Mother Jones' David Corn sat down with MSNBC's Martin Bashir to discuss his new book Fox's response to his reporting that their network was criticized by President Obama for pushing the myth that he's a Muslim. Naturally the network and one of their reporters, Bret Baier, were not happy about it.
Media Matters has more here -- Bret Baier Ignores Fox News' Role In Fueling Obama Muslim Myth:
Fox News anchor Bret Baier responded to a new book reporting that in 2010, President Obama criticized the network for pushing the myth that Obama "is a Muslim" by saying: "For the record, we found no examples of a host saying President Obama is a Muslim." In fact, Fox has repeatedly questioned and promoted falsehoods about Obama's faith, including pushing the false claim that Obama attended a "madrassa."
Media Matters has lots of examples in that post, one of which was pointed out in the segment above where Baier did the same thing himself:
Special Report On Obama: "Islam Or Isn't He?" During a June 2009 segment, Special Report aired a quote by Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough, in which he talked about how Obama "experienced Islam on three continents" and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia with a Muslim father. Special Report included this question above the quote: "Islam Or Isn't He?" [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 6/3/09]
David Corn has more examples as well in his post at Mother Jones -- Bret Baier's #Fail in Challenging Obama on "Showdown":
Bret Baier is wrong.
My new book, Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party, has stirred up a spat. Many media outfits focused on a nugget in the book reporting that, during a December 2010 meeting with labor officials, President Barack Obama complained that he was "losing white males," partly due to cultural issues (gun rights, gay rights, and race), and noted, "Fed by Fox News, they hear Obama is a Muslim 24/7, and it begins to seep in."
Baier, a Fox News anchor, took exception to this. On air he proclaimed, "For the record, we found no examples of a host saying President Obama is a Muslim."
Note the sly use of the word "host." Whether or not he or any other "host" has uttered the direct statement "Obama is a Muslim," his network has advanced that notion repeatedly.
Look at this August 19, 2010 video of Sean Hannity interviewing Brigitte Gabriel, a regular guest on Fox. She clearly defends the view that Obama is a secret Muslim. And Hannity does not challenge her. Read on...
What's really pathetic, that they did not address here, is the fact that if President Obama were actually a Muslim, that it is something people are supposed to be afraid of. They did not discuss the topic for long enough to address that aspect of it and how loathsome the fearmongering is in the first place. Keith Ellison is a Muslim and he's one of our better progressive Representatives in the Congress. Frankly, I'm fed up with these religious tests to hold public office in the first place and think we'd be better off with a bunch of atheists or agnostics running the show than people continually pandering to religious groups.
