Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Monday 12 January 2015

Fox News Pundit Fesses Up

Jeanine Pirro is a former prosecutor and judge from New York state. She has previously run unsuccessfully for elective office. Now she fronts a cable news show called Justice with Judge Jeanine. As Ms Pirro identifies as a Republican, it will not come as a surprise to know that the cable news network hosting that show is none other than the Zelo Street favourite, Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).
As readers of this blog will be aware, FNC’s ultimate boss Rupert Murdoch has already made clear his stance on those whose chosen religion is Islam, so it should surprise no-one that FNC is where you will encounter pundits and hosts who depict followers of The Prophet in an often creative, and persistently negative, manner. This reached its nadir when Ms Pirro interviewed one Steve Emerson at the weekend.

Ms Pirro started the ball rolling, telling “we're learning new details about hundreds of no-go zones across France and other countries that are off limits to non-Muslims”. Emerson concurred: “these no-go zones exist not only in France, but they exist throughout Europe. They're sort of amorphous, they're not contiguous necessarily, but they're sort of safe havens and they're places where the governments like France, Britain, Sweden, Germany don't exercise any sovereignty”. In Britain? Er, hello?

He meant it: “in Britain, it's not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in. And parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn't dress according to Muslim, religious Muslim attire”.

The bit about “Muslim religious Police” is mere exaggeration: some self-appointed thugs were taken off the streets of the East End two years ago by the Metropolitan Police, precisely because no-go areas are something that will not be tolerated. But what of Birmingham, 22% Muslim at the last census, but 46% Christian? Yes, Emerson was peddling a pack of lies. A pack of lies that was too much even to pass off on Fox News.

So today has come the grovelling apology: “I have clearly made a terrible error for which I am deeply sorry. My comments about Birmingham were totally in error. And I am issuing this apology and correction for having made this comment about the beautiful city of Birmingham. I do not intend to justify or mitigate my mistake by stating that I had relied on other sources because I should have been much more careful”.

Dead right he should. Do go on: “There was no excuse for making this mistake and I owe an apology to every resident of Birmingham.  I am not going to make any excuses. I made an inexcusable error. And I am obligated to openly acknowledge that mistake.  I wish to apologize for all residents of that great city of Birmingham … PS. I am making [a] donation to Birmingham Children's Hospital”.

Doesn’t say much for Jeanine Pirro or Fox News though, letting him get away with it.

10 comments:

rob said...

Apparently he has had form in the past:
Joe Public @jpublik · 11 hrs 11 hours ago
Wow. This Steve Emerson guy has previous too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsZUWJzYUBk …

Made for some amusement on the UK trending hashtag #foxnewsfacts which probably accounts for the enforced(?) apology.

rob said...

I see #foxnewsfacts now trending worldwide. Even Louise didn't get that much notice - bet she feeling a bit left (hah!) out now.

AndyC said...

I'll bet a large proportion of Fox News viewers are even now repeating this nonsense as fact.
Even stranger than the drivel FNC churns out is the fact that the second largest shareholder of News Corp which owns Fox News is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal? Does this nephew of the ruler of sharia Saudi Arabia know or care what his investment is doing on a daily basis to foster hatred towards his fellow believers?

DBC said...

One the one hand this clown claims to be an expert, then, in his apology,he claims he was "misinformed" by others. In other words, he is no expert, just a passer-on of second-hand lies.

Arnold said...

"I do not intend to justify or mitigate my mistake by stating that I had relied on other sources"
What other sources?

rob said...

@ DBC

I suspect like Louise Mensch, or Guido's merry (a bit too hah!) bunch, he is hired to spout whatever his boss Murdoch wants to hear.

What came out at Leveson and the Brooks/Coulson trial Murdoch's most of employees are there to promote his thoughts regardless of logic or reason. As he himself said if you want to know what I think read The Sun.

It's the culture of the media - it permeates from the owners downward.

Andy McDonald said...

As a Brummie, I am utterly heartened by the response to this twit.

DBC said...

You can hear him here. In this BBC interview he is still spouting about "no go areas" in UK cities and those mythical "Muslim religious police"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30783682

SteveB said...

to be fair(ish) to him, in his live BBC interview on News Channel Monday night he did admit fault more openly and clearly than any politician in living history. He said he had, without properly checking, taken "facts" from certain newspapers and offered to send copies over as mitigation.

Anyone fancy opening a book on which newspapers and who owns them........??

Tim Fenton said...

@9

Steve, I've addressed that in a post just published, "Muslim No-Go Story Started Here".