Just in case after four years, you still aren’t convinced that the President is a Muslim, Fox’s Eric Bolling had to say it again with this accusation, “(Obama) answers to the Quran first and to the Constitution second.”
Why would he say that, other than to force his viewers to soil their Depends? Because the latest crisis in the Middle East hit the Islamophobe trifecta. A guy in America insulted Islam (nothing gets the right-wing going like insulting everyone who isn’t white/male/heterosexual and Christian) with a really bad film. Some in the Islamic world reacted really, really badly (most didn’t, but that’s hardly worth reporting on, even for non-Fox media). As it turns out, the anti-Muslim provocateur may be more about flimflam than film and the fact that he’s being questioned by the law is somehow “proof” that Obama is in cahoots with the Muslims.
Video and transcript from Media Matters:
BOLLING (co-host): Can we throw that picture up of the filmmaker again? When he’s all, like, in disguise and the cops are leading him out? To me, America changed. I –
DANA PERINO (co-host): Yeah, I agree.
GRED GUTFELD (co-host): Yeah.
BOLLING: Someone emailed that picture la– Mark Levin, actually, sent it to me. He goes, “Take a look at this.” America changed at that moment. To use a — what is being called a flimsy ploy to bring this guy in for questioning –
PERINO: What next?
BOLLING: — proves that the Obama administration, through all this appeasement and apologizing, answers to the Quran first and to the Constitution second.
BOB BECKEL (co-host): Oh, come on.
BOLLING: There’s no reason –
BECKEL: That’s just an outrageous statement. Even for you, that’s an outrageous statement.
BOLLING: — for that man to be brought in. There’s no reason for him to be brought in and questioned.
BECKEL: That is the most — of all the things you’ve said, and I love you, brother, but that’s the most outrageous statement I’ve ever heard [unclear].
I do agree with Bolling in one aspect. America has changed. Fox and the Republican party are heading into very dangerous territory. When you accuse the President of sympathizing with the attackers, as their current nominee did, or when you accuse him of putting anything above the Constitution, you are accusing him of being a traitor. This is far worse than disagreeing with the President on policy.
There was a time when mainstream media questioned an incumbent president without trying to fit the news into their own political narrative and without trying to paint him as being an other; a foreigner, a terrorist, a traitor. There was a time when a presidential nominee was respectful of the office he sought, even when there were strong disagreements. If Romney wins, he will have to hold the position that he and Fox News gleefully helped denigrate. I mourn for responsible journalism.
Follow me on my new Facebook page or on Twitter, @wendygittleson
