After a week of being gratuitously demonized on Fox News – and elsewhere by the right wing – it was reported yesterday that Bowe Bergdahl’s family has received death threats and is receiving security.
From Reuters:
The first of the death threats sent to Bob Bergdahl at his home near Hailey, Idaho, was received on Wednesday, the same day the city canceled a planned rally celebrating the release of his son, Hailey Police Chief Jeff Gunter said.
“There were four specific emails with death threats given to the FBI and they are looking into it,” Gunter told Reuters in an interview.
Authorities are providing security to Bob Bergdahl and his wife, Jani, but Gunter declined to elaborate on those measures.
This after Fox News deliberately and repeatedly set out to demonize Bergdahl’s father as anti-American, based on nothing more than speculation:
- Bill O’Reilly: He has learned to speak Pashto the language of the Taliban. And looks like a Muslim. He’s also somewhat sympathetic to Islam, actually thanking Allah right in front of the president.
- Fox News’ Ralph Peters: The final straw for the men and women in uniform was when they saw that Rose Garden pageant of craziness where, you know, Pops Taliban and his beard and his remarks in Pashto.
- Sean Hannity to guest Brigitte Gabriel: “What that father was saying in the Rose Garden - …Walid (Shoebat) is suggesting he was declaring the Muslim victory call …He calls it the ‘war cry of Allah.’ Is that what that is, when he said that?”
- Brigitte Gabriel’s response: “It is the war cry of Allah.”
- Donald Trump complained the father’s tweets were “really, like, anti-American.”
- Sean Hannity to Bowe Bergdahl’s friend: What is your reaction when you hear the father praising Allah in the Rose Garden and wanting more Gitmo detainees – terrorists who killed Americans - freed?
Shades of Dr. Tiller, eh?
The disgusting thing is that with the exception of Peters, none of these people have served in the military, much less had a son held captive for five years (though Gabriel was injured as a child during a bombing in Lebanon).
On CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley today, retired General James Mattis, former commander of U.S. Central Command, who has kept in touch with the family throughout their son’s captivity, noted how awful it is for them to be undergoing this new, needless and unwarranted suffering in the wake of all they’ve already endured:
Well, these are two salt-of-the-earth people. They’re regular old Americans.
I think most of us got over judging people by the length of their hair by about 1975 in this country. They have been through an extremely coercive experience.
Just think where you and I have been, Candy, for the last four or five years and thinking of every day in their position, wondering if they’re going to get that knock on the door saying that this enemy has killed their son.
So you can imagine what it’s like to have gone through something like this for them, and I think a certain amount of compassion is appropriate for a family that’s been through this.
It’s time for Fox News to dredge up any sense of decency it may have hidden in its closet and put it to work.
You: “Did you know that News Corporation, which is now part of 21st Century Fox, is partly-owned by a Saudi Arabian? His name is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. He is the largest shareholder of the company.”
Pardon me Antoinette — if you don’t mind, I’d like to make a minor correction: according to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s entry on http://www.wikipedia.org, he is News Corporation’s largest shareholder OUTSIDE of the Murdoch family (7%).
The Taliban is not a threat to America, it’s this fraudulent “news” outlet run by Nixon trainee Ailes. Their mouthpieces have been arrested, and sued for sexual harassment, and their former employees has filed lawsuits for gender discrimination, and unfair termination.
We know how these bogs operate, and they know it.
We encourage the masses to target their audience by reminding them that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is the second largest shareholder of News Corporation.
Say this to conservatives on the streets of America:
You: “Did you know that News Corporation, which is now part of 21st Century Fox, is partly-owned by a Saudi Arabian? His name is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. He is the largest shareholder of the company.”
Conservative: “No, I didn’t know that.”
You: 21st Century Fox is the parent company of Fox “News” Channel. In fact, you don’t hardly hear any negative stories about Saudi Arabia, despite reports that it supports Islamic terrorist organizations."
Conservative: “Really? Never new that.”
You: “The reports are all over the Internet. Just Google Saudi Arabia links to terrorism, and a number of articles will come up about that country. I would tell your friends about it, too.”
Conservative: “Thanks. I will look it up.”
This is why we call them cafeteria Catholics. All of them should have been ex-communicated decades ago, but the New York Catholic church leaders, aka false prophets, have been bought out by these evil people.
NOTE TO ALL FOX “NEWS” MOUTHPIECES, SENIOR EXECUTIVES, PRODUCERS, STAFFERS
Matthew 7:15 warned us about you clowns.
Hate speech is both un-ethical (un-Christian to the believers in Jesus) and dangerous because there are far too many guns sloshing around in the USA and far too many crazies ready and willing to alleviate their hatred by using them.
FNC has clearly encouraged some of those crazies to make death threats against a family against whom there is nothing but speculation. FNC should be held responsible as the commissionner of any actions (murder, maiming, etc.) that may be inspired by the irresponsible talking by their employees. The employees themselves are just as guilty as any gangster obeying the boss’s orders.
Free speech only goes so far, and Fox News is miles over the line that Reagan decided to make disappear. I think it’s time to start a movement to put the line back. The fairness doctrine, the FCC, accountability for the media- The trolls can make their case for other media being irresponsible all they want, Fox News has 100 times what the rest of them do COMBINED, and our solution for Fox is to rein them in within the confines of the law and the constitution, while their solution is pure and simple censorship of the outlets Fox told them to hate.
We know what their solution is- How about we stop talking about ours and get going? We only got until the next time their side controls things to even try, they’re not even pretending they wanna hide that.
Oh Ellen, you are so sweet.
