From January 29 until yesterday, Fox Nation kept on its website a video of cars running over liberal protesters. The accompanying text read, “Study the technique; it may prove useful in the next four years.”
The video was made by The Daily Caller, a conservative website formerly run by Tucker Carlson, apparently in response to the Women’s March and the anticipated protests to follow. Fox Nation found it so appealing, the site aggregated it for its own readers. But as Think Progress noted, running over liberal protesters is a long-time right-wing fantasy.
The Daily Caller’s choice to put together a video of cars striking protesters and Fox News’ decision to feature it may have seemed humorous to some when it was posted on January 29, just over a week after President Trump took office. But it’s a terrible look in wake of the white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend — a rally where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed when a car driven by an alleged Nazi sympathizer named James Fields Jr. plowed through a crowd of people protesting the open display of racism and bigotry.
Fields’ actions didn’t happen in a vaccum — as Slate detailed on Monday, driving into crowds of liberal protesters has been a right-wing fantasy for quite some time. Meanwhile, as ThinkProgress reported on Monday, Republicans in six states “have pushed for laws this year that would shield drivers who hit protesters. The bills are part of a wave of anti-protest proposals introduced since the rise of the Black Lives Matter and anti-Trump resistance movements.”
Shortly after Think Progress posted about the page, it was removed from Fox’s site. But not before Think Progress got a screen grab:
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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