While the right wing complains that civil rights leaders are part of a "grievance industry," the biggest purveyor of grievances seems to be the Christian right whose constant grievances get warm support on their very own network, Fox News. Their over-arching narrative, which gets lots of traction on Fox, is that while liberals mock Christianity, they don't do the same thing to Muslims which, of course, they believe deserves not just mocking but condemnation. The irony here is that while Fox News is claiming a "double standard, it has no problem attacking Muslims and atheists. This double standard, regarding what they feel is a double standard, was evident on last Friday's Factor during which former altar boy Greg Gutfeld spoke about the blowback to a tweet, sent by famous atheist and Bill O'Reilly nemesis Richard Dawkins (hmmm) about the intellectual capacity of Muslims. He whined that those who are upset about this tweet don't have the same sense of outrage when Christians are mocked and are, thus, engaging in a double standard. Then he proceeded to denigrate Muslims. Talk about a double standard?!
The segment was part of the "Unresolved Problems" block. The background visual, which set the message of the piece; i.e. Muslims get preferential treatment, was, in bright red, the Muslim star and crescent with the words "Double Standard?" underneath. Gutfeld reported that "celebrity athiest" Richard Dawkins is "under fire for mocking Muslims." He read the tweet which stated that Muslims have less Nobel Prizes than TrinityCollege, Cambridge - a tweet that goes beyond mocking the religion but seems to suggest a limited intellectual capacity for those who are Muslims. He noted that there has been a "liberal backlash" and asked "where's the outrage when Christianity is attacked." He asked "why the double standard."
After he introduced his guest, Cathy Areu from the Washington Post, he said that "there must be thousands of tweets like this about Christianity from every American comedian." He asked if she was "OK with his right to free speech." She said that she believes in that right but called out Dawkins for a "tacky tweet." After she said that Dawkins apologized, Gutfeld claimed that he would never do that if Christianity were involved but he's backtracking "because it's Muslims." On a network where "Islam is bashed with impunity," Gutfeld said that "it's a double standard" because "you can do whatever you want to Christians but if you do anything to Muslims, you better watch out because you're being intolerant." He continued, "it's intolerance when it's the Muslims but just funny when you do it to Christians." (Guess Gutfeld isn't familiar with Bill Maher's comments about Islam?)
After Areu said that atheists are upset with Dawkins, he said "of course they are, they've hit an aggrieved group" - a laughable comment given that the segment was all about Christian grievance. He continued pushing the aggrieved Christian narrative with his claim that if he made this comment about Christians, "there would be no outcry." He asked why "Christians are fair game."
At one point, Gutfeld spoke about how those who oppose the Westborough Baptist Church have set up a house across the street. (So cool, painted in the colors of the gay rainbow flag). He said that they wouldn't do this across the street from a radical Muslim mosque. Of course the reality is that radical Muslims are not pushing a hateful, homophobic message in the American public square or at funerals of fallen heroes.
After whining about how Christians are mocked, he "joked" (?) that people are afraid to insult Islam because "they don't want to die." He accused those, who are supposedly afraid to criticize Muslims, of being cowardly and referenced the murder of Theo Van Gogh who did a film critical of Islam and that people should be honest about why you "can't make fun of Muslims because you might die or radical Muslims or Muslim supremacists." But then came the coup de grace when Gutfeld said that while we talk about prejudice, "the real bigotry is in the Muslim religion, Muslim supremacy, the belief that you are better and superior to other people is a form of bigotry." When Areu said that Gutfeld is agreeing with Dawkins, Gutfeld asked if he needed to hide.
If Gutfeld is concerned about Muslim belief about "supremacy," then maybe he should call out white supremacists. And while he claims that Muslims are bigoted because they feel superior, perhaps he should be critical of his very own Catholic Church which holds itself out to be the "one, true Church." But seriously how can this joker complain about how badly Christians are treated when he not only works for a network that routinely insults atheists and Muslims but, as seen in the segment, has no problem doing the insulting. And that, my friends, is bigotry! Fox News, team America, f%#k yeah!
Video available at Mediaite.
And he doesn’t watch The Simpsons. Or Family Guy. Or anything on Comedy Central. Or CMT. Or any of the dozens of other franchises I can name that mock Muslims just as much as (if not more than) Christians.
And let’s not even go into that many of these franchises seem to go further when it’s insulting against Muslim than they do when it’s against Christians.