Fox News defends Laura Ingraham for promoting white supremacist

Fox News has a message for anyone who watched host Laura Ingraham defend a vile anti-Semite on her show Thursday night: Don’t believe what you witnessed with your very eyes.

On her show, Ingraham listed white supremacist Paul Nehlen as a “prominent” conservative voice that was being censored on social media, describing Nehlen as one of the “people who believe in border enforcement, people who believe in national sovereignty.”

She put Nehlen on that list even though he was kicked off of social media platforms for hate speech, including posting a picture of himself wearing a shirt with a quote from the white supremacist who shot and killed 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. And even though he has made a list of Jews “who have attacked me.” (Full disclosure: I was one of the Jews Nehlen put on that list.)

Yet in a statement that has to be seen to be believed, Fox News said Ingraham wasn’t defending Nehlen despite the fact that she was clearly portraying Nehlen as a sympathetic figure who was unfairly censored for his views.

“It is obscene to suggest that Laura Ingraham was defending Paul Nehlen’s despicable actions,” Fox wrote in a statement to Mediaite’s Aidan McLaughlin.

“Anyone who watches Laura’s show knows that she is a fierce protector of freedom of speech and the intent of the segment was to highlight the growing trend of unilateral censorship in America,” the statement continued.

Fox News issued the statement after Ingraham herself also tried to gaslight the country into believing that her sympathetic tone toward Nehlen was nothing to get upset over — and that those who were exposing Nehlen’s awful views were somehow the ones in the wrong.

“Retweeting screenshots of despicable old tweets by racists and/or anti-semites must make those racists & anti-semites very happy,” Ingraham tweeted Friday morning. “Unfortunately it does zero to elevate the debate in America.”

Unfortunately for Ingraham, she created the real problem with her decision to promote Nehlen’s views. Those pointing out Nehlen’s gross past were doing her viewers a service, giving them the information they need to not view Nehlen as the kind of conservative martyr Ingraham clearly wanted him to look like from her segment.

But what else can you expect from Ingraham, who has a long history of promoting some of the worst humans in politics, as well as attacking the teenagers who survived the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida?

After bullying Parkland survivor David Hogg, Ingraham hemorrhaged advertisers on her show. And now that she’s promoting white supremacists, she may see yet another advertiser exodus.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.