When a guest on Megyn Kelly’s special anti-Islam show noted that domestic terrorism is considered a bigger threat to law enforcers than radical Islamic terrorism, our “straight news anchor” couldn’t seem to handle the truth.
Haroon Moghul was the only guest on last night’s Kelly File special not criticizing Islam. And he didn't even get mentioned in the lineup.
Yet Fox felt the need to “balance” him in his one segment with Islam-hater Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who appeared multiple times throughout the show). Even so, he was rarely – if ever – allowed to complete an answer without being interrupted.
Kelly asked Moghul to respond to the fact that radical Islamists threaten the lives of outspoken Islam-critics like Ali. “Is there anything we can be saying or even discussing here in the United States that can get us past that or that can stop this problem, at least within our borders?” Kelly asked.
“Well, there is no problem within our borders, significantly,” Moghul said. He pointed out that extremist Pamela Geller’s Islamophobic stunt in Garland, Texas was not protested by American Muslim organizations and the gunmen who tried to attack her event were radicals known to the FBI. (As far as I can discern, the FBI knew only one of them, but it had warned Garland police about that one before the event.)
Kelly sounded almost hysterical as she interrupted: “The FBI says ISIS has a presence in all 50 states! We have a little bit of an issue!”
“With respect, the FBI also says the number one terror threat in America is domestic right-wing groups,” Moghul replied. “So if you’re gonna quote the FBI, then let’s quote all of the FBI.”
Moghul appears to be correct. In February, CNN reported:
A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism.
Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to—and in some cases greater than—the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.
Rather than acknowledge that point, “straight news anchor” Kelly distorted Moghul’s comments in a blatant effort to discredit them and him.
KELLY: So in your view, the right-wing groups are more of a threat to America than radical Islam. …So that’s what you think we should focus on.
That’s not at all what Moghul had said. But he now responded that he thinks “We should focus on both.” He tried to explain, but Kelly interrupted to ask how to focus on the problem of radical Islamism in the United States.
Moghul obviously had some ideas. But his response was interrupted again, this time by Ali. She was allowed to finish her thoughts as she accused Moghul of “obfuscating” and “trying to distract us.”
“He, himself, may in fact be part of this Medina Muslim group,” Ali baselessly accused. By that, Ali meant a group that sees “the forcible imposition of Shariah as their religious duty,” as she put it in a Wall Street Journal editorial. Last night, Ali said, “There are different ways that the Medina Muslims try to silence this discussion on what is going on with radical Islam.”
They “attack the messenger,” Kelly said sympathetically to Ali. “We’ve seen that done repeatedly.”
Ironically, the only "messenger" being attacked and silenced during this segment was Moghul.
Kelly announced she’d let Moghul respond to the accusation – and then never let him finish a thought without interrupting to argue with and lecture to him.
Watch the “fair and balanced” farce below, from the May 25 The Kelly File.
CORRECTION: This post originally said the video below was from the March 25 Kelly File show.
I can’t vouch for all the time they spend on-screen, but it does seem to me that some of the women choose to leave the heavy-handed bias to their male counterparts ( Jenna Lee, …) um, one of the women, while the others are up to their elbows playing Ailes’ nasty little game with all the childish glee of a Doocy or a Cavuto.
The whole twisted, archaic business makes me puke.
And I suppose if MK can be considered a real journalist, professional “rasslin” just might be a legitimate sport, uh?
It surprises me how a body so steeped in acid and poisonous bile still managed to give birth to physically healthy young. Maybe they were sacrificing virgins for their blood through its pregnancies.