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Fox Pundits Blame Nigerian Schoolgirl Kidnapping Partly On Benghazi

Posted by Ellen -7841.60pc on May 07, 2014 · Flag

Fox host Laura Ingraham won tonight’s “Make Any Story About Benghazi” award when she suggested Benghazi was partly to blame for the recent kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls. For extra Fox News credit, regular guest Zuhdi Jasser attacked John Kerry, too. To listen to Jasser and Ingraham, you might think the Obama administration was almost the sole cause of the Nigerian kidnapping and all other Islamic radicalism.

Ingraham claimed to find the Nigerian kidnappings story heartbreaking. But as The O’Reilly Factor host tonight, she paired it with the rather irrelevant and trivial news that “Hollywood elites” are boycotting hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei because of his anti-woman and anti-gay laws. The real topic of the discussion, as she put it in her scripted introduction, was “Is this latest clash of civilizations exposing the true face of Islam?”

What she really meant, though, was, “Is Islam exposing the true face of the Obama administration?”

The choice of Jasser as a guest guaranteed a virulently anti-Islamic and right-wing perspective. Jasser quickly went after the Obama administration - even though they are only tangentially involved in the Nigeria story and, judging from Fox's reporting here, not at all in the Brunei boycott. 

Jasser complained that Secretary of State Kerry “just gave a speech in Ethiopia, didn’t use the word ‘Islamism,’ didn’t talk about Islamic radicalism. This administration has no strategy. …We let radicalism fester.”

Apparently, that made Ingraham think of Benghazi:

I think part of the problem here is that we have a dead American ambassador - we have no one in custody. Not to go back to Benghazi, but we’ve no one in custody …anywhere in this investigation, as far as I could tell.

And now, people are saying, “Well, what are you going to do about these young girls? You gotta do something!" And believe me, our heart breaks for all of this horrific violence against religious minorities – Christians, Catholic priests being murdered during the middle of mass, Syrian Christians, Coptic Christians, they’re being decimated… But what do we do at this point? I mean, we’ve sent a message to the world that you can kill a U.S. ambassador and - it looks like - get away with it!

Her other guest, Harris Zafar, added, “To your point, when the extremists have free reign and they don’t feel the proper push back, then they will keep pushing the envelope.” However, he did add that mosques and Muslims and non-Christians have also been victims of radical ideologues.

Jasser, who got way more time than the seemingly more moderate Zafar, got the last word as well as the first. This time, Jasser worked in a swipe at Al Gore. “We aren’t addressing the problem, we keep addressing the symptom. …Where were they (Hollywood activists) when Al Gore …took a half a billion from Qatar because they bought his station? ...We’ve been ignoring the bigger problem (of) Islamism and political Islam. It’s a much bigger tumor, it’s an ideology that we need to confront.”

So let’s see, Fox has used the White House Correspondents Dinner and climate change to talk about Benghazi this week and now this. What do you think is next? The NBA and Donald Sterling? Monica Lewinsky? Share your predictions in our comments section.

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Ellen commented 2014-05-09 02:14:48 -0400 · Flag
Thanks, Joseph West, for making the point about Kerry and Ethiopia. I meant to question why it was supposedly important when, for all we know, Kerry was talking about something else altogether. But you seem to know a lot about it and explained it better.
Aria Prescott commented 2014-05-08 21:43:16 -0400 · Flag
Hey, I just broke a nail… DAMN YOU, BENGHAZI!!!!!
Joseph West commented 2014-05-08 18:21:23 -0400 · Flag
I’m not sure why Jasser thinks Kerry should’ve mentioned “Islamism” in his speech in Ethiopia. From what I’ve read about the unrest that’s happened in that country, it’s largely been due to AUTHORITARIAN POLITICAL shenanigans—having to do with things like restricting free speech, imprisoning bloggers, removing certain ethnic (not religious) groups from universities—because a now-minority group, which traditionally was the political elite doesn’t want to share, much less give up, its power.

The main ethnic group that’s been targeted are the Oromo (who make up about 40% of Ethiopia’s population). The Oromo, as a whole, are largely Muslim but Christians comprise nearly as much of the Oromo population (by some counts, Christians have a slight edge). But even with the Oromo, they’re not completely united in terms of politics—some Oromo were part of the Marxist-era Revolutionary Council while others fought against the Marxist government.

But overall, why would Kerry inject a topic that really doesn’t play a part in the country’s day-to-day reality? There haven’t been any known “Islamic attacks” against Ethiopia (leaving aside the conflicts with the neighboring Muslim states of Eritrea and Somalia), much less any “Islamic-sponsored terrorist” actions. Of course, that’s par for the course for US radical right-wingers: Make everything about “Islamic radicals” and ignore the “Christian radicals” in THIS country.
truman commented 2014-05-08 09:13:48 -0400 · Flag
More bonus points for the first Fux Noise talking head to work in Benghazi into the weather report; e.g. “it’s warm in the Southern US today, but not as a warm as it is in Benghazi where four brave Americans died because of Obama and Hillary.”
Jan Hall commented 2014-05-08 08:50:35 -0400 · Flag
It’s always good when Ms. Laura fills in for Junior O’Reilly. It gives The Factor a little extra Testosterone.
Bemused commented 2014-05-08 05:16:36 -0400 · Flag
Image that popped into my mind was Wily Coyote with one foot here and the other one on an object moving steadily away with ol’ Wily looking straight at the camera before dropping miserably a few miles down into the canyon.
That was quite a stretch, even for Laura.J
Antoinette commented 2014-05-08 01:59:29 -0400 · Flag
Broadcasting industry insiders know Ms. Laura is not the brightest bulb in the lamp. That’s why the big names in radio never mention her when discussing conservative talk radio.

This broad talks about war on women. She should here what conservative men say about her.
NewsHounds posted about Fox Pundits Blame Nigerian Schoolgirl Kidnapping Partly On Benghazi on NewsHounds' Facebook page 2014-05-07 23:45:03 -0400
It's no longer enough just to blame Obama for every evil that befalls humanity. Now, it's because of Obama and Benghazi!








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