On Thursday night, Laura Ingraham, host of Fox News’ primetime “The Ingraham Angle,” made some nauseating, albeit typical, remarks of the sort that have endeared her to racists, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists everywhere. It’s not the first time she’s unleashed such repugnant commentaries, but it is one of the most flagrant (video below).

In the hours that have passed since Ingraham’s bigoted outburst she has been roundly criticized by thousands of decent people who were understandably offended and refuse to tolerate such vile hate speech. And eventually Fox News found it necessary to make an official statement regarding the controversy. Suffice to say that Fox was not apologizing:

“It is obscene to suggest that Laura Ingraham was defending Paul Nehlen’s despicable actions especially when some of the names on the graphic were pulled from an Associated Press report on best known political extremists banned from Facebook. Anyone who watches Laura’s show knows that she is a fierce protector of freedom of speech and the intent of the segment was to highlight the growing trend of unilateral censorship in America.”

What’s obscene is that Fox News can defend Ingraham’s unabashed support for an avowed neo-Nazi. Fox claims that Ingraham was not defending Nehlen, but the actual comments on her show prove that Fox is lying. Contrary to Fox’s description of some “political extremists,” Ingraham explicitly portrayed Nehlen, and seven other ultra-rightists, as innocent victims of unhinged lefties:

“They’re trying to bully social media, satirists, people with comedic flair […] Their goal is to use Russian hacking threats and manipulation of social media as part of a larger movement to silence conservative voices ahead of the 2020 election.”

So Ingraham is painting people like Nehlen, conspiracy crackpot Alex Jones, Islamophobe Laura Loomer, et al, as merely comedians, but also as legitimate voices of conservatism. She says that they are only proponents of “border enforcement” and “national sovereignty.” And she regards these false allegations of censorship as akin to the Russian election interference in 2016. It takes phenomenal mental derangement to execute that level of dishonest spin-meistering.

The statement from Fox News also sought to wave off any criticism because the people that Ingraham chose to praise were mentioned in an article by the Associated Press. So what? The AP didn’t pay tribute to them as embattled heroes of the right. In fact, they described them as “people and groups promoting objectionable material such as hate, racism and anti-Semitism.” And that is unambiguously true for Nehlen whose anti-Semitism and racism has been on display for years. He has even called for race wars and pondered the “Jewish Question.”

What’s more, Fox must have been joking when they said that “Anyone who watches Laura’s show knows that she is a fierce protector of freedom of speech. She is literally the author of a book called “Shut Up and Sing,” whose thesis is that anyone who isn’t a politician or a pundit has no right to express a political opinion. She did a whole segment where she demanded that LeBron James and Kevin Durant should shut up and dribble after they criticized Donald Trump. She even lashed out a teenage survivor of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting for having the audacity to speak out for gun safety.

That’s what Fox News regards as a “fierce protector of freedom of speech?” It’s bad enough that Ingraham goes on the air every night to advance her cause of prejudice and privilege – along with her colleagues Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. But for Fox to put out a defense of that abhorrent philosophy only makes matters worse. But it is, in the end, just what should be expected of a network whose whole reason for being is to oppress minorities, women, and anyone they believe threatens the authority of the white upper class.

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