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Fox News downplays the Holocaust Museum killing

June 11, 2009 10:21 am ET by Eric Boehlert

You could almost see the moment yesterday afternoon when the Fox News team lost interest (or at least lost a lot of interest) in the breaking story about the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. That moment seemed to be when it was revealed that the alleged shooter, James von Brunn, was a white supremacist who, according to a CNN report last night, had strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

For some reason, Fox News suddenly pulled back its coverage of the shocking shooting that had political overtones. In fact, the story virtually disappeared during Fox News' primetime block.

Nothing to see here people, just keep moving along.

According to TVeyes.com, Fox News trails far behind its cable news rivals in mentioning "Holocaust" and/or "von Brunn" in the last 21 hours. In fact, Fox News anchors and reporters have used those phrases approximately 40 percent fewer times than their CNN counterparts, and 30 percent fewer than reporters and anchors at MSNBC.

As of 10 a.m., the totals looked like this:

CNN: at least 168 mentions.

MSNBC: at least 121 mentions.

Fox News: at least 89 mentions.

Just imagine what those Fox News tallies would have looked like if the shooter had been a Muslim.

UPDATE: According to TVeyes.com, Fox News last night during primetime (8-11 p.m.) mentioned "Holocaust" and "von Brunn" a grand total of three times. For the entire night.

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    • Author by Easy to refute wingnuts (June 11, 2009 10:27 am ET)
      3  
      Yes. O'Reilly thought the most important story of the day was gay penguins.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by wookie (June 11, 2009 10:45 am ET)
        3  
        Between gay penguins and people marrying ducks our culture warrior has a lot on his plate.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by nerzog (June 11, 2009 10:30 am ET)
      3  
      Or, imagine if a Radical Evolutionist had walked into the Creation Museum and opened fire... or if an Atheist had stormed a church and killed someone. FOX would create a logo for the incident and hammer it for a month.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by edub (June 11, 2009 10:50 am ET)
      1  
      NYTimes buried the story on p. A15, even though it was all I saw last night on cable news (deservedly so, I would add.)

      Maybe they don't want to upset the crazies.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by RABBITLUVR (June 11, 2009 10:59 am ET)
      2  
      I listened to Levin's show last night and during the first hour - I cannot listen beyond that - he spent a grand total of about 45 seconds on the shooting. He used it to launch into one of the most detestable rants I have ever heard from him, about how Obama is causing tension and how things like this are 'heating up'.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Victor Colorado (June 11, 2009 11:21 am ET)
        2  
        This notion that President Obama is somehow causing right wing television and radio to lunch into hyperbolic, base-whipping rants is absolutely ludicrous and totally pathetic. Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity (and Levin to a lesser extent) have mainstreamed the crazy talk and people are literally getting killed. Even if Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity, etc. wanted to, they now cannot un-ring the bell. The right lost election after election and have been very much marginalized from public office, yet they're still making messes that the center and the left will need to clean up. Many thanks, fake patriots!
        Report Abuse
      • Author by harley (June 11, 2009 11:34 am ET)
        1  

        Did he mention this?
        [http://patriotshop.us/images/DSC_0033.jpg]
        Report Abuse
      • Author by nerzog (June 11, 2009 11:35 am ET)
        5  
        That appears to be the new talking point: that Obama caused this by criticizing Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians.

        My guess is that they had this Talking Point prepared in advance for an incident of this kind... it was out there too quickly for them to have fabricated and circulated it after the shooting.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by NiceguyEddie (June 11, 2009 11:15 am ET)
         
      von Brunn. Yep, a good muslim name if ever I heard one.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by CynthiaGee (June 12, 2009 2:09 pm ET)
           
        Von Brunn IS a bonafide advocate of terrorism --he also has close ties to Battle of Baghdad dissident Captain Eric May, and it appears that May himself is on good terms with various Islamic groups:

        http://www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/

        http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/ghosttroop/message/6356

        http://www.spiritone.com/~ghosttroop/Captain_Eric_H_May.html

        Now, get a load of THIS comment posted to Captain May's yahoogroup by Von Brunn, followed by May's response. Von Brunn literally advocates violent insurrection, calling for a group of "five or six well equipped martyrs" to take action against our government:

        http://ca.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/ghosttroop/message/6012

        "Re: Pravda Article - WTC and Bush

        james von brunn wrote:

        BY THE WAY, YOU'RE A VERY FINE WRITER, AMONG OTHER VIRTUES.

        I'm of the opinion that only a military coup d'etat can save our once great Republic. And soon. However, a coup is doubtful as the military too has been infected by the Marxist/Liberal/Jew virus.

        Perhaps we must settle for a team of Special
        Forces, say six (6) well-equipped martyrs. Count me in.
        jvb
        www.holywesternempire.org

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


        I'm most obliged at your praise, Mr. Von Brunn! Writers always have their vanities, even when they're doing military missions. For what it's worth, I called for a military coup d'etat on the night of July 28, 2005, when the Bush Boyz tried to blow up Texas City last time.

        You can find it in an article published shortly afterwards at http://www.vfvs.com/GhostTroopCaptainEricMay.html or you can listen to it as I called for it, in the second of the two interviews at http://www.cloakanddagger.de/media/Captain%20May/capt1.htm

        Again, thanks for the encouragement. I'm sure that you've endured the same kinds of frustrations that I have in the course of your infowar, whenever it began. I'd sure like to turn the Texas City Inquest into a public tribunal for the Jewish Zionists and the Bush Boyz who took their advice and used their media like (embedded) whores.
        Yours, CPTMAY"
        Report Abuse
    • Author by Entitled (June 11, 2009 11:17 am ET)
         
      I watched a news cycle on _OX this morning.
      They said that the criminal has been know for years via his publications and web-site as a racist anti-Semite.

