This memo was leaked to the Huffington Post the thursday after the election. It was written by the Vice President of News for the Fox News Network.
Does anyone still want to defend Fox News as anything but a joke?
I like how the Network’s resident tools are urged to try to find connections between the Democrats and the insurgency. I’m glad to know that the Dems’ victory is “not the end of the world,” though. :rolleyes:
Imagine if CBS or CNN had been caught with an internal memo like this attacking Republicans and suggesting strategies for undermining them on the air or coaching them on what kind of insinuations to make.
I don’t see what the big deal is. They are a news channel looking for ratings, and people will tune in, especially their demographic, to hear about Al Qaeda cheering on the Dems. Of course they shoud be on the lookout for it.
Currently, the memo typeface is being closely examined to be sure it authentic.
Olberman went a bit further tonight and found a segment that appears to be compliance with the FoxGnaws directive to talk about terrorists celebrating the Democrat victory. Either that or one of those, you know, amazing coincidences.
(Note to Comrade Doggy: Might I make so bold as to suggest you include Glen Becks astonishing interview with MN’s newly elected Muslim Congressman? Wherein he questions his loyalty on the basis of his being a Democrat and a Muslim? Seems like a good fit, but its your rubber ducky…)
Most gobsmacking remark in the linked quotes from that interview:
“You could be an icon to show Europe, this is the way you integrate into a country”? Is Beck actually under the impression that Ellison is an immigrant from Muslim Africa who’s “integrated into” America?
AFAICT, Ellison is a Detroit native from a Roman Catholic African-American family who’ve been in this country for generations. Is it humanly possible that Beck would go to interview the guy without knowing that? Or did he just inadvertently make an incredibly clumsy and misleading statement? Was he really trying to say that Ellison’s Somalian constituents could be an icon of Muslim integration?
You left out quite a lot of important verbiage that immiediately preceded what you quoted, Diogenese the Cynic. It looked to me that the interviewer was saying that he considered the “cut & run” to be “working with our enemies.” He certainly did not imply that he considered the Congressman elect to be an enemy. The interviewer actually expressly stated otherwise.
No, but he said that he feels as though he wants the Congressman to prove that he’s not “working with our enemies”. And he made it clear that the Congressman’s being a Muslim was a factor in that:
If Ellison’s “suspect” status, at least in terms of how Beck “feels” about him, is only because he’s a Democrat and has nothing to do with his being a Muslim, then why did Beck go through the little “some of my best friends are Muslims” song and dance in the first place?
Well, unfortunately for Mr Ellison, some of his supporters began shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ at his victory celebration, which might tend to put people on edge at this point in history. This is the best video I could find of it, and the sound wasn’t working for me (but comments below confirmed that it did indeed show this).
If someone campaigned as openly Christian, with Christianity-promoting motives, and they won, and their supporters danced around singing some variation on 'Praise God, Thank you Jesus", people on this list would be justified in assuming a specific agenda. Since Mr Ellison has campaigned as openly Muslim, and his supporters have done the Muslim equivalent of the above, and since right now the US receives frequent threats of attack from Muslims…well, yeah. I could see somebody assuming guilt. Even if they are proven in the end to be wrong.
What? What is so lame? The video link I provided was not a Fox News video. As far as I can tell, it was taken by a supporter of Mr. Ellison. If you want to know why SOME people might think he’s working with the enemy…there’s a reason why.
Does this prove Mr Ellison is working with the enemy? I haven’t said so. I don’t know anything about the man. I’m halfway across the country, and we have our own politicians to worry about.
Nor would I think it’s a bright idea to assume that all his supporters are wonderful, America-loving, god-fearing people, merely because they’re Muslims. There’s real jerks in every religion. But people are worried about radical Islamists right now.
So…the correct response is to assume that Muslims who run for office in the USA and Muslims who vote in elections in the USA…and who then yell out in the moment of their victory the equivalent of “Praise Jaysus!” are to be assumed hostile?
Fuck, if that’s not a way of encouraging isolation and discouraging integration what could do it faster?
Oooh, very clever. I like how you just state that Ellison campaigned as “openly Muslim”, as if that means anything apart from him not denying he was, in fact, a Muslim. I followed this race somewhat closely (aside from the fact that it was pretty much over after the primary, and I live in a district where the race was quite boring (one of those 139 term DFLers, which makes it good), and the only people bringing up religion were opponents and their surrogates, who reached new heights of fear mongering.
Well, we would certainly be justified in assuming that the politician in question and their supporters are Christians. In fact, such things happen all the time in religious-right electoral districts.
We wouldn’t be justified in assuming that any of them are actually involved in traitorous cooperation with terrorists, though.
Sure, but there’s no need to be stupid about it. Yeah, I can understand people seeing happy Muslims shouting “Allah akbar!” and having inadvertent uncomfortable flashbacks to news footage of rejoicing terrorists. Americans are still adjusting to the trauma of having suffered a terrible act of violence and found some very scary enemies, and it’s natural to have some rather jumpy feelings about it.
But I can’t understand anybody being stupid or paranoid enough to openly say to a law-abiding Muslim-American politician “I feel you should prove to me that you are not working with our enemies”. Being traumatized by a terrible act of violence and the recognition of scary enemies doesn’t give anybody the right to behave like a total bigoted asshole.
People say “praise God” and engage in other public shows of Christian faith all the time at political celebrations. It means absolutely nothing. You’d have to be a moron to think that Muslims saying “praise God” (in Arabic) is anything to be afraid of.
I’m in general agreement here (though I find the whole thing to be pretty much a yawn, having read the memo)…however, for my part, whenever I hear ‘Allahu Akbar’ these days it give me a bit of a chill. YMMV of course…but I’ve heard that phrase a bit much lately, followed by some act or other of a violent nature to just blow it off.
That said, the reference WAS lame…you were quite right there.
Is Beck actually under the impression that Ellison is an immigrant from Muslim Africa who’s “integrated into” America?