Memo To Sean Hannity: Fox News’ History Of Inciting Islamophobia And Racial And Ethnic Animosity

By Zaid Jilani

Last night, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) appeared on Fox News’s The Sean Hannity Show. While Ellison was prepared to debate a variety of issues from current affairs, Hannity used the opportunity to confront the congressman about comments he had previously made accusing the network of inciting racial and ethnic animosity and Islamophobia. Ellison at first tried to say that he didn’t want to get into an argument about Fox News, but eventually said that the station tries to always associate terrorism with Muslims, failing to appease Hannity, who said it was “offensive” to say Fox incites religious or ethnic animosity:

HANNITY: Well, you actually called out Fox News. You said in a BBC interview, you said that I think that if you listen to Fox News, the station 24/7 is trying to incite and divide Americans along religious lines, scapegoating the Muslim community, and this is a sort of a well-worn, right-wing tactic. Can you give me a specific example?
ELLISON: Well you know Sean, I tell ya, you know you do this show, you know what you guys broadcast all the time, I mean, I stand by the statement. [...]
HANNITY: This is an incredible charge, this is a charge of bigotry! [...] I’m offended by what you say, and if that’s an accusation of religious intolerance, we’re scapegoating the Muslim community, nothing is further from the truth, and I’d like one example. [...]
ELLISON: I’ll give you one example. One example is that after the King hearings, the hearings that Peter King did, you referred to, you talk about, every time you talk about terrorists and radicalization, you always attached the word Muslim to it, or Islamic.

Watch it:

In response to Hannity’s claim that it is “nothing further than the truth” to say that Fox incites religious intolerance, here’s a far from comprehensive list of some of Fox News’s worst moments of inciting racial and ethnic animosity:

- Fox Host John Gibson Said We “Need More Babies” Because The Majority Of Americans May Be Hispanic In 25 Years [5/12/06]
- Fox Host Steve Doocy Claimed Barack Obama Went To A “Madrassa” And Was Possibly A Muslim Extremist [1/19/07]
- Fox News Managing Editor Said Barack Obama Had “Fairly Controversial” Views About “The White Race” [3/28/08]
- Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade Suggested “Special Screenings” For Muslim American Soldiers After The Fort Hood Shootings [11/7/09]
- Fox News Host Blamed Desecration Of A Tennessee Mosque On The “Stubbornness” Of Muslims Building A Community Center In New York City [8/24/10]
- Fox News Immediately Hired Disgraced NPR Commentator Juan Williams, Who Was Let Go For Making Insensitive Comments About Muslims [10/21/10]
- Fox Host Glenn Beck Said The 3/5 Compromise Was A “Way To Take A Step To Abolish Slavery” [1/6/11]
- Fox Host Sean Hannity Repeatedly Suggested That Middle East Uprisings Are Signs Of “World War III” [2/8/11, 2/10/11, 2/22/11]
- Fox Host Glenn Beck Claimed That The Pro-Democracy Movement In Egypt Was Evidence Of A Muslim-Marxist Conspiracy To Establish An Islamic Caliphate [2/11/11]
- Fox News Radio Reporter Todd Starnes Published Tweets About “Blacks Rioting” At A Burger King And Asking If Muslims “Will Stop Trying To Blow Us Up?” [3/24/11, 9/11/10]

Bill O’Reilly, Jesse Watters, and others at Fox News repeatedly refer to the “Muslim problem” in the world.

All of this racially and ethnically insensitive broadcasting may have had a negative effect on the views of the station’s audience. A recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that there is a “a significant correlation between trust in Fox News and negative attitudes about Muslims.”