Cavuto again misleads on DHS report
SUMMARY: Neil Cavuto said of a Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism, "we never say 'left-wing extremists,' you know?" He later wondered what would have happened "if the prior administration had said the exact same thing." In fact, DHS released a report on left-wing extremism in January.
During a segment on the June 11 edition of Fox News' Your World, about the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report that alerted law enforcement that "rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans," host Neil Cavuto asserted, "we never say 'left-wing extremists,' you know?" Later during the broadcast, Cavuto stated: "I always wonder if the prior administration had said the exact same thing, you know? How differently that might have been treated." However, at no point during the broadcast did Cavuto note that DHS did write an assessment of "left-wing extremists" on January 26 called, "Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade." Additionally, the DHS assessment on right-wing extremists cited a 2008 FBI report -- authored during the Bush administration -- which noted that "military veterans" have "joined extremist groups." Further, Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge reported on the April 15 edition of Fox News' Studio B: "I would point out that both of these assessments, [host] Shep [Smith], were commissioned under the Bush administration. It takes some time to do them. They only came out after he had left office."
In the July 2008 FBI report, titled, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11," the FBI's Counterterrorism Division determined with "[h]igh confidence" that "[m]ilitary experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as the result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes."
Media Matters for America has documented a pattern of Cavuto and others on Your World making false and misleading claims about the DHS report.
From the June 11 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:
CAVUTO: Well, the accused Holocaust Museum shooter still in critical condition. Now, James von Brunn officially facing murder charges. Von Brunn a World War II veteran. Some people have been using this to say that controversial Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism from the military was right on. Remember, that it had warned that our war veterans could emerge as violent extremists. I don't believe that it included World War II [unintelligible], nevertheless count Gulf War veteran Matt Burden outraged. What do you make of this?
MATT BURDEN (Warrior Legacy Foundation board of directors): Well, first of all, the memo is poorly written. An unprovoked discrimination of our -- of our veterans. It's a bit ridiculous to assume that every veteran of the greatest generation is a threat. And in terms of the memo, and I have read every line of it, the Homeland Security memo, it clearly states out that they're afraid that veterans are going to become right-wing extremists. Now this gentleman -- and I use the term loosely -- was hardly right-wing. I don't know when racist idiots became right-wing people. And he also --
CAVUTO: Well, you know, that's a very good point. And by the way, we never -- we never say "left-wing extremists," you know? It's just sort of like "the right-leaning commentator," never "the left-leaning commentator"; it's the "right-wing extremists," not the --
BURDEN: That's right, Neil.
CAVUTO: That's a whole separate issue. But -- you're -- it created a mountain out of a nonexistent molehill, right?
BURDEN: Well, yeah. This memo should be retracted and written at the very least. You know it's --
CAVUTO: Well, someone seems to be justifying it, though. Someone seems to be saying eh, they're pulling it out again and saying ah, and they're passing it through key sympathetic venues to say, "See? See?
BURDEN: Well, you know, quite frankly, Neil, the Warrior Legacy Foundation would not have to exist if people actually didn't play political football with the reputations of America's military veterans. You've got millions and millions of veterans out there that this tarnishes, and in order to protect their legacy, this memo should be rewritten in a different way. But, that being said, people are playing political football with the reputation of America's military, and, you know, we take the stance that veterans make their communities a better place. So, therefore, we're asking Department of Homeland Security to retract this memo.
CAVUTO: And what have you heard?
BURDEN: Well they're -- they have apologized, they apologized to the American Legion for this memo, but they're not retracting it. I think if you take a look at it as a whole, if it was any other group that they were -- you know, said could become extremists, whether it's a religious group, you know, gays, African-Americans, there would have been an outrage over this. Instead -- and it would have been retracted. Instead, it still stands.
CAVUTO: I always wonder if the prior administration had said the exact same thing, you know? How differently that might have been treated.
BURDEN: Well, it just looks like this administration, you know, they've made some missteps, and I think they're learning along the way.
CAVUTO: Right.
BURDEN: And we'd like to work with them, you know, on both sides of the aisle on getting this memo, you know, retracted. And why shouldn't they?
CAVUTO: But real quickly, Matt --
BURDEN: there's plenty of veterans, Senator Webb --
CAVUTO: Right, but your point is that to extrapolate from this, as the department did even before this tragic incident, that it should and we should be focusing on some errant nuts, former military guys, does a huge disservice. Even though it seemed to be stressing that there were very, very few of them, but they bear watching. You disagree?
BURDEN: There's very, very few of them, and, for instance, you know, they're trying to tie in military experience into extremist acts. So, for instance, you know, this latest person who just shot up a wonderful place, the Holocaust Museum, that's just a hallowed ground -- this man was a PT boat captain. Did he drive a boat through the gates and crash in that way? No. I mean, this has nothing to do with his military experience at all. This has to do with his Aryan views. It has nothing to do with what he learned in the military, military training, or his experiences in World War II.
CAVUTO: Very good points all. Matthew, thank you very much. Good having you on.
Indeed, the Bush administration did do that, and it was OK then. Because, we are talking about left wing extremists, who are operating at the fringes of the left, same as the right wing extremists, unless of course you're including yourself in that realm Neal. Are you?
Obviously, I am a right-winger. So I worry when extremists are also described as right-wing. I also don't understand how all bananas can be fruit, yet all fruit are not bananas. What!? That makes no sense!
But perhaps more to your point, I suffer from a disease in which I must substitute one thing for its opposite in any situation to determine whether the inverse is true. (I caught this disease from Newt Gingrich.) I find that it makes very sensible, logical points. For example, this proves that bananas CANNOT be fruit.
Sincerely,
Neil Cavuto
It is so typical of conservatives to not admit any fault and try to say something about someone else.
1. Google a topic
2. Read about topic
3. Decide if you should talk about topic.
My 10-year old gets this. Why is it so hard for these people?
So I have created a foundation to help play political football with the reputations of America's military veterans.
OK so I took some liberties there with his quote but; my point is that this is exactly what he and Cavuto are doing. They are playing political games to make their own right wing points. None of the veterans that I know appointed either one as their spokesperson. Of course any person, with a neutral point of view, who read the DHS report would not think that the DHS was saying that everyone needed to be fearful of returning verterans. As I remember it the reports said something about returning veterans being "targeted for recruitment" by right wing extemist groups.
THANK YOU.
njguy93@yahoo.com
..... whatever.