Guess How Fox News Covered Ted Nugent’s Hate Speech

Remember when Barack Obama was campaigning for president and Fox News tried to shackle him to anyone they thought would damage his reputation? Bill Ayres, who was barely an acquaintance, turned into a terrorist that Obama was “palling around with.” Rev. Jeremiah Wright became a daily fixture on the Fox News Channel consuming more airtime than the actual presidential candidates. And others, from Louis Farrakhan to Ludacris, were presented as villains that Obama was obligated to renounce, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with them and they were not a part of his campaign.

Which brings us to 2014 and the utterly reprehensible Ted Nugent, who recently called Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” That’s the least of the disgustingly hostile remarks that Nugent has spewed at the President and other targets of his sickly wrath. Yet Nugent was embraced by Greg Abbott, the leading Republican candidate for the governorship of Texas, who even shared the stage with him to accept his endorsement.

When this twisted relationship came to light, some in the media properly put it in context with inquiries about whether it was appropriate for a gubernatorial candidate to link arms with a vulgar, racist, misogynist, pedophile. But one network maintained complete silence, ignoring the controversy entirely. That is until after Nugent issued what may be the most starkly non-apology apology ever made:

Nugent: I do apologize – not necessarily to the President – but on behalf of much better men than myself, like the best governor in America, Gov. Rick Perry. The best attorney general in America, God, just think of America had an attorney general as great as Greg Abbott, like we do here in Texas. So on behalf of those professional politicians, and those who put their heart and soul into representing We The People so actively, like the people I just mentioned […] I apologize for using the street fighter terminology of subhuman mongrel instead of just using more understandable language such as violator of his oath of the Constitution. The liar that he is.

It can hardly be considered an apology if it expressly excludes the person who was the target of the original attack. Nugent was only sorry for the wingnut politicos who suffered due to their association with him – which was really more their fault, than his. Nobody forced them to accept his advances. Likewise, an apology doesn’t ordinarily include additional personal accusations of lying and treason.

So after ignoring the story when it first broke, and then pretending that Nugent’s apology was even remotely sincere, Fox News addressed the matter again on Howard Kurtz’s Media Buzz. It was a brief segment near the end of the program that only peripherally mentioned Greg Abbott. To Fox News the meat of the story had something to do with a dispute with CNN.

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Notice the lower-screen graphics that label the story as “Ted Nugent vs. CNN.” It isn’t Nugent vs. Abbott, or Nugent vs. Obama, or Nugent vs. Decency. Somehow Fox squeezed out an angle that cast the story as a dust up with a competing news network. This is not an incidental point. A team of Fox editors and producers had to have had a meeting to hash out this preposterously skewed perspective. They must have begun with a determination to avoid allowing the story to negatively impact Abbot, or others with whom Nugent has been affiliated, including Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Rick Perry. Then they brainstormed a way to deflect the muck onto a common enemy. Lookout “liberal” media.

Once again Fox News has demonstrated that they are more interested in protecting their allies and attacking their enemies than they are in informing their viewers. The deliberation that had to have been mustered in order to concoct this nonsense illustrates just how hard they work at being deceptive and unethical. And all that hard work pays off in an audience of blindly loyal dimwits with the same ignorant incivility as Nugent.

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25 thoughts on “Guess How Fox News Covered Ted Nugent’s Hate Speech

  1. Mark has been caught in another lie. This story was previously reported Friday on “The Kelly File”. Megyn Kelly did not defend Ted Nugent. She brought on Bernie Goldberg to talk about the incident and the weak apology. Goldberg said that, while the liberals have been utterly hypocritical to give Bill Maher a full pass for his hate-filled spewings, this time it’s the conservatives who are hypocrites for ignoring Nugent’s spewings.

    Also, Howard Kurtz did not use this story to take a shot at CNN. He also ripped into Nugent for his disgusting remarks. And the segment was in the middle of the his “Media Buzz” show, not the end. I know, because I actually watched it.

    • For the record: The story broke on Wednesday, 2/19. Fox didn’t report on it until Friday, 2/21. That’s the day of Nugent’s “apology” and Kelly’s segment. Just like I said.

      The Nugent segment began 46 minutes into the program and was introduced by Kurtz saying “CNN is in a big-time feud with Ted Nugent.”

      • “Just like I said…”

        No, you said nothing about Megyn Kelly covering the story on Friday. You only mentioned Howard Kurtz. And Kurtz ripped into Ted Nugent as well. He did not side with Nugent at all. I know. I watched the entire show.

    • Another Faux News factually challenged bobblehead.

        • That’s what all liars say.

        • Only from the bubble of ignorance kept inflated by Fox News!

      • Was waiting to see when the name-calling would begin and it didn’t take long for GaLiberal to get into it. . .

    • First of all Maher attacks democrats top, and second he is nowhere NEAR as vulgar as the right wing puppets coulter and savage, throw in rush and hannity, well, for a conservative to be called vulgar is a lot more foul considering all Republicans are vulgar (in media) so Nugent is the shit stain amongst shit stains

      • You’re wrong. Maher is much more vulgar than all of the hosts you just mentioned.

        • This fact may be lost on you but Bill Maher is a COMEDIAN who regularly goes after Republicans and deserving Democrats..Of course, you would actually have to watch his show to know that….

      • . . .and name calling continues with Tim. . .

        • No content, just empty irrelevant comments! Good going!

    • Why do you always have to drag Bill Maher in, he is in no way comparable but more importantly, he is FUNNY, a quality sorely lacking in conservatives, as far as I can see.

      • Bill Maher has called conservative women t##ts and c##ts, he has “joked” about Glenn Beck being shot dead by police, “joked” about Elizabeth Hasselback trading places with Lara Logan over in Egpyt (and thus becoming the woman who got gang-raped),and he was not joking when he mused about how much better off the world would have been if Dick Cheney had been assassinated back in 2006 when he was visiting the troops. Bill Maher spews hate, and nothing but hate. He is not the slightest bit funny.

    • Yep, Scott says:, I agree. I watched it too.

  2. Nugent’s superlative, best, least describes Perry and Abbot. The guy is a complete lunatic and the saner republicans know this and have to point out, to this idiot Abbot, that this looks bad for him and republicans! The big irony is that Abbot didn’t have to do this and it is going to hurt him politically more than it will help.

    • One can only hope.

    • Ignorant, right-wing, over-the-hill-ex-drug-addict racist goes off on Pres Obama. Who could have seen that coming?

  3. If it wasnt for family guy and NFL games i’d take FOX and all its affiliates off my cable box.

    • Family guy stopped being funny 4 years ago

  4. I just find it telling that Conservatives are so intent on defending a Cowardly, Draft Dodging, Pedophile simply because he’s a self proclaimed ‘patriot”. (Never mind that when it came time for that self proclaimed “patriot” to serve his country, he defecated and urinated on himself, then proceeded to wear those same self soiled clothing for a week to keep himself out of the Military. That’s by his own admission, BTW)

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