Fox exec: That whole "Obama is a socialist" thing was a wacky joke - War Room - Salon.com: Ok, but, what he said was, he thought it would be funny to repeatedly call Barack Obama a socialist, despite the fact that he believed that to not be the case, and then he was surprised when that caught on, and everyone began believing that Barack Obama is a socialist. "Inartful" is one way of putting that. "Dense" would be another way, if we take him at his word that he didn't think his silly jokes would be taken seriously.
Is there even a defense mounted there? MediaMatters says they caught the Washington bureau chief of Fox News admitting to saying something he didn't believe because he thought it would be funny and damaging to a Democratic candidate, but he said he was just 'inartful,' so no big deal, no one will care anyway.