FOX host whitewashes “weird, kooky” Marjorie Taylor-Greene and goes full racist against Ilhan Omar
It’s very telling that whenever the Republican propaganda machine is forced to reckon with the hatred and the bigotry that they promote on a daily basis, their only response is to whitewash and excuse it. In response to the horrific revelations about Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s support for white supremacist conspiracy theories and the efforts to remove her from House committees, FOX News’ response has been to demonize a Black Muslim woman and instead shift the attention to a completely unrelated and obviously racist double standard.
Marjorie Taylor-Greene is on the record supporting the idea that school shootings are false flag hoaxes, that Jews are trying to destroy Europe through Muslim immigration, that a giant Jewish space laser was used to start the California wildfires, and the preposterous “QAnon” Democrat pedophile cabal and time-traveling JFK Jr. mythology.
But to FOX’s Bill Hemmer, that’s just being “weird and kooky!” — as opposed to white supremacist boogeyman Ilhan Omar, who he considers to be “racist” for being critical of Israeli lobbying and for calling out Trump’s own racism.
Fox anchor Bill Hemmer says that while Marjorie Taylor Greene "might be weird and kooky" Ilhan Omar is "seen as racist"
Fox is fully playing into bad faith attacks on Omar while trying to undersell the dangers and delusions of Marjorie Taylor Greene
Pathetic and disgusting pic.twitter.com/dq9SH11pKP
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) February 3, 2021
Your aunt who spends too much time buying crystals on Etsy is “weird and kooky.” The conspiracy theories that Marjorie Taylor-Greene endorse have been directly linked to at least one anti-Semitic massacre. The QAnon devotees stormed the Capitol building at the behest of Donald Trump — and to the applause of Marjorie Taylor-Greene — in hopes of lynching the Vice-President and assassinating Democratic politicians.
These are dangerous, inherently fascistic, and occasionally genocidal ideas that have absolutely no place in our democracy or in public discourse — but multi-billion dollar companies like FOX continue to go out of their way to whitewash and excuse them while painting a target on the back of Black Muslim Congresswomen who already are barraged with death threats on a daily basis simply for existing.
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.