The GOP’s White Supremacist Whip Isn’t Newsworthy To Fox News

Yesterday it was revealed that Louisiana representative Steve Scalise, recently elevated to the Whip post in the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, had spoken at a conference for the white supremacist organization run by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. The revelation has stirred the political pot with politicians and pundits from across the ideological spectrum denouncing the speech and calling for various levels of punishment for Scalise. The controversy has even led to Sean Hannity calling for GOP Speaker John Boehner to resign.

Fox News Great Point

Resisting the pressure, Boehner is defending Scalise as having made an “error in judgment” and vowing to stand by his lieutenant. It’s a measure of loyalty that is suspicious considering the threat by David Duke to begin naming names of other politicos with whom he has a relationship “if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods.”

As this scandal unfolds it is notable that Fox News viewers likely have no knowledge of it. That’s because Fox has devoted only one 20 second segment to the story since it broke. It is a virtual blackout of bad news for the GOP’s new leadership even as they are still reeling from the news that Staten Island Republican Michael Grimm was persuaded to resign following his guilty plea for felony tax evasion.

Fox’s aversion to reporting the Scalise story was not particularly significant to the right-wing media bashers at NewsBusters. They stealthily dodged the fact that Fox had suppressed the story, instead choosing to draw a comparison with other media declining to report about Terry Bean, an Obama donor who allegedly engaged in sexual relations with a minor. Bean has denied the charges and claims to be a victim of extortion.

The NewsBusters claim is absurd on its face. Bean is an obscure campaign contributor who holds no office of public trust. Scalise is a sitting congressman and the third most powerful Republican in the House. Bean has not been found guilty of any crime and maintains his innocence. Scalise has admitted his involvement with the openly racist Duke organization, although he claims it was inadvertent. The unconfirmed Bean allegations may be of some interest to a few political junkies, but the discovery of a Republican Party leader cavorting with white supremacists is a matter of importance to both his constituents and the nation.

It is difficult to believe that Scalise, a long time Louisiana pol, was unaware of Duke’s activities in the state. What’s more, Scalise actually told reporters in 1999, that “he embraces many of the same ‘conservative’ views as Duke.” So not only was he well acquainted with Duke, he is a political ally.

The fact that Fox News has refused to give this story the coverage that it deserves is evidence that they are purposefully manipulating the news for the benefit of their GOP friends. And it is further validation of the criticism of Fox as being the PR division of the Republican Party.

Advertisement:

18 thoughts on “The GOP’s White Supremacist Whip Isn’t Newsworthy To Fox News

  1. The Fox braying heads can’t figure out how to blame this on the President, so it’s not in their portfolio

  2. Another lie. “Special Reports” devoted two segments on it. Quite possibly some other programs did so prior to that. Mark keeps tripping over his own sword.

  3. You know it’s a free country (probably), and he can speak to whomever or whatever group he wants too. Do I agree with him, nope. Let him keep his post. Other side should just keep pointing to him and use that to motivate their base to get more out to vote. “This is what happens when you vote GOP, you get this for your leadership” type of stuff.

    I mean you still have GOP elected people currently holding seats that when asked about voting to bring back slavery they state they would vote “YES”. So does this shallow minded Whip really surprise you about speaking to that group? I mean look at his “peers”.

  4. So a high-ranking Repugnican pals around with KKK/neoNazi types… not exactly newsworthy… more like “business as usual” for the extreme right, antiAmerican GOP. In the FoxNewz bubble, only blahs and libruls can be “racist” so they won’t make a story out of this until they figure out how to blame it on Obama.

  5. Good post, only one glitch.

    The FOX NEWS with the line “FAIR AND BALANCED, A GREAT POINT IF IT WERE TRUE” should be attributed to Stephan Colbert of the Colbert Report. To my knowledge it was Stephan Colbert who first came up with this line in connection to the FOX logo.

  6. Both Mediate and Newsbusters have picked up a story from the Slate website: Rep. Scalise didn’t speak to this particular hate group. He was speaking to a local neighborhood organization that had met at the conference several hours before the hate group were meeting at that same room. This story is falling apart.

    I predict that next week after the news staffs are back to full strength, this story will be exposed as fake. Will any of the alphabet-soup networks acknowledge that and offer up retractions? CNN might. I’m not holding my breath for the others.

      • Those stories are thinly sourced and unconfirmed. And Scalise isn’t even corroborating them. In fact, he specifically admitted speaking for Duke’s group, and a rep for the group confirmed it. These late stories sound like desperate attempts to exonerate Scalise.

        • Who died and appointed you Karnac the Magnificient?? Let the whole story play out before final judgment is rendered.

          • Furthermore, left-wing sites like Think Progress are no more reliable than Breitbart.

            • OMG you’re stupid.

              First of all, Thanks for conceding that Breitbart is unreliable, for which there is plenty of evidence. Unfortunately, ThinkProgress is completely reliable and you cannot prove otherwise.

              Secondly, ThinkProgress is citing the Times-Picayune, the very same newspaper the YOU cited. Can you please respond to this so that we all have more reasons to laugh at you?

  7. Nuts. For some reason, that link is defaulting to an earlier story. Drudge Report’s link will get you to the updated story.

  8. The GOP has no choice but to keep absolutely silent when it’s members display the homophobia, war mongering, racism and corporate greed that characterize the various sections of the “big tent”.

    • “…homophobia, racism…”

      Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Al Sharpton…

  9. “OMG, you’re stupid…”
    I am smarter than you will ever hope to be in your entire pathetic, miserable life. Looks like 2015 is going to shape up to be another year of lies and hate from you.
    “Think Progress is completely reliable…”
    Bald-faced lie. Think Progress was exposed for taking a bunch of video snippets and editing them dishonestly like George Zimmerman’s 911 call. The video started with a an alleged Tea Party guy who proudly claimed he was a racist. But Think Progress edited out the rest of that video when real Tea Partiers swarmed around him and told him to get lost.
    Think Progress lies just like you do.

Comments are closed.