Justin's Political Corner
Bill Cosby wrote an op-ed recently that you would think Fox News would have praised, slobbered over even. It offered up harsh criticism of African Americans’ “apathy” over drug use in their own community. He even admonished them for being harsher on white drug pushers than their own. Instead, the Hannity show seized on one paragraph in which Cosby praised the clean living of Black Muslims. So out came Muslim-hater Allen West to call Cosby crazy.
Here’s what Cosby wrote in an editorial in the New York Post, a sister company to Fox News.
I’m a Christian. But Muslims are misunderstood. Intentionally misunderstood. We should all be more like them. They make sense, especially with their children. There is no other group like the Black Muslims, who put so much effort into teaching children the right things, they don’t smoke, they don’t drink or overindulge in alcohol, they protect their women, they command respect. And what do these other people do?
They complain about them, they criticize them. We’d be a better world if we emulated them. We don’t have to become black Muslims, but we can embrace the things that work.
But in the hate or be-hated world of Fox News, that was way too respectful. So respectful that Sean Hannity overlooked a message henormally promotes in order to smear Cosby. West is not only known as an over-the-top hate monger, he had already responded hostilely to Cosby’s editorial. So Hannity and his producers knew exactly what they were getting when they called on West to respond – without benefit of any balance to defend the critique.
Shame on you, Allen West!
h/t: Ellen at Newshounds
Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Todd Starnes portrayed restraints on proselytization as proof of the Obama administration’s purported “war on religious liberty in the military,” despite the fact that military policy has long prohibited unwanted proselytization.
On the May 2 edition of his Fox News show, Hannity claimed that a Pentagon statement reiterating the military’s longtime policy against proselytizing was proof of Obama’s “war on religious liberty.” Starnes added that Christians were “under significant attack” by the Obama administration, under which “we have seen a Christian cleansing of the United States military.”
In fact, the U.S. military’s anti-proselytization policy has been consistent among all religions, and it targets only disruptive activities. A statement released May 2 by Defense Department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen clarified the military’s policy that “members of the military are free to share their faith as long as they don’t harass others.”
From the 05.02.2013 edition of FNC’s Hannity:
h/t: MMFA
Fox News hosted anti-Islam activist Steve Emerson to repeat the disputed claim that a Saudi student he named as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is slated for deportation, one of several claims that Emerson got wrong about the bombings this week.
Emerson, who styles himself as some kind of expert on terrorism and Islamic extremism especially, has a tenuous history with the facts. Indeed, his analysis of Boston is reminiscent of his blunders about the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 — when his certainty that Islamic terrorists were behind the incident was exposed as false.
On April 16, C-SPAN hosted Emerson to discuss the Boston bombings. As Salon reported, Emerson cited “classified information” when he fingered a “Saudi national” as a possible suspect because, he stated, “the burns on his skin match the explosive residue of the bomb that exploded.”
A few hours later on Fox News, Emerson recanted, saying: “We’re back to square one in terms of suspects because the Saudi suspect has been ruled out.” Indeed, the Saudi student has been cleared of suspicion and according to law enforcement was never in custody.
But on Fox, Emerson continued to tie the bombings to “jihadists,” claiming that the “actual fragment, which were nails and ball-bearings” used in Boston are “a hallmark, by the way, of jihadist suicide bombings.” As The Daily Beast pointed out in response to Emerson’s incorrect musings:
[T]he Boston Marathon bombs don’t appear to have been suicide bombings at all, but just as he did in Oklahoma City, Emerson is attributing widely used modi operandi and ascribing it to Muslim terrorists. Just as Tim McVeigh and Anders Breivik might have been surprised to learn that only Middle Easterners seek to “inflict as many casualties as possible,” so too would Ted Kaczynski (an anti-technology zealot known as the Unabomber) and David Copeland (a British neo-Nazi known as the Nailbomber) be surprised to learn that putting nails in bombs as shrapnel qualifies them as “jihadists.” And actual terrorism expert Will McCants Tweeted a 2011 case where white supremacists had used ball bearings in a bomb.
