Fox News Fabricates Timeline To Politicize Obama's ISIS Strategy

Written by Craig Harrington

Published

Fox News personalities claimed that President Obama's efforts to roll back the advance of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was prompted by the brutal murder of American journalist James Foley. In fact, President Obama authorized limited airstrikes several days before Foley's killing, and worked to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces months before the strikes.

Fox Claims That Airstrikes Against The Islamic State Are Politically-Motivated Response To Beheadings

Fox's Pavlich: Obama Only Ordered Airstrikes Against Islamic State Militants After Public Reacted To Beheading Video. On the October 6 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Fox contributor Katie Pavlich argued that Obama only ordered the strikes “after we saw those videos of the American journalist being beheaded”:

PAVLICH: I think there is a lot of truth to what she is saying. I don't think that President Obama's entire ISIS strategy surrounds the November elections. But let's look at the timing here. President Obama only made moves against ISIS after we saw those videos of the American journalist being beheaded. If we hadn't seen those videos, I highly doubt President Obama would have made a move because it wouldn't have been on the minds of Americans. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 10/6/14]

Fox's Hume: Airstrikes Were Obama's Response "To The Political Pressures" Created By Islamic State Beheadings. In a later segment on America's Newsroom, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume claimed that President Obama's commitment to defeating the Islamic State is based on the “political pressures” generated by the beheadings of two Americans held captive by the group during an election season:

HUME: What I think he's trying to do is respond to the political pressures that were built by the airing -- for all the world to see -- of the beheadings of two Americans, which frightened the American public, alarmed the American public, and made it incumbent on him, as the leader of a party facing a congressional election, to do something to respond to that. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 10/6/14]

Fox's O'Reilly: Airstrikes Are “A Political Thing, After The Beheadings.” On the October 2 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Ralph Peters criticized what he called  the airstrikes against Islamic State targets. Host Bill O'Reilly agreed, saying “it's a political thing, after the beheadings.” [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 10/2/14]

President Obama Authorized Action Against Islamic State Before Murder Of American Captives

Obama Authorized Airstrikes Against Islamic State Targets On August 7. On August 7, President Obama announced his authorization of “targeted airstrikes” against Islamic State militants near the Kurdish capital city of Erbil, in northern Iraq. The president also announced joint Iraqi and American efforts to relieve thousands of refugees who fled Islamic State advances in the Sinjar region. [The New York Times, 8/7/14]

Islamic State Militants Released Video Of James Foley's Murder On August 19. On August 19, the Islamic State released video of captured American journalist James Foley's execution at the hands of an ISIS militant in retaliation for American airstrikes in Iraq. [The New York Times, 8/19/14]