FOX & Friends Trio Sinks to All-Time Low, Makes Fun of Abu Ghraib
Reported by Marie Therese - March 16, 2006
Yesterday morning FOX & Friends weather guy Steve Doocy, blonde eye candy Edith Ann "E.D." Hill and football player-turned-FOX-host Tiki Barber sank to new lows during a snide and mocking gabfest in which they made disparaging remarks about the Abu Ghraib detainee whose humiliation at the hands of American soldiers became the symbol of all that is wrong with this administration's ill-conceived and disastrous invasion of Iraq.
I will never forget the day OUTFOXED producer Jim Gilliam e-mailed us an attachment with the ominous warning that it contained very disturbing images of torture in Iraq. As I clicked image after image of scenes out of a Hieronymous Bosch painting, I remember the terrible feelings of rage and shame that welled up inside. I was beyond disgusted. And I was afraid. Being a smart woman, I knew that Americans acting in my name had perpetrated these monstrous acts and, therefore, symbolically, I, as a citizen of this country, would pay a price for their actions.
The most disturbing of the photos was the one of the unnamed hooded man, arms outstretched, electrodes attached to his hands, standing on a stool in a silent and gruesome parody of the crucifixion.
Yesterday, the FOX & Friends hosts exhibited the emotional maturity of banana slugs as they joked about the photograph in an immature segment designed to denigrate the ACLU and The New York Times. It was beyond a doubt one of the most thoughtless and tasteless exhibitions I have ever witnessed.
Here's the transcript. If you agree with me that FOX hit a new low, I urge you to let them know how you feel.
TRANSCRIPT, FOX & FRIENDS, 8:06 AM EST, MARCH 15, 2006
EDITH ANN "E. D." HILL: Meanwhile, over the weekend if you read The New York Times, you saw an article about a man who allegedly was the man featured in the - one of the photos from Abu Ghraib ...
DOOCY: Yeah.
HILL: And he was dressed head to toe in black...
(Ms. Hill was dressed in a sexy pink sweater set featuring a decollete that must have been quite exciting to male viewers.)
GRAPHIC APPEARED ON SCREEN
DOOCY (off screen): That guy?
HILL: Yep. That's the one! Arms stretched out. He has electrical wires sticking out of his arms. Well, they ID'd him in this article as Ali Shalal Qaissi, 43 years old, said he now works for a - a - human rights organization.
TIKI BARBER: He's taken advantage of this in a lot of ways.
HILL: He ...
BARBER: He put his - put this picture on a business card and is working for a human rights group ...
HILL: Right!
BARBER: ... trumpeting this.
HILL: So this article - this article is very sympathetic to this guy ...
DOOCY: Sure!
HILL: ... but - oops!
BARBER: Yes.
DOOCY: Yeah. It turns out that's not the guy. This guy - the guy who's got his picture on his business card - apparently, because of a disfigured hand, his nickname is "Claw Man" when, in fact, according to the Army, that wasn't "Claw Man" under the mask. That was a guy we referred to as "Gilligan." (Hill and Barber laugh off-screen). I'm not makin' this up!
BARBER (still smiling): The military's also ...
HILL: Yeah.
BARBER: The military's also saying that the Times was probably duped by a lawsuit that's going through by the ACLU and they were persuaded because it fit their case.
DOOCY: And "Claw Man" ...
HILL: But did the Times argue ...
BARBER: It fit the ACLU case ...
HILL: Yeah. The Times ...
BARBER: ... but also the Times article as well.
DOOCY: "Claw Man" is suing the Army and the U. S. government, as well.
HILL: Right. So ...
DOOCY (speaking directly to camera, smiling): "Gilligan" apparently doesn't care (Barber laughs) that we know!
HILL: The New York Times says: Well, we don't like mistakes
DOOCY (laughing): Yeah! Good one! Sure! (Barber laughs, also)
HILL: But, if you read this article, I mean, it didn't leave any doubt in your mind that this guy was the guy and very sympathetic to him.
COMMENT
Yeah. Abu Ghraib was just one big joke!
See for yourself!
