Fox News’ Martha MacCallum and Katie Pavlich tag-teamed to turn Donald Trump’s disgusting tweet about the murder of Dwyane Wade’s cousin into a story about Blacks Behaving Badly. Pavlich even announced, “Police aren’t shooting innocent black men.”
In case you’ve missed it, Wade’s cousin, Nykea Aldridge, was shot and killed by crossfire in Chicago as she pushed a baby stroller Friday. Trump used the occasion to brag about his HUGE mojo with “the blacks” with a tweet:
“Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!”
Even Trump’s own campaign manager declined to defend that tweet.
But leave it to Fox News to find a way to spin it in his favor.
“They didn’t like the way that Donald Trump responded," host Martha MacCallum announced accusingly about his critics. Predictably, MacCallum didn’t think it worth mentioning that just this weekend The New York Times published a lengthy report about the racially discriminatory practices of Trump’s father, Fred Trump, even as Donald was being groomed to take it over.
Pavlich acknowledged that critics made “a fair point” in criticizing the tweet. But she quickly deflected to “the crime that’s going on in Chicago that Democrats would rather ignore.” She also called the criticism of Trump “simply a distraction away from Hillary Clinton’s scandals.” Pavlich was allowed to expound upon that last point at some length, without any interruption or challenge from MacCallum.
Of course, Democrat David Goodfriend got no such consideration. “When Donald Trump uses insults and slurs to describe a disabled reporter or to describe a Gold Star mother...” Goodfriend began.
MacCallum laughed derisively off camera and interrupted, “Are we incapable of looking at the substance of what someone is actually talking about? Because it feels really sad to me that this woman is killed on the streets of Chicago and all we can talk about is whether or not he’s a psychopath or a sociopath.”
What MacCallum really seemed to be “really sad” about was that Trump was vilified instead of African Americans. “Nobody is talking about the inner-city violence that is carried out all the time on the streets in our cities!” she complained.
MacCallum even yelled at Goodfriend as he tried to finish his thought. “Why are we not talking about the essence of it?” MacCallum demanded. “It may have been a tactless response but when I read it over the weekend, I thought, he's saying, ‘Why is nobody talking about this?’” MacCallum (and remember, she’s supposedly an “objective” Fox host) went on to attack Beyoncé and Colin Kaepernick for only talking about “one specific kind of violence and death.”
MacCallum barely let Goodfriend answer before turning to Pavlich. Unlike Goodfriend, Pavlich was able to let forth a long, uninterrupted diatribe about black-on-black crime (with another gratuitous dig at Clinton that MacCallum didn’t mind) as well as praise for Trump for “trying to get to the heart of that issue” and an accusation that Goodfriend was “trying to distract away from” it.
And then came this shocking exchange (transcript via Media Matters):
PAVLICH: And by the way, it’s not that—police aren’t shooting innocent black men. And when they do, they’re held accountable for it.
GOODFRIEND: What? Did you just say police are not shooting innocent black men? [...] Did you just say that on national television?
PAVLICH: This narrative, this narrative that you continue to push, this hands up bogus—hands up, don’t shoot bogus narrative that came out of Ferguson, which was proven false by the Department of Justice.
“Objective” MacCallum jumped in to make it two-on-one against Goodfriend.
“Which was proven to never have happened by the Department of Justice, by the way,” MacCallum added. When Goodfriend sarcastically applauded, MacCallum snapped, “It’s worth raising the question, David.”
“Now we see why Donald Trump has zero percent support, he has zero support from the African American community,” Goodfriend replied.
MacCallum held up a scolding finger, “Is there a sickness in not recognizing what’s going on in our inner cities? That is the question that needs to be addressed,” she lectured.
But Goodfriend had a great comeback. “Tell me this, why does Donald Trump have zero support from African Americans in this country?” He asked. “Maybe five percent in the best poll. Why is that?”
Of course, neither could answer.
Watch what passes for Fox News’ “objective” news coverage, below, from the August 29 America’s Newsroom.
Correction: The first name of Dwyane Wade was misspelled.
Thank you for the correction! I have corrected my two posts.
Well Mad Martha, it feels really sad to me is that a woman was killed on the streets of Chicago — and the first thing Drumpf manages to do is connect that to his campaign . . . which, if you think about it for moment, is precisely WHY we’re talking about whether or not Drumpf is a psychopath or a sociopath.
PAVLICH: And by the way, it’s not that—police aren’t shooting innocent black men. And when they do, they’re held accountable for it.
Really, Katie? Well, you should tell that good news to the families of the people on this list; I’m sure they’d love to hear it (particularly the ones, like the families of Eric Garner and Freddie Gray, where the were no charges against the police or they were acquitted): http://gawker.com/unarmed-people-of-color-killed-by-police-1999-2014-1666672349
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