Just when one may think Fox “News” can’t dive any deeper into the toxic boiling cesspool of moral and ethical depravity, another day commences, and one is yet again proven wrong.
This time, Jesse Watters, host of Fox’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” virtually dismissed the brutal attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in his TV commentary on Friday, October 28, 2022.
“People are being hit with hammers every day. People are being pushed into subways, slashed, shot in cold blood, but the media focuses on this one single crime to pin it on Republicans?” he argued.
Watters downplayed the attack as nothing unique, but, rather, as just another incident in the recent upturn in violent crime across the nation, which Republicans have lifted as their major strategic talking point throughout this midterm campaign season.
Actually, documentation, reports, and analysis of crime rates are more complicated than Republicans would have us believe. For example, some forms of crime have decreased, and increases in homicide began under the former Republican President, Donald Trump, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Fox can’t let facts stand in the way of their “Fair and Balanced” (read as “Fear and Biased”) coverage in their blaming Democrats for being “soft on crime.”
No, the attack on Paul Pelosi, 82, was no usual home invasion and violent mugging. The alleged assailant, a 42-year-old man, called out “Where is Nancy. Where is Nancy.” And when police officers arrived, he told them that “We are waiting for Nancy.”
He echoes so many of the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 when they mockingly called out: “Hey Nancy,” “Where’s Nancy” in their attempt to kidnap and do her harm.
If anything, we have seen an alarming spike in threats against Democratic and some politically moderate Republican members of Congress and against election officials, all stemming from Donald Trumps “Big Lie” of a supposed fraudulent 2020 presidential election. Trump has empowered a new generation of domestic terrorists to take up his cause of regaining power at all costs.
According to The Hill:
“In recent years, the number of menacing threats against sitting members of Congress has ballooned, forcing the Capitol Police to launch thousands of investigations; prompting a flood of new funding for lawmaker security back home and in Washington; and impelling lawmakers to take remarkable precautions to ensure they don’t become the next target of political violence.”
But Fox “News” rarely covers this rise in domestic terrorism. Instead, it normalizes attacks as average everyday random happenstance.
Referring to the attack on Paul Pelosi:
“This can happen anywhere,” host Bill Hemmer stated when he was alerted to the news. “Crime is random, and that’s why it’s such a significant part of this election story.”
Later, a Fox “News” commentator asked on air why President Joe Biden condemned the attack against Paul Pelosi, which involved a hammer, but did not condemn “thousands” of other hammer attacks in the city.
Fox Host Laura Ingraham ran a banner under a photograph of Nancy and Paul Pelosi during her show that read, “EVERYONE NEEDS TO CALM DOWN.”
Watters waded further into the cesspool by arguing that “People in San Francisco are smashing people in the head every day, and they get bailed out, and they don’t get hit with attempted murder charges.”
Former President Trump and several right-wing legislators referred to “protesters” who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building as “patriots” who were exercising their First Amendment right to free speech, freedom of assembly, and right to petition the government for redress of grievances.
In a one-minute taped video address, Trump directed his comments to the crowd of his supporters:
“You have to go home now. We have to have peace,” he said. Though some Republicans and most Democrats denounced the crowd, Trump continued by saying, “We love you. You’re very special. I know how you feel, but go home and go home in peace,” he concluded.
Fox “News” and its ardent supporters who normalize right-wing domestic terrorists by referring to them as “very special,” “patriots,” “protestors,” “tourists visiting the Capitol,” and other contrived and deceitful terminology condone and promote further violence against our elected officials, election workers, and anyone who opposes their political viewpoint.
Ultimately, they work to bring down this experiment we call our “democratic republic.”
I am only surprised that no Fox host has yet responded by paraphrasing National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, by saying that “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a hammer is a good guy with a hammer.”
I send my best wishes for a speedy and full recovery to Paul Pelosi and my regard to his family.
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