FOX News Calls White Supremacist, Holocaust Denier and Anti-Semite a 'Free Speech Activist'

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Heidi Beirich, Hate Watch

On Aug. 4, FOX News

about the Canadian prosecution of conservative author Mark Steyn for alleged anti-Muslim human rights violations. Steyn, the author of the No. 1 Canadian bestseller, America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It, has had three complaints lodged against him for human rights violations by the Canadian Islamic Congress. Two cases have been dismissed, but the Human Rights Tribunal of British Columbia is still investigating a charge that Steyn's work amounts to hate speech against Muslims.

Steyn's book, which was serialized in the well-known Canadian newsmagazine Macleans, contends that Western democracies, particularly in Europe, may become fertile ground for Islamic extremists because of rapidly growing Muslim populations.

While there are many individuals and groups that think the prosecution of Steyn harms free speech in Canada -- including PEN Canada and the Canadian Association of Journalists -- Fox News correspondent Steve Brown chose to interview a decidedly odd source: Paul Fromm, who was very sparingly identified on the broadcast as a "Free Speech Activist." That's a pretty weak, not to say completely misleading, description of Paul Fromm. As anyone who lives in Canada or who has access to Google should know, Fromm is Canada's most notorious extremist, whose views form a trifecta of hate: he's a white supremacist, a Holocaust denier and an anti-Semite. And he's got a history of extremism a mile long.

"What we are seeing is an effort by minority groups, including in this case radical Muslims, to shut down criticism and that's what it is," Fromm, who habitually mocks Muslims, once calling a Muslim woman "a hag in a bag" while participating in a conference put on by former Klansman David Duke, told FOX about the Steyn investigations. At a 2007 meeting of racists and Holocaust deniers in Atlanta, Fromm pulled the Muslim hate card again, labeling Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama "a crypto-Moslem of mixed parentage."

Fromm's been a source to news reporters before -- but not the type who most American news operations would want to brag about. In 2005, Fromm told the Iranian Mehr News Agency that Hollywood is "controlled by Zionists," discussed "the story of the 'Holocaust' [that] has allowed the Jews to acquire many billions of dollars," and described the Nazi genocide as "a religion created by the Jews for non-Jews."

Fromm, whose Canadian teaching certificate was yanked in 2007 because of his racist views and activities, is a stalwart of the American white supremacist and anti-Semitic scene. He has attended dozens of white supremacist events, including one held to mark the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's death.

Besides running his own extremist group in Canada -- the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee -- Fromm is a national director of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that believes in "racial integrity" and views blacks as a "retrograde species of humanity." Fromm is also a signatory to a 2004 hate group protocol calling for an alliance between various racist and anti-Semitic groups, including David Duke's European-American Unity and Rights Organization and the neo-Nazi National Alliance.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/94903...ch_activist%27/

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

No surprise really that Fox panders to simplistic interpretations.

As to this guy - he has a right to free speech, so long as he isn't inciting riots or other criminal behaviour. At the least though people like that simply shouldn't get any sort of media exposure to give credence to their wacky ideas.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Well, of course. Who do you think constitutes FNC's core audience? Angry, disaffected and scared white people.

FNC found an audience and they are catering to it.

The question must be asked, though, as we are rapidly approaching the time when white people will be a minority in America - why does this audience exist?

What can be done to shrink it?

The answer is outreach, not even more demonization.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well, of course. Who do you think constitutes FNC's core audience? Angry, disaffected and scared white people.

FNC found an audience and they are catering to it.

The question must be asked, though, as we are rapidly approaching the time when white people will be a minority in America - why does this audience exist?

What can be done to shrink it?

The answer is outreach, not even more demonization.

Dare I say it... but that audience exists for more or less the same reason that the people described in the article do; and why there's apparently a niche market for things "Conservative Coffee Shops" and "Freedom Fries".

I agree that some sort of outreach is needed - but how is this possible when the media climate basically panders to peoples insecurities and massages inflamed egos?

Perhaps the answer is in education - but given that many of these people are derisive of the educational establishment as a "liberal institution", I think there's a long way to go.

Edited August 15, 2008 by Number 6

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Ironic that Fox wasn't around during Jim Keegstra's trials--all of which Keegstra lost (Keegstra is basically an Eckville, AB clone of Fromm).

[IAMX 3,055]

This is what they mean when they say FOX news is "fair and balanced". If you're white and scared shitless of people with brown skin taking over the country, gays getting married, and your guns being taken away (likely to shoot gays and brown people) it's fair and balanced.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I always laugh at that slogan. They have to tell you what they think they are.