Indeed, it is now being reported that two brothers who may be from Russia’s Caucasus region are believed to be responsible for the Boston bombings.
Despite it all, Fox News continued to host Emerson. On April 17, he appeared on Sean Hannity’s show to invent the conspiracy theory that the Saudi student he had named a suspect was going to be deported “on national security grounds.” Inforwars.com, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ website, latched onto Emerson’s report to claim this offered proof of an “attempt” by the administration “to cover up a possible Saudi connection to the Boston attack.”
What is revealing about all of this is the fact that the media treated Emerson as a credible expert despite his checkered history on terrorism issues. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) noted that immediately following the Oklahoma City bombing, Emerson claimed on CBS that the bombing had “a Middle Eastern trait” because it “was done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible.” Emerson went even further,saying that Oklahoma City area is area is “one of the centers for Islamic radicalism outside the Middle East.”
While other news outlets have shied away from relying on his so-called expertise, Fox News and other right-wing media outlets have been enthusiastic promoters of his anti-Islam rantings:
- Emerson claimed President Obama “is not necessarily a Muslim,” adding, “I don’t believe that” but he is “pro-Islamist.”
- Emerson suggested that some level of Islamophobia is justified because “65 to 70 percent of all international terrorist attacks are carried out by radical Muslims, so there’s a fear based on that.”
- Emerson claimed Palestinian militants are in Mexico learning “how to dig tunnels that will evade detection in Gaza.”
- Emerson’s Investigative Project smeared a Muslim advocate for urging American Muslims to have an attorney present when speaking to law enforcement.
- Emerson joined other right-wing media figures in calling for more racial profiling of Muslims.
h/t: MMFA
Hannity’s viewpoints are out of sync with America.
“The girls got to go out to the Bahamas *and* all the way out to Idaho for skiing … Do they have to take two [vacations]?”
Kirsten Powers responds: “The idea that you’re getting upset with the girls, I have a real problem with. I really think you should leave them out of it … I think this is the most mean-spirited thing I’ve ever seen you do.”
Typical from Fixed “News.”
Bill O’Reilly: “We Won The War On Christmas Battle.” During his Fox News show, Bill O’Reilly declared victory in the supposed “War on Christmas,” before claiming that other Judeo-Christian values were under attack. O’Reilly lambasted President Obama and the White House for empowering “secular progressives” to pressure school districts around the country to decide not to use terms like “Easter bunny” and “Easter egg.”
O’REILLY: More evidence that Judeo-Christian tradition is under attack in America. That is the subject of this evening’s Talking Points Memo. If you watch the Factor, you know that we won the “War on Christmas” battle. A few years ago some American companies ordered their employees not to say “Merry Christmas.” Remember that? We presented the facts to you, you told the stores you wouldn’t buy there. The crazy edict was quickly rescinded. Power to the people. But the war on Judeo-Christian tradition continues on in some public school districts. In 10 days it will be Easter Sunday. But in some schools you are not allowed to say the word “Easter.” On Long Island, the East Meadow school district, holding a Spring egg hunt — not Easter eggs, Spring eggs. Same thing in Prospect Heights, Illinois. Manhattan Beach, California. Flat Rock Elementary School in South Carolina, and a school district in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. No Easter. They are having Spring egg events. Moderated by a Spring bunny, at least in San Diego. I know it’s stupid. You know it’s stupid. But it’s happening, and there is a reason why it’s happening. Secular progressives are running wild with President Obama in the White House. They feel unchained, liberated and they are trying to diminish any form of religion. The goal is to marginalize religious opposition to secular programs. [Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor, 3/21/13]
Sean Hannity In 2011: “Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone That Some On The Left Are Waging A War On [Easter]” During the April 21, 2011, edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity teased a segment on progressives supposedly waging a war on Easter. During the segment itself, Hannity claimed groups like the Catholic League were “unhappy about how much disrespect is being shown towards the Christian faith”:
HANNITY: Now, Easter is one of the most important holidays for Christians. And as we are in the midst of Holy Week, some groups like the Catholic League are unhappy about how much disrespect is being shown towards the Christian faith.
