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Fox News Picks And Chooses it's "Terrorism" Targets


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A Cop Killing and a Beheading: How Fox News Picks and Chooses Its 'Terrorism' Targets

Fox News is increasingly fixating on the gruesome workplace beheading last week in Moore, Oklahoma, by a recent Muslim convert, suspect Alton Nolen. Perhaps sensing a way to once again fanits patented flamesof Islamophobia while simultaneously blaming President Obama for being indifferent to the threat of terrorism, Fox is treating the murder as a national story with sweeping political implications.

Sounding the jihadist alarms, Fox News and the right-wing media are eager to label the ghastly crime an act of Islamic terror. Law enforcement officials, however, aren't in the same rush, noting that the attack came immediately after Nolen was fired and stating that they've yet to find a link to terrorism. While that story continues to play out, it's worth noting that an actual act of political terror remains in the news. It's just not a priority for Fox.

On the night of September 16, 31-year-old marksman Eric Frein was allegedly laying in wait outside the Blooming Grove police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania, preparing to assassinate state troopers. Shortly before 11 p.m., Bryon Dickson was shot and killed as he walked toward his patrol car. Moments later, as he approached the barracks to begin his overnight shift, trooper Alex Douglass was shot and seriously wounded by a bullet fired from a .308-caliber rifle.

Described as a "survivalist," Frein disappeared into the Poconos Mountains woods, where he's been hiding ever since, eluding law enforcement and its massive manhunt, which includes hundreds of law enforcement officers with assistance from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Considered "extremely dangerous" and possibly armed with an AK-47, officials were forced to close local schools in fear Frein might attack again. Lots of businesses in the area were ordered to stay dark, and some U.S. mail deliveries were suspended out of fear postmen might be exposed as possible targets for the shooter.

And what was the possible motivation for the killing spree?

"He made statements about wanting to kill law enforcement officers and to commit mass acts of murder," state police commissioner Frank Noonan warned the public at the time. Another official noted the shooter has a "longstanding grudge against law enforcement and government in general" dating back to at least 2006.

A friend was even more explicit. "He was obviously a big critic of the federal government," a friend name Jack told CNN. (Jack did not give his last name.) "No indications of really any malice toward law enforcement in particular. Most of his aggression was (toward) the federal government."

Sounds like homegrown, anti-government terrorism, right?

"We have a well-trained sniper who hates authority, hates society, hates government, and hates cops enough to plug them from ambush. He's so lethal, so locked and loaded, that communities in the Pocono Mountains feel terrorized,"wrote Philadelphia columnist Dick Poleman. "He kept camouflage face paint in his bedroom. He toted the AK-47 on social media. He collected, according to the criminal complaint, 'various information concerning foreign embassies.'"

But turn on Fox News and you don't hear much about Eric Frein from the channel's high-profile hosts. You don't hear much about the anti-government zealot who killed a cop while trying to assassinate two. And you don't hear evening hosts diving into Frein's background trying to figure out what sparked his killing streak.

There's simple no interest.

In two weeks since the shooting, the Fox programs monitored by Nexis have mentioned Frein's name in just six reports, and most of those were simply news updates that consisted of one or two sentences. Only one segment, which aired onOn The Record With Greta Van Susteren, featured an extended conversation about the killing and the subsequent manhunt. In none of the six Fox reports, however, were Frein's vocal anti-government leanings mentioned, nor was there any suggestion Frein was a domestic terrorist.

Hosts Neil Cavuto, Bill O'Reilly, Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity have all ignored the shocking cop-killer story. In general, Fox has provided almost no commentary, no context, and certainly no collective blame for the execution.

By contrast, in the days since the Oklahoma killing, Fox programs monitored by Nexis have flooded the zone with coverage of the beheading, totaling hours and hours of coverage. Most of Fox's reports offered extended, overheated commentary, and most of them dwelled on the fact the killing may have been an act of terror.