      It is the same information I was able to gather form other news resources.

      Is the argument that a degree of story saturation during a news cycle is a reflection of information control?
      I would argue that I was able to gather the same information and more disparate information with the current degree of story saturation.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by eniobob2631 (June 11, 2009 11:25 am ET)
      1  
      I too was curious about how they would handle this,It seemed as far as the "Fair And Balanced"network was concerned it never happened.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (June 11, 2009 11:48 am ET)
        4  
        The other 800 pound elephant in the room, aside from Fox and am wingnut radio's deafening silence on the matter;

        Take a look at the multiple items on the shooting at this site, from today & yesterday. Count the number of comments from the usual defenders of the conservative media. The bloviating dittoheads who enable all of the propaganda, advising everybody to just laugh it off as "humor", they've all slithered off into their holes.

        Unless you go to the item about Obama showing the sole of his shoe ans insulting Israelis. A few of them managed to creep over to that minor item and post a few comments.

        Come on, Wingnuts, show some conviction.What about Von Brunn? Not a word??
        Report Abuse
        • Author by SMTDL (June 11, 2009 12:13 pm ET)
          1  
          What's disturbing is the lack of concern on the part of conservative politicians to speak out against right wing extremism.While no one is saying that all conservatives meet this profile...the issues and agenda overlap and Conservative Talk Radio,Fox News,even the RNC show benign tolerance and even some defense of hate talk and dangerous rhetoric.The support of and apologies to Rush Limbaugh show this.The dangerous rants of Liddy,Hannity and Beck in particular have bordered on support of armed insurrection against the government.This started during the election by the Mccain/Palin supporters and did not get renounced..other than McCain's attempt with the one Arab commnent.Palin just incited it and enjoyed it and took no responsibilty for it.......The way this is going there will be plenty of hands with blood on them if something else happens!!
          Report Abuse
          • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (June 11, 2009 12:17 pm ET)
            2  
            They're all busy right now, emphasizing this "Lone Wolf" and "Solitary Madman" has nothing to do with the puppetmasters whose nutty ideas he seems to have etched into his brain.
            Report Abuse
            • Author by Victor Colorado (June 11, 2009 1:24 pm ET)
              1  
              We may hear from them soon, Rush is issuing the talking points right now, but quite frankly, I think today's might be the stupidest assertions to ever come out of the mouth of Limbaugh (No, seriously, the stupidest. Ever.).
              Report Abuse
              • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (June 11, 2009 1:41 pm ET)
                1  
                Just saw some of those, Victor. Rush is getting loony, even on the Rush scale.

                So far, I think TNosePickens is the only conservative to make a comment on the Conservofascist terrorist, and while he condemned the killing, he described anybody who made a connection between the right wing "Rush is Right!" conservative killer and conservatives as "despicable".

                I wonder if he'll find Rush's insane description of dittobot Von Brunn as a leftist despicable.
                Report Abuse
          • Author by highliter (June 11, 2009 12:22 pm ET)
               
            How the hell is an anti-Semite a right winger? Just because he was in the KKK and a racist’s does not make him a conservative. There is nothing about conservatism that is racist. This guy was just nuts. I just don’t get how you tie this to right wing extremist. I can see if you were making the case for the abortion doctor killing, but this one is a bit of a reach.
            Report Abuse
    • Author by dmhack (June 11, 2009 11:52 am ET)
         
      While I agree with the idea that FOX would have been all over this for months to come had the man been a Muslim, I don't think that's the only reason.

      Just as a person who is cheating on a spouse is unlikely to want to talk about adultery, FOX is unlikely to want to talk about hateful acts when they wallow in hate talk on a daily basis.

      They have written this shooter off as a lone wingnut when the reality is even wingnuts need others to, in some way, validate their acts.

      I'm not saying only FOX is to blame. I'm saying that FOX, together with the other merchants of hate, lies and smears, fan the flames of intolerance instead of smothering them.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by billb11145566 (June 11, 2009 12:39 pm ET)
         
      What attack fox news? They condemned the killing like everyone else.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Victor Colorado (June 11, 2009 2:50 pm ET)
      1  
      UPDATE: According to TVeyes.com, Fox News last night during primetime (8-11 p.m.) mentioned "Holocaust" and "van Brunn" a grand total of three times. For the entire night.


      So, last night, Fox News had more reporting on the June 1 army recruiter shooting than it did on yesterday's Holocaust Museum security guard shooting. They continue to prove they are not interested in reporting news.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by bluenewsjunkie85 (June 11, 2009 7:07 pm ET)
      1  
      As my first post on this site, I would like to say this for the record: I am a liberal, and I do not hate conservatives. In fact, I have a lot of conservative friends, and I enjoy regular debates on policy matters with them, and we retire to our respectful corners, respecting the other person's point of view.

      With that being said, I would like to say that this country has no place for extremism, on either side of the political spectrum. If an atheist killed a pastor, this story would run on Fox News nonstop. The fact that they are giving so little credence to this story, likely because the guy is a right wing believer, shows that they are not worthy of being called a "news organization", and instead are merely a propaganda machine for the right.

      It pains me that people are actually intolerant enough in this country to believe so strongly in their side of an argument that it gives them reason to be violent towards those that disagree with them. That is how they do things in Iran and Pakistan, not the United States. If you want to live in a country where solving problems through violence is acceptable, go live there.
      Report Abuse

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