Sorry, but I don’t think this was the right way to confront Fox News’ bias and tactics.
Kudos to Border Angels founder Enrique Morones for appearing on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle last night and putting up a feisty response, unlike other suck-ups. I have long advocated for liberals to go on Fox, take the bully by the horns, then call out and smack down the agitprop. And while I’m an admirer of Morones' work, I do wish his advocacy on Fox had been a bit more strategic.
Morones was there to debate a Republican candidate for governor of California over its sanctuary state policies. Clearly, the intended debate was little more than an excuse to give candidate John Cox a friendly platform and an opportunity to play off an opponent. Host Laura Ingraham even had a graphic at the ready intended to persuade viewers there is massive opposition in the state. (In fact, Californians are generally supportive of their state’s policy.)
Morones did dispute that contention and he mounted a decent argument on behalf of sanctuary policies. But he could have called out the dangers of Fox’s and Ingraham’s reckless fear mongering about immigrants instead of an unrelated-to-the-topic insult: “I’m glad David Hogg let you back on the air, by the way.” Morones was referring, of course, to the advertiser boycott Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control activist Hogg launched after Ingraham mocked him for not getting into colleges.
Morones could have even tied that barb to the topic at hand by pointing out that Ingraham’s smears of immigrants is part of a larger pattern that many members of the public and advertisers reject.
Ingraham responded to Morones’ Hogg remark with a half-disgusted laugh off-screen. “Oh, God,” she could be heard saying.
But as he talked about how the majority of Californians support the state’s sanctuary policies, Ingraham interrupted to sneer, “Hey, Enrique, you might not be aware of this concept, it’s called ‘facts.’ Let me introduce you to a fact.”
Morones shot back, “You’re on Fox, you’re not about facts.” When questioned why he was appearing on the show, he said, “You’re the ones that called me six times to come on.”
“Are you in prison? Are you not a man with free will?” Ingraham retorted.
Cox said, “People are sick and tired of [Democrats] Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom’s ignorance of the law. They really believe that people want to have MS-13 living next door to them. … We’re talking about getting criminals out of California and Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom are favoring criminal, illegal aliens over the law-abiding citizens of this state.”
If Ingraham cared so much about facts, she would have challenged the hideous assertions about Brown and Newsom (running as the Democratic candidate to succeed Brown as governor). Instead, when she turned back to Morones, saying, “God bless you. I wish the best for you but you’ve been so incredibly rude and nasty since almost the first second of this appearance.” As Crooks and Liars noted, that's a hoot considering the nastiness Ingraham freely dispenses.
That was a golden opportunity for Morones to demand to know why Ingraham was allowing such fact-free nastiness from her other guest. Instead, he replied, “Where’s your sponsors? David Hogg got rid of half of them.”
Morones got the proverbial hook after that.
“The sad thing is, this is how the left operates,” Ingraham said. She complained about “the attempt by the left to demonize those with whom they disagree.”
That's another hoot. Fox is about nothing if not demonizing anyone not within its party line. Ingraham closed the segment by telling demonizer Cox, “Love the insights.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for deference or even good etiquette. Fox News relentlessly fights dirty against liberals and they should be prepared to fight back. But it’s so much better if the mud hits the target rather than just fly willy-nilly.
Watch it below, from the April 18, 2018 The Ingraham Angle, via Crooks and Liars. Feel free to share your thoughts on this segment in our comments section.