Cavuto, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Megyn Kelly have all hosted extensive coverage of the killing, with Kelly and Hannity devoting nearly their entire September 26 and September 29 programs to the Oklahoma story ("Terror In The Heartland"), allowing guests to make all kinds of unproven connections between the crime and to Islam and, of course, to politicize the tragic killing.

In other words, on Fox News a Muslim who killed a co-worker in Oklahoma and who remains in police custody represents a much bigger story than a suspected anti-government assassin who killed a cop and remains on the run, eluding hundreds of law enforcement officials while terrorizing a Pennsylvania community.

Note that one of the renewed right-wing talking point this week has been how Obama refuses to acknowledge the looming threat of Islamic terrorism. (His FBI is being "politically correct.") Of course, a similar charge could be made of Fox News and its purposefully blind spot to homegrown, gun-toting, anti-government terrorists. It's a deadly topic that the right-wing media refuse to grapple with.

As CNN's Peter Bergen noted earlier this year, since 9/11, "extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology."

If the Pennsylvania ambush was politically motivated, it represented just the latest sad chapter in a long string of recent extremist acts of violence in America. From neo-Nazi killers, to a string of women's health clinic bombings and assaults, as well as bloody assaults on law enforcement from anti-government insurrectionists, acts of right-wing extreme violence continue to terrorize victims in the U.S.

Just this spring in Las Vegas, a premeditated gun rampage unfolded when Jerad Miller and his wife Amada executed two policemen who were on their lunch break. The killers, who months earlier traveled to Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch to join the militia protests against the federal government, reportedly covered the slain officers with cloth that featured the "Don't tread on me" Gadsden flag, which has recently been adopted as a symbol of the tea party movement.

That ambush came just two days after Dennis Marx, member of the "sovereign citizen" anti-government movement, tried to lay siege to a courthouse outside of Atlanta. Sovereign citizens are militia-like radicals who don't believe the federal government has the power and legitimacy to enforce the law. The FBI has called the movement "a growing domestic terror threat to law enforcement."

As mentioned, Greta Van Susteren was the only evening Fox host who addressed the Pennsylvania cop-killing story in any detail. But even she whitewashed the story, omitting any mention of Frein's anti-government bias and his clear embrace of terrorism. Right after the Frein segment ended on her September 22 program, Van Susteren urged viewers to stay tuned for a report about the "nightmare" looming from the threat of jihadist fighters inside the United States.

Note to Greta: Eric Frein represents another type of "nightmare" terror that looms in America. Fox News should stop ignoring that threat.

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homer, do you actually read HuffPost ? It's a matter of ratings as well as news. HP has only a fraction of what Fox has in viewers/readers. The HP writer is like the tail trying to wag the dog by complaining what Fox doesn't do..

Fox has been covering the Frein issue but not to the same degree. Frein's argument is against the state....ISIS will chop your neighbor's head off. Which story would get your attention first ?

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The man in Pennsylvania seems only to have a beef with the police there. He is not one of many more intending to do the same. The Oklahoma man is a much more troubling thing as he is apparently part of a much larger group of people wanting to impose their beliefs on the rest of the world.

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Without Fox News, you would have no idea what was happening. Neither would Obama.

Fox has it biases, there is no doubt about that, as does the MSM so. it boils down to picking one. The question is this...do you prefer getting your news from agencies that are about as independent as Pravda was at the height of the Soviet Union or do you prefer reporting that the admin clearly does not like? How many times has Obama and the rest of the left wing taken shots at Fox News? They do that because Fox is willfully NOT toeing the line drawn by this administration. The rest are simply taking their talking points directly from the WH and reporting that because they're responsible in large part for getting him elected, thus, they're going to fully support the policies of the left and, the further left they lean the better, insofar as the MSM is concerned.

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FOX is the only remaining actual TV news service. The rest are run by the dnc.

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homer, do you actually read HuffPost ? It's a matter of ratings as well as news. HP has only a fraction of what Fox has in viewers/readers. The HP writer is like the tail trying to wag the dog by complaining what Fox doesn't do..

