According to Fox’s Stuart Varney, the only reason the media is covering Melania Trump’s plagiarized convention speech is because it “wants America to be more like bankrupt, socialist Europe” and “to get us there as fast as possible.”
Varney was part of a dual effort to rehabilitate Melania Trump on Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria program today. Coincidentally, Varney and host Maria Bartiromo adopted the same strategy as the Trump campaign: pretend Trump’s plagiarism was a non-issue. As if they’d ever have shown any Democrat such forbearance.
Bartiromo introduced the discussion by saying Melania Trump looked “like a model first lady in her RNC debut last night.” Bartiromo described the controversy as, “The speech coming under fire this morning from what critics say bears striking similarities to First Lady Michelle Obama’s address to the Democratic convention back in 2008.”
Did you catch how Bartiromo framed the dispute as something partisan against “model first lady” Trump? But it’s not “critics” saying the speech “bears striking similarities.” It’s everyone who isn’t a Trumpkin who has looked at it. Regardless, isn't it an anchor's job to dig for the truth? Not at Fox.
Varney got right to defending Mrs. Trump and blaming the media:
VARNEY: I say the mainstream media is pathetic on this and I mean that in every shape of that word. Pathetic. Last night, Melania Trump came out there and gave a terrific speech. She was poised, she was passionate, she was on target, on message. The crowd loved her, despite the fact that she is an immigrant, English is not her first language, but she wowed that crowd. That was a terrific speech.
There was no pushback from Bartiromo to point out the similarities between the speeches. Instead, she let Varney continue his diatribe on behalf of Melania Trump, uninterrupted.
VARNEY: This morning, I wake up and I’m looking at the headlines of the major news outlets and they say, “Oh, she is a plagiarist!” They’re doing anything they can to bring her down, to bring the Republicans down. Why is she a plagiarist? Well, in one paragraph that she came out with last night, she used the expression, “Your word is your bond. Do what you say you’re gonna do. Treat people with respect.”
In that one paragraph that was mirrored from a speech given by Michelle Obama eight years ago. From that, the mainstream media says, “Oh, that was plagiarism! What a disgrace!” I think it’s pathetic, Maria, I really do.
Rather than pointing out it was not just a small passage, as Varney suggested, but parts of two paragraphs that seemed lifted, word for word, Bartiromo nodded her head in accord.
Also, it wasn’t just the “liberal media” calling out Trump's plagiarism. As Media Matters noted, Fox News colleagues such as Brit Hume, Erick Erickson and Guy Benson also criticized her (while others at Fox defended her).
“Yeah, I mean, it just feels like, you know, the other side is going to try to pick anything that it can to criticize,” Bartiromo agreed, “whether it’s Melania or Donald or his family.” Never mind that Fox lies in wait to blame every tragedy on earth on President Obama.
But Varney wasn’t through playing the media victim (and deflecting from the stunningly epic fail of the Trump campaign).
VARNEY: I really think the mainstream media wants America to be more like bankrupt, socialist Europe. I think they’re leading us down that path. They just want to get us there as fast as possible. What a disgrace! What a disgrace! Today, the theme on the convention is getting America back to work: growth, jobs, prosperity. What will they find wrong with that? I’m just dying to find out.
Bartiromo laughed heartily.
Watch the real media disgrace above, from the July 19 Mornings with Maria on Fox Business Network.
Crossposted at Newshounds.us
