Fox News plans to issue a correction on Saturday’s edition of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” after a guest was found to have made wildly inaccurate claims about the Muslim population in the UK, according to the Washington Post.
Self-styled terror expert Steve Emerson on Saturday told host Jeanine Pirro that the British city of Birmingham was one of several cities that is “totally Muslim” where “non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.”
Fox News plans to air the correction on Pirro’s show, a spokesperson told the Washington Posts’ Erik Wemple. The spokesperson added it is “highly unlikely” that Emerson will “ever be booked again.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron said this week he “choked on his porridge” when he heard the sound bite. “This guy is clearly a complete idiot,” he told ITV News.
After much criticism, Emerson himself apologized for the remark, calling it an “inexcusable error,” adding that he would donate to a children’s hospital in “the beautiful city of Birmingham.”
There is no word on whether Pirro will issue a correction for her own mistaken claim during that episode calling Pakistan an “Arab country.”
It’s only because they were ridiculed because of it.
And how. I tossed this to a conservative relative and she lost it.
I looked this guy up and he’s had a fairly serious, even creditable career in journalism, but it looks like he decided it was more lucrative to be a fear monger. It’s completely implausible that a large British city would be 100 percent Muslim, or that Islamic police are beating people in the streets of London, and he certainly, certainly knew it. This wasn’t a “mistake.” It was entertainment in the form of ludicrous scary nonsense that would be laughable if it didn’t have real-world consequences like unnecessary wars and all that fun stuff. So if he ends up living on the street, too bad.
This “expert” has testified before Congress and has consulted police departments. Scary.
It sure is. We live in a world bristling with arms and peopled by a species with no particular commitment to acting rationally or basing those actions on solid information. We would do well to be less that way. So as my friend Captain Commonsense says, fuck this guy. : )