Fox has been covering the Frein issue but not to the same degree. Frein's argument is against the state....ISIS will chop your neighbor's head off. Which story would get your attention first ?

Thanks for making my point.

It's not about news at all. It's about beheading's being much more sensational than simple wounds from a high velocity bullet. The political slant which demonizes Muslims as opposed to right-wing extremists is just a happy coincidence.

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homer, do you actually read HuffPost ? It's a matter of ratings as well as news. HP has only a fraction of what Fox has in viewers/readers. The HP writer is like the tail trying to wag the dog by complaining what Fox doesn't do..

Fox has been covering the Frein issue but not to the same degree. Frein's argument is against the state....ISIS will chop your neighbor's head off. Which story would get your attention first ?

Thanks for making my point.

It's not about news at all. It's about beheading's being much more sensational than simple wounds from a high velocity bullet. The political slant which demonizes Muslims as opposed to right-wing extremists is just a happy coincidence.

SO, maybe you can help us all out and bring to our attention another extremist "religious" group that is beheading innocent for not submitting to their ideology?

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homer, do you actually read HuffPost ? It's a matter of ratings as well as news. HP has only a fraction of what Fox has in viewers/readers. The HP writer is like the tail trying to wag the dog by complaining what Fox doesn't do..

Fox has been covering the Frein issue but not to the same degree. Frein's argument is against the state....ISIS will chop your neighbor's head off. Which story would get your attention first ?

Thanks for making my point.

It's not about news at all. It's about beheading's being much more sensational than simple wounds from a high velocity bullet. The political slant which demonizes Muslims as opposed to right-wing extremists is just a happy coincidence.

SO, maybe you can help us all out and bring to our attention another extremist "religious" group that is beheading innocent for not submitting to their ideology?

Do you know what a high velocity bullet does to the human body. Ever heard of "hydraulic shock"?

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homer, do you actually read HuffPost ? It's a matter of ratings as well as news. HP has only a fraction of what Fox has in viewers/readers. The HP writer is like the tail trying to wag the dog by complaining what Fox doesn't do..

Fox has been covering the Frein issue but not to the same degree. Frein's argument is against the state....ISIS will chop your neighbor's head off. Which story would get your attention first ?

Thanks for making my point.

It's not about news at all. It's about beheading's being much more sensational than simple wounds from a high velocity bullet. The political slant which demonizes Muslims as opposed to right-wing extremists is just a happy coincidence.

SO, maybe you can help us all out and bring to our attention another extremist "religious" group that is beheading innocent for not submitting to their ideology?

Do you know what a high velocity bullet does to the human body. Ever heard of "hydraulic shock"?

Do you have a point in this obscure question. Im not aware of any group calling itself a religious movement other than Islam that is killing those who do not share their religion. I certainly do not know of any "religious" group that condones honor killings of its own children

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Homer. Do you want all shootings declared acts of terrorism or just those where the shooter shouts allahu akbar?

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Its quite amazing so many are so determined to defend a "religion" whose prophet was a mass murderer and a pedophile. There are well over 100 versus in the Koran that promote the killing of Christians and Jews over co-existing with them peacefully.

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homer, do you actually read HuffPost ? It's a matter of ratings as well as news. HP has only a fraction of what Fox has in viewers/readers. The HP writer is like the tail trying to wag the dog by complaining what Fox doesn't do..

Fox has been covering the Frein issue but not to the same degree. Frein's argument is against the state....ISIS will chop your neighbor's head off. Which story would get your attention first ?

Thanks for making my point.

It's not about news at all. It's about beheading's being much more sensational than simple wounds from a high velocity bullet. The political slant which demonizes Muslims as opposed to right-wing extremists is just a happy coincidence.

SO, maybe you can help us all out and bring to our attention another extremist "religious" group that is beheading innocent for not submitting to their ideology?

Do you know what a high velocity bullet does to the human body. Ever heard of "hydraulic shock"?

