Fox’ & Limbaugh’s Epic Journalism Fail: Muslim Women, Zucchini and Sexual Thoughts
RUSH [LIMBAUGH]: ‘An Islamic cleric living in Europe reportedly has warned Muslim women not to get too close to bananas, cucumbers or other produce — to avoid having ‘sexual thoughts.’ The unnamed cleric, whose directive was featured in an article in el-Senousa, a religious publication, purportedly said that if women wanted to eat these foods, a third party — preferably a male related to them, such as their father or husband — should cut the items into small pieces before serving.’ This is on an Egyptian website, Bikya Masr, reported by Fox News.”
Leave it to that bastion of “yellow journalism,” Fox “News” to plow forward with an absolutely unsourced article simply to further its anti-Muslim sentiments; and leave it to Rush Limbaugh and the conservative website, the Daily Caller, to further push this story into the blogosphere, without verification, in yet another attempt to hype hysteria over Sharia law and foster hatred of Muslims, who are, in his and Fox’ opinion, simply killing machines walking American streets and pretending to be, you know, one of us, while waiting for the opportunity to strap on a bomb and blow up Times Square.
Thing is, this article is hogwash – and the original publisher has admitted it. Haven’t seen Fox publish that.
The website that first reported the story, Bikyamasr, has since recognized the anti-Muslim sentiment it has potentially sired, and has acknowledged that the story was without credible sources. The editor, to his credit, published an editorial apologizing for the sloppy journalism that led to a firestorm of hatred against Muslims. Wrote editor Joseph Mayton, in part: ” . . . we are concerned over the manner of both our reporting on this issue and the way our article was used by a number of global organizations to promote their own partisan agendas . . . Furthermore, I originally and mistakenly quoted Assawsana.com as ‘El-Senousa.com,’ only furthering the confusion and mistakes involved in this report.”
Fox and Rush should take a page out of this young editor’s book.
For reference, here’s the original article (translated from Arabic), written by someone named only “Iris”:
Good grief. For all we know, this article is the Arabic version of The Onion - and the quoted “cleric” is Egypt’s version of Wanda Sykes.
One random article on a random website, and Fox and Rush pick it up and promote it – entirely without verification. In fact, Fox Newsacknowledged in its article that it was unverified – but ran with it anyway, writing, “Questions also arose about the validity of the original published interview. An online search for the el-Senousa article, for instance, yields only results linking to the Bikya Masr report. But the mere suggestion of a strict order for Muslim women handling food has been enough to send people to website forums and Twitter to air their indignation.” (Emphasis added).
Well, I heard from a friend who heard from her brother-in-law who heard from a news stand attendant in New York who heard from a cab driver in Jersey who heard from a Wall Street banker that Fox News conducts mandatory orgies in the basement, led by Roger Ailes and starring Sean Hannity.
The blonde anchors and pundits are required to wear French maid outfits, and whip-carrying brunette newscasters are decked out in black leather; Hannity wears a Tarzan outfit. Instead of porn flicks to heighten the mood, the orgy attendees watch Republican debates.
Unsourced? Sure. Completely untrue? Maybe. And yet, the “mere suggestion” . . . .
Julie Driscoll
Politics Anonymous
About Julie Driscoll
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