Megyn Kelly rightly aired the news that police lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, who had previously been painted as a murder victim, turned out to be a criminal who killed himself. But Kelly failed to acknowledge that she had joined conservatives in wrongly blaming #BlackLivesMatter.
The Washington Post (via Huffington Post) put together a partial list of pundits, politicians and media outlets who used Gliniewicz’s death to push the 'war on cops" narrative. Not surprisingly, Kelly made the list for at least two times she helped further the false meme. For extra Fox News points, she also smeared President Obama as “too black” while she was at it.
On September 1, Kelly hosted #BlackLivesMatter hater Sheriff David Clarke to discuss Gliniewicz’ death with this introduction:
Well, it is way too early to know the circumstances behind the murder of this lieutenant in Illinois. But it clearly comes just days after Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth was shot execution style in an attack that his boss linked to the quote, dangerous environment created by the Black Lives Matter.” Tonight a petition has popped up at Change.org pressuring President Obama to send a delegation to the deputy’s funeral on Friday and some leading voices in law enforcement are also pressuring the President to speak out against protests like this one which took place a day after the murder of the sheriff’s deputy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(Protesters): Pigs in a blanket, fry like bacon! Pigs in a blanket, fry like bacon! Pigs in a blanket, fry like bacon!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Joining me now Ron Hosko, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and a former assistant director of the FBI, and Sheriff David Clarke of the Milwaukee County sheriff’s office. Thank you both for being here. And so, let me ask you Ron whether you think the President has an obligation to speak out against what we are hearing the rhetoric we are hearing from this group specifically or not.
The next day, Kelly introduced a discussion with another #BlackLivesMatter hater with the following:
KELLY: Gliniewicz’s death comes just days after a Texas sheriff’s deputy was killed, execution style while pumping gasoline into his patrol car. A crime that has led to new complaints about the anti-police rhetoric, we have been hearing, in particular from some of the Black Lives Matter protests, but law enforcement officials are not the only ones questioning the movement now. Earlier this week, a marine vet took to YouTube with a message that quickly got national attention.
Kelly went on to play a clip from Michael Whaley’s YouTube video in which he said, “This Black Lives Matter movement only promotes racism. And now they’re encouraging black people to go kill white people because they want white people to feel what he felt 400 years ago.”
When Kelly welcomed Whaley for a softball interview, she said about his video “What a powerful message.”
But on Thursday night, Kelly outsourced the truth to Fox reporter Trace Gallagher.
GALLAGHER: Megyn, months before staging his own suicide, investigators believe Lieutenant Charles Gliniewicz was afraid of police administrator who was auditing the books who was about to discover that he have been embezzling money for years. So Gliniewicz tried to hire a hit man to kill her. Police say last April, Gliniewicz would sent a text message to a woman asking for help arranging a meeting with a high ranking motorcycle gang member who, in turn, would arrange the contract hit on administrator Anne Marrin. That gang member denies the allegation, but Anne Marrin, who did eventually expose the embezzlement scheme, spoke about the alleged hit. Listen.
There was no mention of Fox’s attempt to blame #BlackLivesMatter or use Gliniewicz’s death to smear President Obama.
Fox host Shepard Smith did note earlier in the day that #BlackLivesMatter had been unfairly tarnished. “Think of the narrative that came out of that from so many, many places about 'it’s the fault of the #BlackLivesMatter movement' and all of this stuff," Smith said. "It really turned up the rhetoric and it really was just factually wrong.” But Smith never noted that the role of his own network in that wrong. Even though he boasted,“We knew from multiple sources” in September that “something isn’t right” about Gliniewicz’s supposed murder.
Watch "straight news anchor" Kelly give herself a pass, above, from the November 5 The Kelly File. Below is her earlier attempt to blame #BlackLivesMatter as well as Smith’s report exonerating the movement.
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Crossposted at News Hounds.
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