Under the guise of advocacy, Fox News loves to insert itself into cases involving sick children in order to promote an agenda. Such was the case with "Baby Joseph," a terminally ill Canadian child whose parents refused to comply with a court order to take him off support. In providing totally biased *coverage, Fox was able to promote its "pro-life" creds and, for bonus points, speculate that the Canadian decision was just an example of  the dreaded "death panels." Last year, Fox's Peter Johnson, Jr., politicized the case of a child needing new lungs in order to promote lies about the ACA and attack HHS Secretary Sebelius. When the case was satisfactorily resolved, Johnson was hailed as a hero.  Questions regarding the ethics of organ transplants remain and a Facebook discussion has turned nasty. And that's why Peter Johnson Jr., isn't happy and wants all of you naysayers to STFU!

Some background:  10 year old Sarah Murnaghan, who was suffering from cystic fibrosis, needed a lung transplant. She was placed on a waiting list for a child's organs but when she was diagnosed with only five more weeks to live, her parents requested that she receive adult lungs which were, under policy, allocated for those children over 12. Because HHS rules stipulate that only children over 12 receive adult lungs, the request was denied. Parents then petitioned HHS to change the rules. But when Sec. Sebelius informed them that she didn't have that authority, she was pilloried by the right wing and Johnson who used the opportunity to say that Murnaghan's plight was a just a sign of things to come with the ACA. Eventually, a Federal Court ordered Sebelius to waive the policy and the transplant occurred.

On this morning's Fox & Friends, Jon Scott reported that evil "government red tape" prevented Murnaghan from having "life saving surgery" but the parents "fought back." The chyron framed the message of the upcoming piece: "Transplant Backlash, Murnaghan Family Facing Criticism." After noting that there has been some "on line backlash," he tossed to Roger Ailes' friend and personal attorney, Catholic Knight of Malta, litigator for the Catholic archdiocese of NY, and Fox friend, Peter Johnson Jr. who seems to be responding to Sarah's mother's who has "asked supporters of the family to complain about the Facebook page that criticized her campaign to change the ruling, and petition to have it removed, claiming her daughter was being targeted unfairly."

Johnson immediately said that "this makes me ashamed to be an American today" because of Facebook postings some of which claim that the child had an unfair advantage because rules were changed for her and that the child does not appear to be thriving since the operation. Johnson accused the posters of "reveling in someone else's pain" and having a "death wish." Ever the Fox partisan, in validating Johnson's whine, Scott whined about "hateful speech." Johson whined that Facebook is violating their policy of not allowing hate speech which, in this case, is "un-American."  Johnson continued to whine while the chyron reinforced the agitprop: "Crossing the Line, Negative Posts About Sarah Murnaghan."

Scott said that the owner of the Facebook page lacks courage because they are anonymous. The chyron reinforced the message that Facebook is not playing by the rules: "Facebook Page Unfair? Rules: No Attacks Based on Medical Conditions." Johnson continued to whine about "hate speech." More agitprop in the chyron, "Staying Positive, Murnaghan's Mom Trying to Ignore Hateful Comments."  Nobody mentioned that the Facebook page is "used as a forum for discussing other transplant cases and the medical and ethical issues surrounding the life-saving surgery"and isn't, exclusively, about Sarah.

Johnson made the extraordinarily ironic comment, on a network that revels in hateful discourse, that "we're not about hate in this country, we're about love." Showing his complete lack of objectivity, he proclaimed "I love this girl." Scott said that Fox will "stay on this story."

ROFLMAO  - If Johnson is concerned about hate speech on the internet, he should check out the Fox News sewer known as Fox Nation which traffics in all sorts of hateful, racist commentary with a few death threats to the President thrown in. But the reality is that other children face similar circumstances but they don't have Fox News to publicize their case which does made is seem like an unfair advantage. Moral of the story Pete - be careful what you wish for!!!!

*Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here

Addendum: Johnson whined that a Facebook comment referred to Sarah's family as a cult. The comment was actually a sarcastic reference to how Sarah's mom had encouraged her "cult followers" to bombard the website with comments in defense of Sarah.