Attack On DHS Travels From Conspiracy-Monger Alex Jones To Fox News

A story about a Department of Homeland Security video that began at a website operated by radio host Alex Jones and was then covered on Fox News is just the latest example of how Fox has been moving increasingly toward pushing the conspiratorial views of Jones.

After Alex Jones Took Credit For Pushing Fox News To The Fringe...

Jones: “Fox News Is An Alex Jones Wannabe.” On his radio show, Jones praised then-Fox News host Glenn Beck for helping to mainstream the conspiratorial views of Federal Reserve critic G. Edward Griffin, claiming that “Fox News is an Alex Jones wannabe,” and adding that “We've pushed Fox News, greedy to have the biggest market share, to tell some of the truth.” [Genesis Communication Network, The Alex Jones Show, 3/28/11]

Jones: “Beck Goes From A Mainline Conservative To Having G. Edward Griffin On.” Jones commended Beck for doing “a great thing” in having anti-Federal Reserve author G. Edward Griffin on his show. According to Jones, his conspiracy theories are “now mainstream news” as “the train is pulling into the station.” He went on to explain Fox News' role in bringing these theories to light:

And so out comes Fox News two years ago with Dick Morris saying, “Hey, the conspiracy theorists were wrong about world government, U.N. takeover, global currency. But now they're right.” That's a quote. And so Beck goes from a mainline conservative to having G. Edward Griffin on for over 30 minutes Friday. [Genesis Communication Network, The Alex Jones Show, 3/28/11]

Jones: Fox News Is “Moving More Towards What Beck Was Doing.” Discussing Beck's departure from Fox News, Jones noted that Beck “basically said what we've been saying for years, that the mainstream media is imploding.” Jones added:

Just three years ago, when he joined Fox -- two and a half years ago -- Fox said there's no such thing as a world government, no such thing as the Council on Foreign Relations, no such thing as the Bilderberg Group, they would not speak its name. Since then, it's all over their channels, and you see Hannity, you see all of them moving more towards what Beck was doing. So basically, they're getting rid of Beck so they can just basically take my information, hence his information, and spin it in a Republicanoid way. [Genesis Communication Network, The Alex Jones Show, 4/7/11]

... Fox News Is Now Turning To Alex Jones For News

Jones Website Infowars: “DHS Video Characterizes White Americans As Most Likely Terrorists.” From a July 21 article on Alex Jones' Infowars website:

A new promotional video released by the Department of Homeland Security characterizes white middle class Americans as the most likely terrorists, as Big Sis continues its relentless drive to cement the myth that mad bombers are hiding around every corner, when in reality Americans are just as likely to be killed by lightning strikes or peanut allergies.

The video is part of Homeland Security's $10 million dollar “See Something, Say Something” program that encourages Americans to report “suspicious activity,” which in every case throughout history has been a trait of oppressive, dictatorial regimes.

In the course of the 10 minute clip, a myriad of different behaviors are characterized as terrorism, including opposing surveillance, using a video camera, talking to police officers, wearing hoodies, driving vans, writing on a piece of paper, and using a cell phone recording application.

Despite encouraging viewers not to pay attention to a person's race in determining whether or not they may be a terrorist, almost all of the scenarios in the clip proceed to portray white people as the most likely terrorists. Bizarrely, nearly every single one of the “patriotic” Americans who reports on their fellow citizen is either black, Asian or Arab. Imagine if the video had portrayed every terrorist as an Arab and every patriotic snoop as white, there'd be an outcry and rightly so, but this strange reversal must have been deliberate on the part of the DHS, but why? Is this merely political correctness taken to the extreme or is something deeper at work? [Infowars.com, 7/21/11]

Fox Nation Picks Up Infowars Item. A Fox Nation post reproduces the first paragraph of the Infowars article, then provides a link to the article. [Fox Nation, 7/21/11]

Fox Host Eric Bolling Picks Up Infowars Item: “We Were Looking Over Some Stuff, And This Thing Came, It Hit Us Right Smack In The Face.” In a segment on Fox News' The Five, co-host Eric Bolling said in his introduction to a segment on the DHS video: “We at The Five this morning, we're looking over some stuff, and this thing came, it hit us right smack in the face.” Echoing the Infowars item, Bolling went on to say that the video shows “white male average Americans end up being the terrorists, and the people calling the terror in happen to be -- all of them happen to be black, Asian or Arab.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/21/11]