One of Fox News' top propaganda memes is the bogus, Christian right claim that American Christians are being constantly besieged by secular, atheist, and gay "agendas." And it's just not your humble correspondent who has noticed that Fox News utilizes battle imagery in framing the message of the godly us vs. the evil them, with Fox's "war on Christmas" and "war on Christians" as their most apocalyptic battle motifs. On Friday, the NY Times' Jeremy Peters issued out an amusing and spot on tweet which took note of how Fox News is now linking to a hashtag "war on Christians" asked if the "war on Christmas" has been "metastasized" into the "war on Christians." (Answer is yes!) Not more than 48 hours passed before Fox geared up for battle. Showing that while they can give it, they can't take it, Sunday's Fox & Friends misrepresented Peter's tweet in order to attack him (and the NY Times) for supposedly joking about persecuted Christians and attacking Fox News. But ironically, their focus on their favorite meme of Christian victimhood underscored the truthiness of Peters' tweet!
Clayton Morris began what yet another patented Fox News outrage against Christians: "a NY Times reporter turning religious persecution into a joke." Jonathan Peter's truly perceptive and very accurate tweet was shown: "How did I miss that the Fox "War on Christmas" has metastasized into a "War on Christians." The screen grab of #War on Christians and "Christians Under Attack," part of the Fox visual from a recent show, was missing.The chyron reinforced the Fox message that this was very bad: "No Laughing Matter, NYT Writer Jokes About Persecution in Iraq." Tucker Carlson introduced the guest, actor Kevin Sorbo ("Hercules" TV series and movie "God's Not Dead") who hates Pres. Obama, Hollywood "liberal hypocrisy," and - wait for it - atheists whom he trashed on Access Hollywood!
Devout Anglican Christian (Irony Alert) and famous "dick" Tucker Carlson, who "despises" the liberal Episcopal Church (which he bashed on Fox News), sputtered "at this point, you're, they're completely throwing off the mask, the NY Times is taking a political position by saying this." (Reminder, this was a tweet from a NY Times reporter and not a NY Times editorial!) Sorbo said that he "didn't know the guy" and that because people react to tragedy in different ways, "comedy was the way he was doing it." He added "maybe he thinks Schindler's List is a comedy." (Uh, Schindler's list was about the Holocaust and has nothing to do with Fox News' persecuted Christian meme that Peters was lampooning.) Everybody laughed as Clayton Morris said that Peters "was referring to what is unfolding in Iraq." Carlson could hardly contain his mirth: "That's pretty good." (Uh, no, Peters was referring to Fox's obsession with the bogus culture and religious "wars.")
Sorbo said "oh, my God," as Morris cited the persecution of Christians in Iraq." (As Fox is a Christian network, Morris didn't mention the persecution of non-Christians). The chyron reinforced the agitprop: "Genocide a Joke? NYT Writer Jokes About Christian Persecution." Morris proudly suggested that "because we're one of the only news organizations covering it and giving it attention, he thinks we're calling attention to something else." When he asked "is this a farce," Sorbo said "it's absurd" and lamented the persecution of Christians in Nigeria and Egypt. He praised Fox: "no news, you're the only guys who talk about it." (Ad-Nauseam, I might add!) He talked about ISIS atrocities against Christians without mentioning (sssh) that the same thing is happening to non-Christians and Shia Muslims. The chyron reinforced Fox's umbrage to Peters' tweet: "War on Christians, NY Times Attacks Fox, Jokes About Iraq." Sorbo repeated that Fox is the only network "paying attention to this."
Juliette Huddy mentioned "God's Not Dead" which was endorsed by Fox & Friends. The chyron described the movie, which featured Willie and Korie Robertson, as "Full of Faith." And surprise, surprise, movie footage of these Fox/Christian right heroes was shown. A clip of the movie, showing college professor Sorbo declaring that "there is no God," was played. To Morris' question, Sorbo agreed that the movie "has the power to change the hearts of agnostics." He noted that atheists haven't been able to scientifically prove that God doesn't exist and, at the end of the movie, "real life" court cases are listed in which student's claim "they are being persecuted simply because they have a faith."
Never mind Fox's war on Christians - how bout a war on sanity!