As I was wading through the news reports earlier today, of the gun slaughter in Tuscon that killed 6 and gravely wounded US Rep Giffords, I happened on a FOX news report that had some information that I hadn't already come across (I would never have visited their propaganda site had the info not been new to me).
Here's the information, which I'm surprised hasn't received more attention:
New details are emerging about Loughner as a law enforcement memo based on information provided by the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by Fox News suggests he may have ties to the American Renaissance group, though it's unclear if he was directly affiliated with the publication or group.
NOTE: Please read the whole diary as written, but a further violation of "journalistic standards" has been foisted on the public (picked up by me as I was just hitting the "publish" button), violations even more eggregious than those mentioned below. But please read the whole thing anyway because the points are still valid and FOX merely reiterates and embellishes in the update material.
Now I'll leave it to someone else to highlight this underreported aspect of the Tucson tragedy, that the shooter may have been inspired by white supremacists. That's pretty newsworthy and, given the rightward focus of NewsCorp, I can see why they not only buried this incendiary nugget within the body of a story that originally emphasised Loughner's troubled past (the title as I first read it was "Arizona Suspected Gunman No Stranger To Trouble" and was changed within the last few hours to "Arizona Suspected Gunman Passed FBI Background Check," which of course, is of the "How Could We Have Known This Would Happen" genre of headlines). When you click on the link, observe the URL that appears at the top of the page and you will see the original title.
But the subject of this diary is an example, further down the article, of FOX's standard M.O.: the use of false equivalency to lend credence to any POV that opposes theirs, in this case, the DHS's memo and the Southern Poverty Law Center's commentary on the wingnut org that Loughner apparently highlighted in his web writings.
(Note: can someone with more IT chops than I have get the social network entry that the DHS might be referring to? I'll put it up in the body of this diary if someone posts it in the comments. Thanks).
Here's the FOX false equivalency text in question:
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as "white nationalist" whose leader, Jared Taylor, is "a kind of modern-day version of the refined but racist colonialist of old."
The memo states that there is "no direct connection" between Loughner and the group, "but strong suspicion is being directed at AmRen / American Renaissance. Suspect is possibly linked to this group. (through videos posted on his MySpace and YouTube account.). The group's ideology is anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti-Semitic."
{SNIP}
But Taylor, a 1973 graduate in philosophy from Yale University, told Fox News on Sunday that he had never heard of Loughner until Saturday and has checked the group's records going back 20 years and has not found any subscriptions for Loughner to American Renaissance publications.
He added he has no indication that Loughner ever attended any of the group's events, which have been held on the East Coast where the organization is based.
Taylor also denied references to the group as being "anti-ZOG."
"That is complete nonsense," he said. "I have absolutely no idea what DHS is talking about. We have never used the term 'ZOG.' We have never thought in those terms. If this is the level of research we are getting from DHS, then heaven help us," he said.
(bold emphasis mine)
So, note first that the flagrantly racist Taylor has his Yale degree touted in front of his quotes (a brief visit to his web site will give you a clear idea of just how hideous his views are, and if you look at the ad in the upper left corner, you'll note that the Tea Party is given a helpful plug by him). An advanced degree from Yale?! Wow! This guy should be taken seriously!
Also note that he gets about 5 times more verbage than the SPLC, an org that has an international reputation for honestly exposing American bigots, of all varieties. The text, if you do a word count, has the SPLC with 20 words gleaned (directly or indirctely) from their website, while the word count for "AmRen", similarly allotted, is 99. Furthermore, Taylor was quoted directly from a FOX interview for the story, whereas the SPLC quote was off the web, no interview deemed necessary, apparently. Also note that the SPLC quote used -
"...a kind of modern-day version of the refined but racist colonialist of old."
- is perhaps the least incriminating the FOX could have gleaned from the SPLC website. I'm sure a direct quote from their director,
Morris Dees, would have excoriated AmRen to a faretheewell.
Further note that Taylor even gets more verbiage to promote his distorted side of things than the DHS, who only get a word count of 65, about 2/3 of the racist Taylor's FOX-provided soapbox.
Finally, note that Taylors argument, that he can't find any record of Loughner's membership in his org or of his attendance at any of his rallies, is completely specious. The DHS memo says explicitly that "that there is 'no direct connection' between Loughner and the group;" the point of the memo is that Loughner was inspired by AmRen, not affiliated, so FOX is doing nothing more here than letting AmRen scrub their dirty laundry in FOX's right wing washing machine.
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MAJOR UPDATE!!
OK, folks, it just got worse: FOX now has a complete news item devoted to AmRen's hand washing:
Can FOX be any more of a hate-advocacy organ that this? This has gone from "false equivalency" to "racist pimping" in a matter of a few short hours. Also note that in this latest effort to scrub AmRen clean, FOX has corrected, and boosted, Taylors bio:
Taylor, who earned a BA in philosophy from Yale in 1973 and a master's degree in international economics from the prestigious Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris ("Paris Institute of Political Studies," in English) in 1978
Hahahaha! He consorts with the evil French!! At least FOX provides a translation for the foreign language impaired English-only crowd they cater to. And how helpful for them to note that "Paris Institute of Political Studies," is in English, for the many brain-dead in their audience.
Why are they so desperate to carry the water of these ante-bellum dirt-bags? Is it because they know, from their internal demographic samplings, that this is the core of their audience?