Apparently, Fox & Friends was so eager to showcase a woman who claimed to have been targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center that nobody on the show bothered to fact check her claim. Either that, or they didn’t care that the targeting never happened.
Fox News loves to portray young liberals as “snowflakes” who, in their “safe spaces,” whine about everything. Yet, Fox is willing to provide a safe space for right wing youth who feel aggrieved by the "liberal agenda" – even though one was exposed as a liar. Recently, Fox & Friends hosted another aggrieved young conservative who seems to have a problem with the truth!
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has defined the virulently homophobic, conservative Christian Family Research Council (FRC) as a “hate group.” But Fox News has jumped to its defense and showered much love on Tony Perkins' hate-filled, Jesus loving posse - a love that includes libelous attacks on the SPLC.
So it was no surprise that on September 30, 2017, Fox & Friends cohost Pete Hegseth informed us that the SPLC is “a left-wing attack group” that “has called the Family Research Council a ‘hate group’ for years.” (Hegseth’s attack didn’t include the reason for the SPLC’s designation.)
He reported that a “conservative college grad” who did an interview with the FRC is “under fire for being linked to that organization.” He added that she wants the SPLC’s “bullying tactics” to stop. (And we know that Fox News would never engage in bullying!)
Hegseth introduced Hannah Scherlacher from the right-wing Fox fave, Campus Reform. He provided “facts” about how the nasty SPLC is bullying her: “You were on a radio program hosted by [FRC president] Tony Perkins…You did an interview, it must have been something hate related, right, if you’ve been designated by the SPLC as an enabler of hate?”
Scherlacher said the topic for the Perkins interview was socialism and that she just can’t understand why she's on the SPLC list.
Before appearing on Fox & Friends, Scherlacher made her accusation in a FoxNews.com article. On TV, she claimed that when the SPLC puts people on lists, it’s “a memorandum to their supporters that I am the enemy.” As a dutiful handmaiden of an organization founded in order to “smash liberal scum on campuses,” she accused the SPLC of trying to “dispose of conservatives’ First Amendment rights.” “This time, I was the target,” she continued. She condemned the SPLC for being “reckless and irresponsible in labeling people as haters.” (Oh, the irony!) Given that the targets of Fox News do get death threats, her suggestion that her safety was in jeopardy was also ironic.
In a less-than-subtle leading question, Hegseth asked Scherlacher about the intent of the SPLC “targeting” and “What are they trying to do to you?”
Snowflake Scherlacher claimed that SPLC is “trying to silence” her and other conservatives. She suggested that none of the SPLC hate groups are left-wing. (Fact - The SPLC “listed nearly 200 black separatist groups in 2016 – including chapters of the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party – whose tenets include anti-Semitism and racially based hatred of white people.”) She added that campus conservatives are “bullied, attacked and ostracized” by radical liberals who are not on SPLC’s list, as she is. “It needs to stop,” she concluded.
Hegseth complimented her “strong voice.”
FACTS: At best, Scherlacher is exaggerating her importance. At worst she’s lying. She is not on any lists other than as a name on the SPLC’s “Anti-LGBT Roundups of Events and Activities” which included an extensive list of FRC’s recent radio guests. While the organizations on the “round-up,” were marked as hate groups, the individuals were just names on a list. She was not attacked as “an enabler of hate.” But that hasn’t stopped her sad story from making the rounds of right wing propaganda outlets.
In other words, there’s no there, there - but Hannah Scherlacher has distorted reality in order to advance Fox/right wing propaganda of right-wing victimhood. And Fox News was more than happy to help perpetuate the distortion.
Check out the fake victimhood below, from the September 30, 2017 Fox & Friends.