It’s a vile station filled with vile people.
…
In their own words: How Fox News hosts and reporters reacted to the London attacks
Here’s a roundup of how some Fox News hosts and reporters responded to the July 7 terrorist attacks in London:
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade stated that the attack near the G8 summit “works to … the Western world’s advantage, for people to experience something like this together.” From Fox News’ July 7 breaking news coverage between 8 and 9 a.m. ET*: *
KILMEADE: And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid**. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it’s important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world’s advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened. **
Fox News contributing correspondent Simon Marks distinguished between Arabs and “regular” Londoners, in reporting on the scope of the attacks, as the weblog Daily Kos noted. From Fox News’ July 7 breaking news coverage between 9 and 10 a.m. ET:
MARKS: It [Edgeware Road] is an area that has a very large Arab population. Surrounding that station, a large number of Middle Eastern restaurants. So, it’s a further indication, if in fact these attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda-affiliated cells, that these people are, if necessary, prepared to spill Arab blood in addition to the blood of regular – of non-Arab people living in London.
Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume said that his “first thought,” when he “heard there had been this attack” and saw the low futures market was “Hmmm, time to buy.” From Fox News’ July 7 breaking news coverage between 1 and 2 p.m. ET:
HUME: You know, the market was down. It was down yesterday, and you know, you may have had some bargain-hunting going on. I mean, my first thought when I heard – just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, “Hmmm, time to buy.” Others may have thought that as well. But you never know about the markets. But obviously, if the markets had behaved badly, that would obviously add to people’s sense of alarm about it. But there has been a lot of reassurance coming, particularly in the way that – partly in the way the Brits handled all this, but also in the way that officials here handled it. There seems to be no great fear that something like that is going to happen here, although there’s no indication that we here had any advance warning.
Fox News host John Gibson stated one day before the attacks that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “missed a golden opportunity” when it awarded the 2012 Olympic Games to London because if France had been selected to host the games, terrorists would “blow up Paris, and who cares?” Following the London attacks, Gibson reiterated that the IOC should have selected Paris instead of London because the British should “let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while.”
From the July 6 broadcast of Westwood One’s The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly, guest-hosted by Gibson:
GIBSON: By the way, just wanted to tell you people, we missed – the International Olympic Committee missed a golden opportunity today. If they had picked France, if they had picked France instead of London, to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn’t worry about terrorism. They’d blow up Paris, and who cares?
From the “My Word” segment of the July 7 edition of Fox News’ The Big Story With John Gibson:
GIBSON: The bombings in London: This is why I thought the Brits should let the French have the Olympics – let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while.
— Media Matters for America Staff
