Fox News’ media critic used his brief coverage of the Democratic debate to hone in on the GOP obsession over the term “Islamic terrorism.” With a Republican guest, only.
Kurtz only spent about three minutes discussing the Democratic debate. Not surprisingly, lots more was spent on the recent Republican debate.
But even the coverage of the Democrats looked decidedly Republican.
Anyone who has watched Fox discuss terrorism knows that Fox and its Republican pals obsess over saying the words “Islamic terrorism” and even go so far as to claim that failing to utter the magic words means we can't win the war on terrorism. And the magic words just happened to be the one brief clip from the Democratic debate Kurtz thought worth mentioning.
Kurtz purported to find this one clip of interest as an indication that the Paris terror attacks had caused some kind of “liberal media” shift to the right. “In the wake of the Paris attacks, he [CBS moderator John Dickerson] put this question to Hillary Clinton,” Kurtz said.
DICKERSON: Do you agree with that characterization, radical Islam?
CLINTON: I don’t think we’re at war with Islam. I don’t think we’re at war with all Muslims. I think we’re at war with jihadists who...
DICKERSON: Just to interrupt. He didn’t say “all Muslims.” He just said “radical Islam.”
That was all the Democratic debate Kurtz seemed to think his viewers needed. But not all the discussion about the use of the term “radical Islam.”
“That used to be kind of a GOP talking point,” Kurtz said, suggesting that Republican semantics rule. “President Obama, Hillary Clinton won’t use ‘radical Islam.’ So now, you have CBS’ host of Face The Nation asking the question. Does this indicate how the media coverage is changing in the wake of Paris?”
The only guest discussing the magic words was Republican Mercedes Schlapp.
Schlapp called it “interesting” that Dickerson asked the question and she acknowledged it was one “you’d expect a conservative moderator” to ask. “The fact that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to be politically correct and not use the word ‘radical Islam’ when we know it’s radical Islam is very fascinating, I think, for the voters, especially in light of the Paris attacks,” Schlapp continued.
But that still wasn’t enough GOP talking points. Kurtz helpfully added, “And the Republican presidential candidates are piling on – Donald Trump and others – and at the same time, they’re saying, ‘Look, we were right about immigration because look what happens when people who want to cause trouble, kill Americans, are let into the country. Are the media now gonna pay more attention or view the immigration question through a different lens?”
“Absolutely,” Schlapp not surprisingly opined. “A lot of questions are gonna be raised by the media. I think these are incredibly important questions to make.”
And that was all the time available to cover the Democrats’ debate.
Watch it below, from the November 15 MediaBuzz.
The far right seems to think Islam replaces the USSR nicely.
Faux won’t be happy until we have another Crusades. They wouldn’t be anywhere near the fighting of course. It’s against chickenhawk religion.