One week after Jeanine Pirro made such a shocking attack on Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar that even Fox News issued a statement condemning it, Pirro’s show was pre-empted for a repeat episode of “Scandalous.” We got a furious letter from one viewer who thought they were writing to Fox.
Variety reported that the “Justice with Judge Jeanine” show had been listed in newspapers to air this evening, though the “Scandalous” repeat was found in an on-screen cable guide.
Variety further reported:
When reached for comment, a Fox News spokesperson said, “We’re not commenting on internal scheduling matters” and declined to elaborate.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pirro’s show lost at least three advertisers last week after she suggested that Omar is anti-American because she wears a hajib.
Furthermore, the Pirro controversy (along with another one involving Tucker Carlson’s racism and misogyny) is coming just as Fox is trying to soothe advertiser concerns about its inflammatory content.
It’s also possible that the terrorist massacre of Muslims in New Zealand this week may have factored into Fox’s decision.
But at least one Fox viewer was A-OK with Pirro's Islamophobia. At about 9:10 ET, we got this email from a fan who thought she was writing to Fox News. (Regular readers know this sort of thing happens often, thanks to some Google weirdness). Although the name is not included to protect the ignorant, spelling and punctuation are intact:
Subject: Judge Jeannie
What are you thinking, we watch Judge every Saturday night. I thought this was a free country and you can speak your mind. We are so, so upset over this, we are going to stop watching FOX, You are falling into the radical left purses. Wake up , she was wonderful. How can she get all the great reviews and you just do not get it!!!! Very upset with your decision.
Watch the commentary that took Fox decided to condemn 24 hours after it aired and after a senior producer undoubtedly approved it, below, from the March 9, 2019 Justice with Judge Jeanine, via Media Matters:
But let’s openly acknowledge that Jeanine Pirro’s bigoted comments were not about “just asking questions”. They were bigotry, pure and simple. Pirro thinks she can get away with it because that’s been the m.o. at Fox News ever since the Pence White House squeaked through the swing states in 2016.
Nobody other than angry Right Wingers is “hyperventilating” about any of this, but it’s nice to know that trolling commenters like Kent are concerned about it. Unless of course, he’s not really concerned and is just making another attempt at trolling. Nobody is “afraid” of the bigoted comments being made by Pirro and her fans. People with some sense of principles are simply pointing out the bigotry.
And again, this isn’t going to end Pirro’s run at Fox News. Her most visible fan, the childish spokesman for the Pence White House, just tweeted out a mostly incoherent demand that Fox News put her back on the air post-haste.
Be careful, though. Despite all the right-wing talking points America was founded on Christianity, the 10 Commandments is in direct conflict with the Constitution. 🤔
I am simply suggesting that the Judge’s comments raise questions, and that, has caused hyperventilating that is going on around here and elsewhere.
When did we become so afraid to ask questions?
Pirro’s comments were typical garden variety examples of her usual bigotry and viciousness. To be honest, I’m frankly surprised that Fox News pulled her show. I agree that it’s possible they did so out of confusion in the wake of the latest Right Wing hate crime as seen in the massacre in New Zealand.
I’m sure Pirro will be back on the air in short order, with the same zest for bullying and shouting over anyone with whom she disagrees. It’s likely that we’ll also see the usual pile of nonsensical whataboutism from angry Right Wing pundits over the next week. I believe it’s equally likely that Fox News only did this to try to play a card of being “fair” so that the Right Wing pundits will openly state how they don’t see eye to eye with Fox News on everything, and so that Fox News will be able to pretend to objectivity as they attack Democrats for wisely steering clear of the open manhole they’re trying to learn the candidates into encountering.
Participation is voluntary. Submission to religious law is itself voluntary. And the U.S. Constitution, along with federal law, continues to be the supreme law of the land – any decisions by religious courts must yield to constitutional guarantees. This has been going on likely since the Founding, and certainly for many, many decades.
Yet no one is clamoring for Jewish and Catholic religious courts to be barred. Only when it comes to Muslims do people get exercised.
Wonder why that is?
I don’t claim to know Sharia law! Do you?
Maybe we should know more about it, but I don’t think we need to because we all agree that our laws are to abide by a Constitution document, Right?
Do you really know anything about Sharia law or are you just re-spewing what the ‘experts’ at Fox have fed you as factual?
Put another way…will her adherence to Sharia law conflict with her duties and obligations to follow US Constitutional law? If yes, how will she react to that potential conflict?
Amazing how people like Judge Janine have the nerve to call themselves “Christians”.
