Fox News Stokes the 'Assassinate Chavez' Fire
Reported by Melanie - August 29, 2005
Bo Dietl, a former New York City police detective turned vigilante, was a guest last Saturday on one of Fox's Saturday morning "business news" programs, Cavuto on Business. Dietl was on to discuss radical cleric Pat Robertson's suggestion that the United States assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Substitute host Dagen McDowell opened the segment wondering, "[W]hy fight a war that will cost billions of dollars when you can just kill the dictator ... does Pat Robertson have a point?" (Here's a "recap" of the whole segment. Scroll down to Cavuto on Business.)
Here's part of what Dietl said: "Go watch the National Geographic documentary on 9/11 and remember what happened on that day. Also remember that after the Cole was bombed, they wanted to take out bin Laden. We are losing Americans everyday in this fight against terrorism. We have to do what we have to do. If we find out that Chavez has any connection to these terrorists at all, I think we should really do it. The CIA is there and they should be doing their job secretly."
Today (August 29, 2005), on Your World w/Neil Cavuto, Cavuto made sure his weekday audience knew the pro-assassination crowd was growing, and he stoked the fire some more. While reading viewer mail, Cavuto said, "Then if Katrina isn't enough to send oil prices soaring, consider Hugo, as in Hugo Chavez, the US-bashing leader of Venezuela who Bo Dietl told our weekend business guys should be taken out before he hangs us all out to dry. Jerry Hines in Cocoa, Florida [writes],
"50 caliber kudos to Bo on Cavuto. Forget all the PC BS.
"V. Tomasino in White Plains, NY [writes],
You've got to be kidding me. Advocating killing anyone on a television show about business is disgusting, brainless and frankly, leading towards the mentality of pre-war Germany."
Comment: I agree with V. Tomasino, but what Tomasino doesn't seem to realize is that, Saturday or weekday, Fox's "business news" programs aren't about business. They're as much about stoking the fires of fear and hate as Fox's other, more notorious programs are.
