Media Matters for America

Fox News hosts allowed Frist, Mehlman to distort Kerry's words

In recent days, Fox News hosts have failed to challenge prominent Republicans who have distorted comments made by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on the December 4 broadcast of CBS' Face the Nation. On that show, Kerry said: "[T]here is no reason ... that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the -- of -- the historical customs, religious customs."

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O'Reilly said ACLU "certainly is aiding and abetting the enemy"; Gingrich joined in smearing group

On the December 8 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly again attacked the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), calling the organization "grossly irresponsible" and accusing it of "going out of its way to help Al Qaeda" and "aiding and abetting the enemy." Media Matters for America has documented several of O'Reilly's previous attacks on the ACLU (here, here, here, here, here, and here). When O'Reilly asked Fox News contributor and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) if he agreed with his characterization of the ACLU, Gingrich replied, "Yes," and asserted that "the ACLU has been taken over by a group of people whose vision of America is so weird and so contrary to the overwhelming values of over 95 percent of the American people." Gingrich added, "[I]t's almost as though they were into destruction for its own sake and weakening and undermining America for its own sake." He also labeled the ACLU "a consistently destructive organization that is opposed to and undermines the values of most Americans, and takes positions that are consistently weakening the security of the United States."


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