Do you have a point in this obscure question. Im not aware of any group calling itself a religious movement other than Islam that is killing those who do not share their religion. I certainly do not know of any "religious" group that condones honor killings of its own children

You keep saying you are not referring to all Muslims then turn around and do exactly that.

And my point is the same one made in the original post. Beheading's by a Muslim are apparently very newsworthy while shootings by a non-Muslim terrorist not so much.

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Its quite amazing so many are so determined to defend a "religion" whose prophet was a mass murderer and a pedophile. There are well over 100 versus in the Koran that promote the killing of Christians and Jews over co-existing with them peacefully.

Just to clarify, I am not defending any particular religion, particularly the ones based on documents like the Bible or the Koran.

Clearly, either has the capability to produce terrorists who act on the basis of those sacred documents.

While it is true that Islam is currently the primary problem as far as that is concerned, it is clear that Christians have exhibited the same sort of propensity in the past. There is nothing unique about the writings in the Koran. Similar stuff is found in the Old Testament.

To claim that Islam has a unique propensity to produce violence is to claim that anyone who is Muslim has that propensity. That is is simply not true. In fact, it is reflective of the same xenophobic mind set the terrorists espouse.

I find it amazing that you cannot seem to grasp the point. You clearly are being informed by your fear and hatred instead of your intellect.

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Homer. Do you want all shootings declared acts of terrorism or just those where the shooter shouts allahu akbar?

Any act of murder based directed on strangers or otherwise innocent people based on some sort of warped ideological motivation is terror.

How would you define it?

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Homer. Do you want all shootings declared acts of terrorism or just those where the shooter shouts allahu akbar?

Any act of murder based directed on strangers or otherwise innocent people based on some sort of warped ideological motivation is terror.

How would you define it?

I tried looking up any other article that says anything about this shooter having anti government manifestos, or published anti government messaging by him and I couldn't find anything. That huffpo article makes it seem as if this guy is a tea party/ libertarian/anarchist. Can you please point me toward those articles that support this? I am being serious here not snippy or anything. I honestly can't find any.

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Homer. Do you want all shootings declared acts of terrorism or just those where the shooter shouts allahu akbar?

Any act of murder based directed on strangers or otherwise innocent people based on some sort of warped ideological motivation is terror.

How would you define it?

I tried looking up any other article that says anything about this shooter having anti government manifestos, or published anti government messaging by him and I couldn't find anything. That huffpo article makes it seem as if this guy is a tea party/ libertarian/anarchist. Can you please point me toward those articles that support this? I am being serious here not snippy or anything. I honestly can't find any.

Of course Huffpo is going to try to label him as tea party. I would think if he was anarchist or anti government period we would have heard about that by now. CNN and all the other "mainstream" media outlets would have been all over it. There are those people out there and if it make homer feel better we can classify them as terrorists I suppose. The fact remains that these people do not pose the threat to the overall population that radical islam does.
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Homer. Do you want all shootings declared acts of terrorism or just those where the shooter shouts allahu akbar?

Any act of murder based directed on strangers or otherwise innocent people based on some sort of warped ideological motivation is terror.

How would you define it?

I tried looking up any other article that says anything about this shooter having anti government manifestos, or published anti government messaging by him and I couldn't find anything. That huffpo article makes it seem as if this guy is a tea party/ libertarian/anarchist. Can you please point me toward those articles that support this? I am being serious here not snippy or anything. I honestly can't find any.

Of course Huffpo is going to try to label him as tea party. I would think if he was anarchist or anti government period we would have heard about that by now. CNN and all the other "mainstream" media outlets would have been all over it. There are those people out there and if it make homer feel better we can classify them as terrorists I suppose. The fact remains that these people do not pose the threat to the overall population that radical islam does.

But but but, Homer says Fox News is bad. Don't go and mess up his meme with logic.
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Heck if it wasn't for Fox News we wouldn't know half of what is really going on. We wouldn't know what a terrorist is. All cases of terrorism would just be called workplace violence. They sure get under Obama's skin as evidenced by his frequent reference to them, like in his speech today.