Billo The Clown: still dumb as a rock.
h/t: MMFA
(via Fox News Guest Receives Racist Rape And Death Threats After Arguing Guns Aren’t The Solution To Rape)
Zerlina Maxwell is a feminist writer and frequent guest on Fox News. Last week, while a guest on Sean Hannity’s show, Maxwell argued that arming women is not a way to solve the problem of rape. Among other things, she pointed out that “if firearms were the answer, then the military would be the safest place for women, and it’s not.”
In the wake of her appearance, Maxwell was bombarded with harassing messages calling for her to be raped or murdered, often in explicitly racist terms. She provided ThinkProgress with screenshots of three examples:
These kinds of online threats are not simply cowardly and repulsive, they also may be criminal. In New York, where Maxwell resides, a person who “[w]ith intent to harass, annoy or alarm a specific person, intentionally engages in a course of conduct directed at such person which is likely to cause such person to reasonably fear physical injury or serious physical injury, the commission of a sex offense against, or the kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment or death of such person or a member of such person’s immediate family” is guilty of stalking in the third degree, and may be punished by up to one year in prison. At least some of the attacks on Maxwell also could qualify as hate crimes, which would lead to a higher sentence.
(via Think Progress: Sean Hannity Launches Islamophobic Attack Against Keith Ellison)
Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity launched an Islampophobic attack against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) during his Fox News show on Thursday night, implying that the Muslim Congressman is a racist and an anti-Semite. The segment came just days after Ellison and Hannity engaged in a confrontational interview on Tuesday night. “We decided to take a closer look at the man who called me immoral and a liar,” Hannity began. “Now it didn’t take long to prove his hypocrisy, as his past reveals a host of radical connections primarily to Louis Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam.”
The Fox host dug up attacks from Ellison’s 2006 Congressional campaign, criticizing the Minnesota lawmaker for defending Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in his law school newspaper from charges of anti-Semitism and appearing on stage with Farrakhan aide Khalid Muhammad.
In the late 1990s, Ellison worked with the group to organize the Million Man March, but apologized for failing to “adequately scrutinize the positions and statements” of the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan six years ago in a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.
“I wrongly dismissed concerns that they were anti-Semitic,” he wrote, adding, “They were and are anti-Semitic and I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.” “I have long since distanced myself from and rejected the Nation of Islam due to its propagation of bigoted and anti-Semitic ideas and statements, as well as other issues.”
(via Rep. Ellison explodes on FNC’s Hannity, calls Sean Hannity ‘worst excuse for a journalist’)
Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison attacked Fox News host Sean Hannity on-air tonight in what is surely one of the most explosive and contentious interviews between an anchor and a politician in recent history.
Rep. Ellison began the interview by calling Hannity “the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen.” He went on to accuse Hannity of violating “every journalistic ethic I have ever heard of” and called him “a shill for the Republican Party.”
Hannity calmly endured the attacks from the Minnesota congressman and tried in vain to assure him that he was not a registered Republican, but rather a registered conservative. He finally gave up and told Rep. Ellison to “keep ranting.”
The congressman’s remarks came after Hannity aired footage of President Obama giving two similar interviews about the looming effects of sequestration, set against a soundtrack of “O Fortuna,” from the Carmina Burana. Hannity said the President was “more concerned with fearmongering than finding a solution to the problem he created.”
Rep. Ellison cited the background music as evidence of Hannity’s “yellow journalism.”
“For you to say the President is to blame here is ridiculous,” the congressman said.
AMEN, Keith Ellison! He’s the HERO of the Week!
