Fox News host Jesse Watters at Turning Point USA's 2021 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida on July 19, 2021 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
After the fatal shooting of Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, Fox News host Jesse Watters blamed the left for the killing and called for revenge.
Watters told viewers, "They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?"
Watters' comments drew a lot of criticism. On X, formerly Twitter, Bayou Communications' Shannon Marie posted, "Dangerous f—— rhetoric."
In an article published on October 1, Salon's Sophia Tesfaye describes a pattern of violent rhetoric at Fox News.
On September 23, Watters joked about bombing the United Nations (UN).
Watters, on "The Five," told co-host Dana Perrino and others, "What we need to do is either leave the UN or we need to bomb it. Maybe gas it? We need to destroy it.”
Meanwhile, on Fox News' morning show, "Fox & Friends," host Brian Kilmeade called for homeless Americans to be given "involuntary lethal injection" — although he later apologized for his "extremely callous remark."
"When Fox News figures casually invoke mass violence, whether through forced lethal injections or bombing international institutions, it's not just reckless rhetoric — it's a flirtation with incitement," Tesfaye argues. "These aren't fringe voices. They're amplified on one of the most-watched networks in the country, shaping public sentiment and policy discourse. But don't expect Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to make much of a fuss about the network's dangerous musings. He is still denying the pressure campaign he publicly mounted against (late-night television host Jimmy) Kimmel for his comments following Kirk's killing."
Tesfaye adds, "'There was no threat made or suggested that if Jimmy Kimmel didn't get fired, that someone was going to lose their license,' Carr said on Tuesday. In a media landscape dotted with double standards, where the head enforcer is a partisan operative and fierce MAGA supporter, a 'kind of, sort of' apology is perhaps the best we can hope for from Fox News."
Sophia Tesfaye's full article for Salon is available at this link.From Your Site Articles
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