Thursday night, Fox host Ingraham defended white supremacist Paul Nehlen as one of the “prominent [conservative] voices” banned from Facebook. After an outcry Friday, Fox is pretending Ingraham was merely advocating for free speech.
In what Media Matters rightly described as an effort to work the refs, Ingraham griped to Hitler-apologist Candace Owens, “I think this is going to be a moment, though, for us to stand up to these censors,” meaning Facebook and other social media sites. During her whine, a graphic appeared on the screen of eight well-known hate mongers Among the group, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Nehlen. Ingraham euphemistically described those depicted as people believing in “border enforcement” and “national sovereignty“ – as if that’s what people find offensive.
Somehow, Ingraham and Owens “forgot” that Nehlen is a white nationalist and anti-Semite who has tweeted,” “Poop, incest, and pedophilia. Why are those common themes repeated so often with Jews?” Nehlen has also called for a race war.
Media Matters explains what happened after the clip went viral, thanks to their efforts:
Fox ignored requests for comment as the story swept across the media before finally issuing an unsigned statement Friday afternoon.
“It is obscene to suggest that Laura Ingraham was defending Paul Nehlen’s despicable actions. Some of the names on the graphic were pulled from an Associated Press report on best known political extremists banned from Facebook,” the network said. “Anyone who watches Laura’s show knows that she is a fierce protector of freedom of speech and the intent of the segment was to highlight the growing trend of unilateral censorship in America.”
Fox often defends conservative bigotry as a matter of free speech. That might be more believable if Fox didn’t also appoint itself the speech police of any Democrat or prominent liberal, ready to pounce on any stray comment when it suits the network’s propagandistic purpose. Just ask Democrat Lincoln Chafee, the former governor of Rhode Island, who dared to put up a "holiday tree" instead of calling it a "Christmas tree" in 2012.
Fortunately, the “free speech” excuse does not seem to be working with Ingraham advertisers. I’ll give Media Matters the last word:
When its personalities get into trouble, Fox is often willing to simply remain silent and wait for the attention to fade away. But numerous Ingraham advertisers have fled over the last year due to her bigoted commentary, and the show remains vulnerable. Indeed, the Nehlen segment is already having an impact -- the photo-finishing company Fracture said in a statement this afternoon it would pull its advertisement from her show rather than continuing to “support hate speech with our advertising dollars.
Watch Ingraham and Owens try to mainstream bigoted extremism below, from the May 30, 2019 The Ingraham Angle, via Media Matters.
https://twitter.com/FractureMe/status/1134519139148738560. 👍