Fox’s latest excuse to race bait Michael Brown’s “angry black man” stepfather was to trot out psychiatrist Keith Ablow for a discussion about whether the stepfather should be prosecuted for inciting a riot in Ferguson, MO. But Ablow took it a step further by fingering the stepfather as guiltier in Brown's death than the man who actually shot and killed the unarmed teenager.
Fox’s obsession with charging Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, for a crime that even co-host Steve Doocy suggested would be hard to prove, is more than a little suspicious when you consider all the actual, proven crooks they’ve embraced: host Oliver North (his convictions were eventually overturned on a technicality), contributor Mark Fuhrman, Bernard Kerik, James O’Keefe, Dinesh D’Souza and, of course, Cliven Bundy.
But every time Fox “debates” Brown's stepfather, it gives the network another excuse to play the footage of Head yelling “Burn this mother****** down for its lily-white audience. And demonize Brown by implication.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not condone Head’s behavior in any way. But the character of Brown and his stepfather are really ancillary to the issue of police overuse of force and how that disproportionately affects minority communities. Once again, Fox showed no interest in what is really at the heart of this controversy.
As further evidence of Fox’s disingenuousness, the guest for the segment was a psychiatrist, not a lawyer.
“The tape doesn’t lie and we can’t defer to mob rule. Hence, the man has to be charged,” Ablow announced.
Not only that, Ablow wants to make the Brown family the real criminals:
The investigation into Michael Brown’s death has ended and now the investigation into his life should begin. And I would question whether having a stepfather like Michael Brown’s – this man who should be charged with attempting to incite a riot - influenced Michael Brown to lose his life, to have no respect for the property of others, no respect for authority and therefore, to find himself engaged in a mortal conflict with a law officer, an officer of the law.
Co-host Steve Doocy questioned the wisdom of charging the stepfather after not charging Officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing Brown. Doocy noted that it would be “hard to prove” charges against Head.
But Ablow didn’t care. After diagnosing Head via video, Ablow concluded that we’ll all be sicker if Head's not charged. “If the state is in a position to be so fearful of a mob that they can’t deliver justice, then we are in a difficult place and I don’t think we want to go to that place,” Ablow said. “As a forensic psychiatrist,” he continued, Head “looks like” he had “the specific intent” to start a riot.
But that’s not all Head is guilty of, according to Ablow:
The fact that he is the stepfather makes him culpable potentially for more than just those words, for the life of Michael Brown and his death.
Watch it below and check out how many times Fox rolls the “angry black man” video throughout.
As opposed to, say, the cop that shot him — right, “Dr” Ablowme?
And here I thought rightwingnuts were all about “personal responsibility” . . .
.