Just days after Heather Heyer was murdered and over a dozen others were badly injured by an Alt-Right protester who ran his Dodge Charger into a group of counter-protesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Fox News Digital has deleted a post encouraging its readers to run over protesters with cars.
The post, which was originally published on conservative website The Daily Caller and then picked up by Fox Nation back in January, featured a minute-plus video of people plowing their cars through crowds of protesters. Its headline, “Here’s A Reel Of Cars Plowing Through Protesters Trying To Block The Road,” featured a country version of Ludacris’ “Move Bitch,” and the article’s author described the embedded video as “a compilation of liberal protesters getting pushed out of the way by cars and trucks” and encouraged readers to “study the technique; it may prove useful in the next four years.”
Fox News Digital spokesperson, Noah Kotch, apologized for the post and expressed regret that the media conglomerate ever published it to begin with.
This news comes as a shocking follow-up to the president’s most recent remarks about Charlottesville in which he not only failed to fully condemn the white nationalist hate organizations behind the vicious rally, but actually attempted to place blame on counter-protesters and what he calls the “Alt-Left.”
What about the alt left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? Let me ask you this, what about the fact they came charging, that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. As far as I’m concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day.
You had a group on one side that was bad. And you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that. But I’ll say it right now.
I think there’s blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it.
The fact that there is no “Alt-Left” notwithstanding, this is one of the most demonstrably horrific and nonsensical statements I have ever heard an American leader make, and at a time when the nation calls upon him — NEEDS HIM — to take a side, which is the one that denounces hatred. Period.
Not convinced? Just let the fact that former KKK grand wizard, David Duke, took to Twitter to praise the president’s statements sink in for a bit.
Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa https://t.co/tTESdV4LP0
— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) August 15, 2017
Yeah, when a grand wizard of bigotry and hatred publicly slaps you on the back for your statements, I’d say that’s a good indicator there aren’t “many sides.” Just two. And you’re on the wrong one.
And lest we forget the Fox News Digital post that may or may not have encouraged Saturday’s domestic terrorist to mow down groups of so-called “Alt-Left” protesters, let’s get one thing straight: When a media corporation as large as Fox News Digital has the gall to publish an essential call-to-action to bring bodily harm to others, and then a woman is actually struck and killed while others are severely injured when someone does just that, I don’t think an apology quite cuts it.
That’s culpability. And anyone who agreed with that post, circulated that post, or supports that message is equally as culpable, as is anyone who continues to defend the people and institutions from which those messages come or place blame on anyone but those who are a part of this nation’s hate groups and those responsible for emboldening them.
Including the president.
This post has been updated to include a screenshot of the now-deleted Fox Nation post, obtained from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.