[alienlovechild 75]

Can any of you Fox News haters think through a single issue? Look, the issue is on Canadian hate speech laws not on the wisdom on interviewing some extremist. Of course the best test of how far the Canadian hate speech can go would be to interview a guy with some extreme views, duh.

None of you picked up on this Fromm guy who hates Muslims being interviewed by Iranian Mehr News Agency. Instead we get the usual Fox is evil and it's the only place you can find media bias.

Well, of course. Who do you think constitutes FNC's core audience? Angry, disaffected and scared white people.

FNC found an audience and they are catering to it.

The question must be asked, though, as we are rapidly approaching the time when white people will be a minority in America - why does this audience exist?

What can be done to shrink it?

The answer is outreach, not even more demonization.

Talk about demonization! You need an education yourself. It's an uphill challenge but I'll give it a shot. First, read the rationale in my first paragraph. Second, your "core" argument patently false because the Fox has a consistently higher rating share for cable news; therefore, it attracts a broader audience than say left-wing MSNBC. It doesn't seem to bother you other media outlets have a bias but don't we all have a bias? Third, your racial fixation is pretty narrow-minded in assuming all minority groups are aligned against whites and vice versa. Obama candidacy is proof-positive that the race baiters like yourself have been wrong for years about how America hates minorities so much that there can be no accomodation. Fourth, your "final solution" to "shrink" an emerging white minority or their access to the media is about as intolerant as it gets.

If you're white and scared shitless of people with brown skin taking over the country, gays getting married, and your guns being taken away (likely to shoot gays and brown people) it's fair and balanced.

Luckily on this forum it doesn't take long to find another fool to be made an example of. This country has a huge number of guns in the hands of the public and is also the most diverse and rapidly changing demographic in history. There should a obvious trend of increasing violence of among ethnic groups but there isn't. If media outlets like Fox are so powerful and preaching hate, why aren't the streets filled with dead bodies from ethnic cleansing?

Here's your education- read the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. More unfettered media is the way to go. Open debate should be encouraged to counter arguments and not "reducation camps", censorship and "shrinking" minorities what seem to have no reason to exist.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

zomg white people watching fox news!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Fox is one example of corporatised media in this country (which given a recent FCC decision basically permits these companies to buy up public airwaves at the expense of independent radio, and local newspapers at the expense of independent news publications). Criticising Fox (as a particularly infamous example of this) doesn't automatically mean that all other networks and news outlets are fantastic.

I certainly don't think so.

Like any publishing or marketing enterprise Fox certainly does cater towards an idealised demographic (age, race, occupation, class etc).

[IAMX 3,055]

Luckily on this forum it doesn't take long to find another fool to be made an example of. This country has a huge number of guns in the hands of the public and is also the most diverse and rapidly changing demographic in history. There should a obvious trend of increasing violence of among ethnic groups but there isn't. If media outlets like Fox are so powerful and preaching hate, why aren't the streets filled with dead bodies from ethnic cleansing?

Here's your education- read the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. More unfettered media is the way to go. Open debate should be encouraged to counter arguments and not "reducation camps", censorship and "shrinking" minorities what seem to have no reason to exist.

Evidently the Federalist papers never taught you a sense of humor.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Incidentally our media is already *fettered* by all kinds of constraints - whether it be from editorial guidelines, government influence, corporate higher ups, advertisers or what have you.

All of these things are pressures which influence what information the public is to be given, and how professional journalists perform their jobs.

Its criminal for instance, that the only tough-talking newsmen are people like Bill O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs. But even there noone is interested in asking really tough questions of elected officials as much as pandering to juvenile outrage and fixating on irrelevancies.

[Heracles 417]

At the end of the day it is impossible to report the news without some sort of bias. No mater what, one side will have a different view to the other. Fox news talks about issues that conservatives are interested in. They don't care about freeing whales or hugging trees, as their viewers do not. There is nothing wrong with that.

[Peikko 1,575]

What is with the tree hugging hate? Perhaps you've never met a cute and coy sequoia? Of course, some of them are a little wide in the girth for a really good hug, but you gotta love that bark!

Tell me, is there any radio network that gives a rundown on the days events in Washington? I used to like listening to 'Today in Parliament' - listening to the goverment in action somewhat puts the lie to how much they are doing it to be self serving and the 'in committe' segments were sometimes really fascinating too.

Anyway, just wondered if such a thing exists.

[IAMX 3,055]

What is with the tree hugging hate? Perhaps you've never met a cute and coy sequoia? Of course, some of them are a little wide in the girth for a really good hug, but you gotta love that bark!

Nothing beats getting sappy with a sequoia.