Thanksgiving Day On Fox News: Anchor Refers To Immigrants As Cattle

Always anxious to reflect the spirit of America on its revered holidays, a Fox News anchor took the time to produce a commentary that expresses his views on immigration. And what better occasion than Thanksgiving to contemplate the sacrifices of people from far off lands enduring long and perilous travels in the hopes of a better life in a new world?

In that spirit Todd Starnes, Fox’s Christian Taliban representative, sought to demonize immigrants as less than human with an obscure reference to a classic TV program. Starnes opened his commentary saying…

“Most Americans agree with Donald Trump — the illegal aliens have to go. Head ’em up, move ’em out.”

Todd Starnes

Fans of the old western show “Rawhide” will remember its theme song by Frankie Laine (video below) that went: “Move ’em on, head ’em up/Head ’em up, move ’em out/Move ’em on/head ’em out Rawhide!” It was a cowboy ode to wrangling livestock, often on long, arduous cattle drives. did he think that no one would notice the sly way he equated immigrants with cattle?

Apparently Starnes regards that as an appropriate way to address the issue of immigration, and particularly the plan by Donald Trump to round up some 11,000,000 undocumented residents and “herd ’em out” of the country. Starnes’ choice of that phrase proves that he regards immigrants as animals. But it is also typical of the racist rhetoric so prevalent on Fox News and among Republican bigots. In this context the lyric perfectly expresses the hatefulness of people who don’t see the irony of their own past as immigrants, especially in the part of the verse that says em>”Don’t try to understand ’em/Just rope and throw and grab ’em.”

Starnes continues his rant by citing the results of a Fox News poll that found that a slight majority of 52% of respondents favor deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally. He then characterizes that as proof that “Americans agree with Trump – Illegals Must go.” But in his own commentary he reveals that it isn’t Americans so much as it is Republicans. The breakdown of the poll shows that 70% of Republicans hold that view, but a majority (58%) of Democrats oppose the inhumane act of mass deportation.

Starnes also misrepresented another question in the poll that asked “Which of the following best describes how you feel about identifying and deporting millions of immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally?” The responses were that 41% considered it “a smart idea,” which Starnes included in his commentary. However, for some reason, he left out that 54% considered it “Silly because it would be impossible [or] Wrong even if it were possible.”

Taking the numbers in their totality, it is ridiculous to conclude that Americans agree with Trump on immigration. Only someone intent on deception would make such a case. But Starnes wasn’t finished with his offensive diatribe. He went on to enumerate a series of known falsehoods about immigrants:

“Americans are frustrated — they see illegals taking away our jobs. They see our tax money funding sanctuary cities and funding social programs that a good many legal citizens don’t have access to. They see a government that turns a blind eye to the illegals as they murder American citizens and pillage and plunder local economies. They see a White House that favors the illegals over immigrants who are trying to enter the United States legally.”

There are so many outright lies in that paragraph it’s hard to know where to begin. But let’s start with the observation that Starnes, a self-appointed martinet of allegedly Christian values, repeatedly uses the racist slur “illegals” to refer to undocumented residents.

As for the immigration myths he is perpetuating, the facts are not with him. No one is stealing “their” jobs. The jobs are being offered to immigrants by American employers, yet nobody talks about punishing them for violating the law, and no one calls them “illegals.” What’s more, immigrants are actually responsible for expanding the job market and growing the economy. And they do this without tax money or burdening the welfare system because they are not entitled to most benefits.

The contention that immigrants are “pillaging and plundering” is both repugnant and entirely without basis. In fact, the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. has a lower rate of criminal activity than native-born citizens. And Starnes’ assertions that the government is “turning a blind eye” to murders, and that the White House favors “the illegals” over other immigrants is downright delusional. He doesn’t bother to cite any examples because there weren’t any up his ass with the rest of what he pulled out for this commentary.

So what we have here is a Fox News anchor fabricating blatant lies in order to foment hatred toward a vulnerable population. He couches the whole tirade in a racist theme that casts his targets as sub-human cattle. And he chooses Thanksgiving Day, a day meant to celebrate brotherhood and the welcoming of strangers, to insult and smear people who want nothing more than to provide for their families and enjoy the blessings of liberty. Nice work Your Assholiness.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

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7 thoughts on “Thanksgiving Day On Fox News: Anchor Refers To Immigrants As Cattle

  1. The GOP gets more disgusting, more inhumane, and more evil every day. All of them, including my family members who buy into this garbage, and still call themselves ‘Christians.’ No, no you are not. Not in any way. You are evil.

  2. If someone entered this country without permission or through legal means – they are here illegally – How is calling those who did NOT enter through the legal channels illegals ” racist”? Sounds pretty accurate. It looks to me the government isn’t doing it’s job – we need immigrants now more than ever given our demographic problems that will screw us in the near future. That part of the debate is so stupid it’s defies logic. If government really gives a crap about solving the problem – why doesn’t it put more of it’s resources into legal immigration programs. My own mother had to wait to come here until granted permission when immigration was controlled – what happened since then – which was the early 1960s? Controlling immigration seems reasonable – but no one wants to do it. Crying over accurate terms like illegal is never going to solve the problem – it just pisses everyone off and pushes us further from a solution. Who really cares what Fox News thinks? They clearly aren’t helping, but this articles goes off into idiot area when it cries about titles and names that are totally correct.

    • You’re exhibiting both your own ignorance and racism if you don’t understand why the term “illegals” is racist. It is a term whose purpose is to slander and dehumanize the subject. The reason that conservatives dehumanize their opponents is so that they can abuse them without consequence. As I noted above, nobody calls the law-breaking employers who hire undocumented immigrants “illegals.” In fact, immigrants are the ONLY class of people referred to collectively as “illegals.”

      Why do you suppose that is? Why not refer to illegal bankers, or illegal drug users, or illegal drivers, as “illegals?” It’s because you are racist and you intend to demean people so that they aren’t regarded as people. Just like the Nazis who dehumanized Jews so they could round them up and ship them out to die. That’s what conservatives like you want to do to Latinos (you never hear people talking about deporting undocumented Irish or Australians) and now Syrian refugees too. You’ve revealed yourself and there’s no excuse for your bigotry.

  3. In this context the lyric perfectly expresses the hatefulness of people who don’t see the irony of their own past as immigrants, especially in the part of the verse that says ”Don’t try to understand ’em/Just rope and throw and grab ’em.”

    Sadly, the actual lyrics are even worse, especially given recent rumblings from the right wing guardians of the border about tagging immigrants with some sort of indelible ID mark:

    Don’t try to understand ’em/
    Just rope, throw an’ brand ’em/
    Soon we’ll be livin’ high an’ wide…

  4. To this ugly and overweight, never-been-laid troll, immigrants are like cattle? Well, then, his audience, the typical FOX viewer, IQ barely 70, is the salt-lick for them cows

  5. Todd Stares is just a disgusting, creepy nit-wit. In other words he is a perfect fit at Fox no News.

  6. Maybe Zombie Reagan, or the Reagan ghost of Christmas past will show up and clarify this issue to his worshipers.
    Imagine him walking onto Todd Stares set and bellowing, “Hey! remember me assholes? In 1986 I granted amnesty to over 3 million, illegal. er. undocumented immigrants !”

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