Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner gave a Cleveland police officer a sympathetic platform to blame President Obama for the shootings and killings of Baton Rouge police officers this Sunday. Not only did Faulkner fail to utter one word of challenge, she actively helped validate the incendiary rhetoric.
Faulkner spoke with Cleveland Detective Steve Loomis, also president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association. It didn’t take long for him to start attacking Black Lives Matter, which protested the police-killing of Alton Sterling, which Loomis seemed to think justified, even though there has been no conclusion to an investigation. Loomis also got right to attacking Obama for sympathizing with the concerns of the protesters.
Of course, there was no objection from Faulkner about that.
LOOMIS: The president of the United States validated the false narrative and the nonsense that Black Lives Matter and the media are pressing out there to the public. Validated it with his very divisive statements and now we see an escalation. This has got to end. We need some leadership in this country to come forward and put an end to this. I don’t care if it’s clergy, I don’t care who it is but somebody’s got to step up and put an end to this because it’s the false narrative and very influential people that are politicizing the false narrative.
Apparently, Faulkner was so enthralled with Loomis’ partisan, black-attacking message that it never occurred to her that maybe, if Loomis is really concerned about putting an end to divisiveness, he should start with himself. Instead, Trump-cheerleader Faulkner let Loomis continue, uninterrupted by any pesky questions or challenges.
LOOMIS: It’s absolutely insane that we have a president of the United States and a governor of Minnesota making the statements that they made less than one day after those police-involved shootings. And those police-involved shootings, make no mistake, are what absolutely has triggered this rash of senseless murders of law enforcement officers across this country. It is reprehensible. And the president of the United States has blood on his hands and it will not be able to come washed off.
Instead of challenging that outrageous statement, Faulkner helped validate it. She said sympathetically, “You know, I hear the emotion in your voice.”
Faulkner, feigning concern for inflammatory rhetoric, essentially asked more of the same from Loomis. “I want to be careful about the language that we use and not take this to an even more incendiary level but it is what it is! A lot of police officers coming here and they are targets!” she said.
And more of the same is exactly what she got. Loomis went on to argue that Ohio Governor John Kasich should suspend open carry in the state. Then he went back to partisan attacks.
LOOMIS: How the hell did we ever become the bad guys in this country? I cannot imagine how we got here. It’s the irresponsible reporting of the media and it’s the irresponsible statements of people that are credible, like the president of the United States, like celebrities.
Faulkner replied, “I hear you.”
We can understand why someone like Loomis would be overwrought and lashing out. But what’s Faulkner’s excuse?
You can tweet Faulkner @HARRISFAULKNER.
Meanwhile, watch this shameful bit of propagandizing and incendiary hate-mongering above, from Fox’s July 17 news coverage of the Baton Rouge police shootings.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
