Thomas Ricks Rips Fox News Again

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose interview was abruptly cut off Monday after he accused Fox News of “operating as a wing of the Republican Party” is lashing out against the conservative news network a day after the incident.

This time, Thomas Ricks is clashing with the network over an apology he says never happened. The latest round began when Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice president of news, claimed Ricks apologized after the interview. But Ricks vehemently denies Clemente’s account. He said Clemente made up the apology because “when the facts aren’t on their side, they attack the person.”

“Clemente is making it up, and it is sloppy of Hollywood Reporter to not ask him for specifics — what exactly am I alleged to have said? — and also to seek a response from me,” Ricks wrote in an email to Politico.

Clemente later fired back at Ricks, telling TV Newser that the response was “utterly dishonest.” He added: “I’ll refresh his memory — what he said following the segment was, ‘Sorry … I’m tired from a nonstop book tour.’ Perhaps now he can finally get some rest.”

In case you missed it, here’s the Fox News segment about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in which Ricks criticizes the news channel for its conservative bias and the network’s subsequent silencing of a journalist who dared to speak out against it.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.