One of the most amazing aspects of the terrorism war and recent attack in London was the absolute lack of class shown by some people in the news and news personality biz — and the winner/loser in this category definitely is Fox News’ John Gibson.
Callous and downright dumb statements were made even before all the body parts were picked off the streets in London by some people on the right and left who seemingly could not wait before politicizing the terrorist attack. The Guardian details some of Fox News’:
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel was under fire yesterday for comments by some of its leading journalists in response to the London bombs.
Speaking about the reaction of the financial markets, Brit Hume, the channel’s Washington managing editor, said: “Just on a personal basis … I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought ‘hmm, time to buy’.”
The host of a Fox News programme, Brian Kilmeade, said the attacks had the effect of putting terrorism back on the top of the G8’s agenda, in place of global warming and African aid. “I think that works to our advantage, in the western world’s advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.”
People on the right, left and in between can quibble about those and make the case that X was the real meaning and not Y or Z. But Gibson’s? His comments are so rank and unfeeling that we know we’re in a new television era because he has not been fired:
Another Fox News host, John Gibson, said before the blasts that the International Olympic Committee “missed a golden opportunity” by not awarding the 2012 games to France. “If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn’t worry about terrorism. They’d blow up Paris, and who cares?” He added: “This is why I thought the Brits should let the French have the Olympics – let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while.”
So let me get this straight:
If terrorists blew up Paris, incinerating innocent men, women and children who are NOT French policymakers, that should warm our hearts? If they assassinated French leaders who may differ with us on some policies but support us on others, we should open the (American made) champagne?
If kids who haven’t had a chance to live — which means they have not lived long enough to learn English so they could be enlightened by Mr. Gibson’s infinite wisdom and compassion — were dead in the streets because their school bus was bombed, and their brains, livers, and limbs scattered throughout the streets while their blood oozed into the gutters, Americans should celebrate?
If terrorists can murder people in a city in any democracy, spread terror, kllling many people who don’t know or EVEN CARE about politics or international diplomatic ranglings — we should feel it’s just wonderful because France has differed from us on policy matters?
Hopefully conservatives and Republicans won’t defend Gibson. In the era of terrorism, where people who are Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals and independents all face the same enemy, the one “given” is that we don’t applaud it ANYWHERE, we don’t ENCOURGAGE terrorist groups by saying we only wish it would happen in such and such city. We repudiate it.
Gibson won’t lose his job. And in this day and age his ratings will probably go up. But THIS viewer and reader has no desire to listen to him or to read him ever again because unless he apologizes for remarks as reprehensible and irresponsible as this he has zero credibility. And we suspect many folks who have an IQ of above 3 feel the same way.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.