Fox News’ bigoted message of the week is that Donald Trump was essentially correct when he said he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating on 9/11, he just got his numbers a bit off.
The Fox message helps deflect attention away from Trump’s lack of concern about the truth and gets its viewers onto the same Islamophobic, fear mongering and hate mongering page as the racist Republican front runner. Plus, it helps work in fear mongering about Syrian refugees and the Obama administration for not hating Muslims enough.
We’ve previously posted about Steve Doocy, Neil Cavuto, Rudy Giuliani and Bill O’Reilly using this feint to absolve Trump of his whopper. Today, Outnumbered picked up the mantle.
The excuse for Outnumbered was a new study showing “unprecedented” support for ISIS in the U.S. Worrisome, yes, but hardly cause for the kind of Islamophobic panic cohost Andrea Tantaros surely intended when she announced there are “several thousand sympathizers in the U.S.,” “more terrorism-related arrests this year than any year since 9/11” and “at least 300 Americans who actively support ISIS on social media.”
Cohost Sandra Smith noted that only a quarter of that number support carrying out an attack on the U.S. Most of them want to join ISIS in Syria or Iraq, she said.
But leave it to Fox Business’ “multiculturalism is destroying America” Charles Gasparino to kick the fear into high gear. “You don’t believe that, right?” he asked Smith. But he never cited a single statistic or fact to contradict it.
But Tantaros prodded for more of his anti-Islam sentiments. “What did you make of this?” she asked, as if she couldn't guess what he’d likely say.
And, surprise! Gasparino claimed it validated Trump.
GASPARINO: When I heard this study, I said, “You know what?” Donald Trump is right. You know, he’s got a lot of flak lately for saying there were celebrations on rooftops in Jersey City – Muslims, after 9/11. This shows that he’s probably right.
Cohost Kennedy, another Fox Business person, interrupted to say that Trump said he saw “thousands” of people celebrating. But later, she also suggested that the study’s numbers were too low – also without citing a single statistic or fact. She complained that Trump’s exaggeration “takes away from the ultimate message.” She meant, of course, the “ultimate message” that we should hate and distrust Muslims.
Gasparino drove that point home. “I actually think there were significant celebrations. Now, Donald exaggerates as he does a lot of things …but he is right that we have a problem in this country, both with assimilation and the fact that we don’t assimilate immigrants, we get stuff like people going to – back then, it wasn’t ISIS, it was Al Qaeda.”
But Tantaros, who has yet, as far as I know, apologized for asking her radio show listeners to punch an Obama supporter in the face, now used the moment to smear the Obama administration as law-breaking, terrorism enablers for not forcing social media to shut down accounts. Apparently, she was unaware – or maybe deliberately ignored – that the study found Twitter regularly shuts down these accounts but that it’s a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse.
“It’s a question of whether or not the DOJ is willing to actually enforce the laws on the books,” the suddenly law-abiding “Punch” Tantaros sneered. She suggested Twitter could (and should, she obviously thought) “be charged with aiding and abetting terrorism if they don’t take it seriously.”
From there, Tantaros made a point of baselessly suggesting refugees will be ISIS supporters, too. “My concern is if we’re going to bring in refugees. Do these refugees agree with these poll numbers? Are they sympathizing as well?” she “just asked.”
“What do you think? Of course,” Gasparino replied.
“Democratic strategist” Julie Roginsky challenged the argument that a few 9/11 celebrations or some American ISIS supporters amounted to validating Trump. But she never confronted the overall game being played here, which was to use a study for political gain. It was the very essence of propaganda and she never objected.
Watch it above, from the December 2 Outnumbered.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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