Appearing as a guest on Sunday's AM Joy, Washington Post columnist and phony conservative Jennifer Rubin accused FNC host Laura Ingraham and Fox News generally -- which she called a "racist outfit" -- of using "racist innuendo" as she called for advertisers to pull from the right-leaning news network. Her comments came as the group discussed Ingraham's recent criticism of NBA player LeBron James for attacking President Donald Trump.
Host Joy Reid already read from a statement by Ingraham and showed video of the FNC host refuting accusations of racism by recalling her book Shut Up and Sing and her history of calling out other celebrities who are not black -- the book's most prominent target was the all-white Dixie Chicks, and the country band made a documentary with the same name in response. But Rubin nevertheless cried racism:
The implication not simply of her tagline but all of the slurs on his intelligence and his education, she never makes those comments about white celebrities and white athletes. She specifically took him on over his intellect, and that is the most racist slur that a black man is somehow stupid or less educated than a white man.
She then continued: "Fox is in the business of essentially re-running the same story over and over again: An illegal alien did something bad, and we should throw them all out and build a wall. That's their kind of narrative -- that's their go-to narrative."
Rubin soon added: "It is this nonstop pattern of racist innuendo, and of course the big one: Where did the whole birther movement really get its wings -- its lift? It was Fox."
The left-leaning columnist and MSNBC contributor who still claims to be conservative then pushed for a boycott of Fox News by advertisers:
So I think it's time for the shareholders for the advertisers on Fox to take a good look and to say, "Do we want our companies -- do we want our companies -- do we want our money to be associated with not only a racist outfit, but one which is really destroying civil dialogue in a democracy?" And I think people have to begin to withdraw themselves -- withdraw their money -- withdraw their support -- withdraw their product endorsements because this is a noxious stain on American society.
And, regarding Rubin's claim that the birther movement "got its wings" on Fox News, it has been previously documented by NewsBusters that even the more conservative hosts on FNC either made known they belief President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. while some even ridiculed those who believed otherwise.
Additionally, polling suggests public skepticism about whether President Obama was born in the U.S. steadily built from a relative low in July 2009 to August 2010 to a peak in February 2011 during a time when the subject was seldomly mentioned on FNC -- and when it was, it was treated negatively. Trump, probably picking up on the polling, began pushing the issue in March, leading to greater coverage of the issue on CNN, FNC and MSNBC, with several prominent FNC hosts like Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren continuing to dispute the birther conspiracy theory.
By May, after President Obama responded by releasing his full birth certificate, the public skepticism about his birth then plummeted. So Rubin's attempt to blame the ascent of birtherism on Fox News was just another liberal fantasy that could simply be believed without bothering to corroborate it.
