own product — or even monitoring it for quality control — so he has no idea what sort of news (or not) Fox News puts out. Even when that news ends up actually making the news.

As ThinkProgress and others have documented, for over a year now, Fox News has promoted and celebrated the anti-Obama Tea Party movement. But at a forum for the public affairs TV series, The Kalb Report, last night, Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox’s parent company, said that the network should not be “supporting” the movement:
The mogul was peppered with a host of questions related to his media empire’s political leanings, and in each case fought the perception that he’s made his fortune by catering to the conservative audience. Asked by an official at the progressive watchdog group, Media Matters, whether it was ethical for officials at Fox to promote the Tea Party movement (as has been documented on some occasion) he replied without hesitation.

“No. I don’t think we should be supporting the Tea Party or any other party. But I’d like to investigate what you are saying before condemning anyone.”

For Murdoch to say that he needs to investigate whether Fox News has been supporting the Tea Party is like the CEO of Procter and Gamble saying: “Soap? Really? We make soap? Let me check and get back to you on that.”