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Its quite amazing so many are so determined to defend a "religion" whose prophet was a mass murderer and a pedophile. There are well over 100 versus in the Koran that promote the killing of Christians and Jews over co-existing with them peacefully.

Just to clarify, I am not defending any particular religion, particularly the ones based on documents like the Bible or the Koran.

Clearly, either has the capability to produce terrorists who act on the basis of those sacred documents.

While it is true that Islam is currently the primary problem as far as that is concerned, it is clear that Christians have exhibited the same sort of propensity in the past. There is nothing unique about the writings in the Koran. Similar stuff is found in the Old Testament.

To claim that Islam has a unique propensity to produce violence is to claim that anyone who is Muslim has that propensity. That is is simply not true. In fact, it is reflective of the same xenophobic mind set the terrorists espouse.

I find it amazing that you cannot seem to grasp the point. You clearly are being informed by your fear and hatred instead of your intellect.

Its quite amazing so many are so determined to defend a "religion" whose prophet was a mass murderer and a pedophile. There are well over 100 versus in the Koran that promote the killing of Christians and Jews over co-existing with them peacefully.

Just to clarify, I am not defending any particular religion, particularly the ones based on documents like the Bible or the Koran.

Clearly, either has the capability to produce terrorists who act on the basis of those sacred documents.

While it is true that Islam is currently the primary problem as far as that is concerned, it is clear that Christians have exhibited the same sort of propensity in the past. There is nothing unique about the writings in the Koran. Similar stuff is found in the Old Testament.

To claim that Islam has a unique propensity to produce violence is to claim that anyone who is Muslim has that propensity. That is is simply not true. In fact, it is reflective of the same xenophobic mind set the terrorists espouse.

I find it amazing that you cannot seem to grasp the point. You clearly are being informed by your fear and hatred instead of your intellect.

You keep harping on the Bible's capability of producing terrorists...PLEASE bring ONE to my attention that is completely subjugating its women, subjecting them to genital mutilation, that allows honor killing of its own children and actually promotes the death sentence for apostasy. You obviously know NOTHING about the Bible. The main prophet of New Testament Christianity is Jesus Christ and the one simple thing he taught was, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself" Islam brazenly teaches its believers to NOT take Christians or Jews as their friends. Muhammed, the Prophet of Islam, was a mass murderer and a pedophile and you ignorantly continue to make comparisons to Christianity. The guy was running a crime syndicate from day one to TAKE what he wanted by force which included beheading non-believers. The reason the beheading angle is so newsworthy is because it is so characteristic of lslam. Please tell me you're NOT this obtuse!

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Allahu Akbar is terrorism. Give me all your money is a crime. Don't over think it, Homer

Give me a abstract definition. That's what law is based on.

I am not "over-thinking" it. You are under-thinking it.

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Homer. Do you want all shootings declared acts of terrorism or just those where the shooter shouts allahu akbar?

Any act of murder based directed on strangers or otherwise innocent people based on some sort of warped ideological motivation is terror.

How would you define it?

I tried looking up any other article that says anything about this shooter having anti government manifestos, or published anti government messaging by him and I couldn't find anything. That huffpo article makes it seem as if this guy is a tea party/ libertarian/anarchist. Can you please point me toward those articles that support this? I am being serious here not snippy or anything. I honestly can't find any.

I don't recall that I said he was of any particular political persuasion. I may have offered such a stereotype as example though.

For all I know,he is a Muslim with a particular fetish for cops instead of just civilians.

Regardless, why does he get so much less coverage from Fox?

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Heck if it wasn't for Fox News we wouldn't know half of what is really going on. We wouldn't know what a terrorist is. All cases of terrorism would just be called workplace violence. They sure get under Obama's skin as evidenced by his frequent reference to them, like in his speech today.

You didn't like my definition is post #16? So, what would you propose?

Or do you just depend on Fox News to do your thinking?

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