Reza Aslan’s Persecution Saga – Fox News Spinning Out Of Control

If there is one thing that Fox News excels at above anyone else, it’s making something horrible they did — in this case host Lauren Green’s blatant racism towards Muslim author Reza Aslan — even worse.

Fox News Discrimination Against Muslim Author Reza Aslan Round One: John Dickerson

There was that scathing article written by John S. Dickerson that referred to Reza Aslan as “nothing more than an educated Muslim.”

Fox News Discrimination Against Muslim Author Reza Aslan?Round Two: Lauren Green

Then Lauren Green initiated Round Two with a jaw dropping interview in which she refused to accept that Reza Aslan, a Muslim, could be educated in the Christian faith and have written a historical account about the man known as Jesus.

Believe it or not folks, we have now moved on to Round Three.

Fox News Discrimination Against Muslim Author Reza Aslan?Round Three: Fill-in Host Shannon Bream and Brent Bozell

Without missing a beat, the Fox News propaganda machine reinvigorated itself Wednesday by defending its actions and claiming that the “far-left liberal media” is persecuting them over asking Reza Aslan a reasonable question. Fill-in host of America Live, Shannon Bream, seemed to completely dismiss the controversy surrounding the ill-fated interview by colleague Lauren Green, and brought in Brent Bozell, founder and President of the conservative Media Research Center, to stir the pot even further. Bream also suggested the reason Fox News and Lauren Green are “taking so much heat” is that people of the Muslim faith are overly sensitive.

Fox actually has a well-seasoned media critic on their payroll, but apparently Howard Kurtz was unavailable. Perhaps that is because Reza Aslan and Howard Kurtz were once colleagues at The Daily Beast before Kurtz was fired in May.

Bozell, a Tea Party supporter and activist, is no stranger to controversy or lawsuits for his false claims. His Media Research Center’s mission statement claims to report a conspiracy of “left-wing bias.” They also claim they are not lobbyists, while reporting on the “left-wing bias” conspiracy, remaining tax-exempt, and being funded by a large number of corporate donors, including Exxon Mobil, the?Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Sarah Scaife Foundation, Castle Rock Foundation, John M. Olin Foundation, the?Carthage Foundation, and JM Foundation.

Watch Bozell’s false rant here:

Shortly before Fox’s “Round Three,” Reza Aslan appeared on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner?to discuss the Fox stemmed controversy surrounding his book. He maintains that he feels a great deal of sympathy for Lauren Green, whom he believes was only posing questions under direction from her show’s producers. Aslan also states that in the aftermath of the interview he is “getting a lot of emails from conservatives, from Fox News watchers, who are saying that this has turned them away.

Aslan commented:

I watch Fox News and anybody who watches Fox News knows that there is an inherent anti-Muslim bias in their reporting. I don’t actually blame them for it. They’re a commercial enterprise, they know how to sell a product, and frankly fear sells a product.

As for Bozell’s comment about Aslan “not being a very good Muslim,” Aslan pretty much summed up what the rest of us were already thinking.

 

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edited/published by tw

"...And so I say to all of you here and to all in the nation tonight that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future. This great rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all--all, black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too--poverty, disease and ignorance--we shall overcome." ~excerpt from speech by President Lyndon B Johnson, given two days after the start of the Selma Marches in an event that became known as Bloody Sunday.