After the recent police shootings of two African Americans and the tragic ambush of 12 Dallas police officers, Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich and Marco Rubio each spoke out, each making similar comments about race. Guess which one Fox complained about?
CLINTON: [White people need to] put ourselves in the shoes of African-American families who fear every time their children go somewhere.
RUBIO: Those of us who are not African American will never fully understand the experience of being black in America, but we should all understand why our fellow Americans in the African American community are angry.
GINGRICH: If you are a normal white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America. [White Americans] instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk.
On FOX News Channel, however, only one of those people seems to be getting complaints. Yes, it’s Hillary Clinton.
On Sunday’s FOX & Friends, host Tucker Carlson did the complaining as he debated guest Mark Hannah, a former adviser for the Barack Obama and John Kerry presidential campaigns.
Even though Sheriff David Clarke, who has made at least five Fox appearances since the Dallas shootings, has attacked liberals by calling President Obama the “cop-hater-in-chief” and all but blamed him for the violence, nobody complained about Clarke’s rhetoric. But this FOX & Friends segment was called, “Was Clinton’s response to the Dallas attack divisive?”
It began with a clip of Clinton saying, “I’m going to be talking to white people. I think we’re the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries that are coming from our African American fellow citizens.”
The lower third re-enforced the message: “CLINTON PLANS TO LECTURE WHITES ON VIOLENCE.”
Carlson falsely described her remarks as, “Hillary Clinton faulting white people in the wake of the Dallas ambush that left five police officers dead.”
He complained to Hannah, “I wonder why Hillary Clinton’s first instinct is to frame this in racial terms? Philando Castile, the subject of, I think, the most upsetting of the police videos, was not killed by a white cop. That’s been sort of lost in the shuffle now, and yet Hillary Clinton takes the opportunity to lecture white America, as if it’s their fault.”
Hannah pointed out Clinton was not blaming white America but saying we need to be open and to listen to the legitimate concerns of our black community members. Hannah also noted that Father Jonathan Morris had just said “basically the same thing” on the show.
Carlson ignored that point. He kept insisting that Clinton was blaming white people. “I’m merely saying, to blame an entire race for the actions of one person…”
“Nobody’s blaming,” Hannah repeated. “All she’s saying is, we need to listen. If that’s what you hear, if that goes through the conservative filter in your mind, then that’s what you hear?”
That brought a laughable reply from Carlson: “I’m the most open-minded right-winger you’ll ever meet. I heard what she said. I listened to the whole thing. She targeted one racial group. If she said we should all listen to each other, amen. I’m for that but that’s not what she said. Why?”
Hannah gave as good as he got. He said that finger pointing contributes “to the cycle of retribution” and cited “you, demonizing Hillary Clinton,” as an example. He said that cherry-picking her comment is “making a racial problem where none exists” and “I don’t think that’s necessarily responsible.”
Hannah also pointed out, “There were a lot of Republicans who made the same point. You’re not playing that tape.”
“I would disagree with them, too,” Carlson said.
But you’ll probably never see a Fox segment devoted to that disagreement.
Watch the selective outrage, below, from the July 10 FOX & Friends.
Not too surprisingly, Fox offspring The Donald visited my state to read outrage off a teleprompter and declare in a Nixonian moment he’s the “law and order candidate.” No dialogue. No understanding. My way or the highway. Let cops be cops as they see fit and live with the consequences. Tucker have you got a boner yet?
The sad reality is if Trump becomes President and brings down the hammer on blacks Giuliani style it’s going to lead to more problems like we’ve seen of late. Which will only make right-wingers on Fox more scared and paranoid prompting them to buy more guns and rely on even heavier handed police tactics to give them a false sense of security.