Fox News wants “restraint” after Charleston shooting. Jon Stewart is having none of it.
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on Monday called out Fox News on its hypocritical response to the mass shooting of a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The news network criticized President Barack Obama and others for “taking advantage” of the tragic shooting to advance a narrative regarding gun violence and gun control in the US. “It’s almost like a sickness — like, ‘Oh, tragedy happens. Let’s see how we can advance this narrative,’” Fox News anchor Sean Hannity said.
But Stewart pointed out that Fox News has done the exact same thing when it can take advantage of a tragedy to advance its own political purposes.
“Remind me this past December when two New York City cops were tragically killed during a time when people were protesting police shootings of unarmed black men. Talk to me about the restraint Fox used in not advancing the narrative.”
Stewart rolled numerous clips of Fox News hosts and guests discussing how there’s a “war on cops” in America, because people were protesting the police killings of Eric Garner in New York City and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Fox argued that this was feeding anti-police fervor that led to the shooting of two New York City cops back in December.
One of those commentators was Hannity. “Many are claiming that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio helped fan the flames of anti-police sentiment,” Hannity said. “The mayor, he did run a campaign that was pretty anti-cop in New York.”
Stewart quipped, “So you used no restraint.”
