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Father Orthoduck urges you to watch to at least the three minute mark in this video. But, please really do watch the entire video. You see, Fox News has been trying to demonize the iman who is trying to build a mosque near Ground Zero. The main technique of demonization has been to connect the iman in any way possible to people who purportedly fund terrorists. But, Fox News has conveniently stopped mentioning the name of one of the largest funders of the possible mosque. Why? Well, because he is the second largest shareholder of the holding company behind Fox News. This shareholder is Saudi Arabian, a prince of the royal family, and supposedly part of the group who are responsible for financing some of the jihadists. By the way, who is the largest shareholder? Why Rupert Murdoch himself, of course.
Thus, using the type of argumentation that Fox News was using–until they were partly silenced that is–Fox News itself is a seriously questionable organization because of its link to a “person of interest.” In fact, following the same argumentative pattern that Fox News has used, Fox News itself is probably a terrorist supporting organization.
[Edit: Father Orthoduck received a request that he be a little more specific on the funder. In June of 2010, earlier this year, Glenn Beck blamed Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al-Saud for the attacks on September 11th. However, that same prince is the second largest shareholder in News Corp which is the holding organization that Murdoch uses to manage several of his outlets including Fox News. His relative Crown Prince Sultan Al-Faisal is the owner of Aljazeera Publishing, which is headquartered in Dubai, UAB.
Therefore, using the reasoning of Fox News and much of the ultra-right-wing in the USA, there is a very clear guilt by association. Father Orthoduck might even opine that Fox News must be being used by terrorists to destabilize the USA by feeding us unfair and unbalanced news reports in order to keep reliable leaders from being elected or re-elected. In this way the economy of the USA can be undermined and the resistance of the people can be weakened, leading to a possible weakening of our basic civil rights, such as being immune from being searched or stopped without a reasonable cause, or from having our citizenship denied even if we were born here. Yes, yes, to follow in Glen Beck’s footsteps, it all fits. Father Orthoduck can now see the pattern of conspiracy and evil manipulation by the Saudis in order to turn us into what they will! Father Orthoduck hopes you realize that Father Orthoduck is being quite sarcastic here?]
This whole video is better when Wyatt and John Oliver sit in and each proves that Fox News is either Evil or Stupid. (If we are taking a vote, I am raising my hand when someone asks for the “both” option.) What most people haven’t thought about is that there is a reason why Murdoch has been good to G.W. and the whole Iraq war thing is that they all are making money off of OIL. Somehow that seems to keep escaping most people. And when I found out that Newscorp, A.K.A. Rupert Murdoch owned Al Jazeera English, I realized that Fox and Al Jazeera have the same agenda and now we know why. Because it is funded by the same evil Arab royal as Al Jazeera, he owns it and so what people are hearing on Fox News is the agenda from the Arab bad guys. That is who actually attacked us on nine eleven. I figured that out LONG ago and that is why I am not surprised at all by this. Scenario, war in Iraq causes Iran to give up oil, Arabia buys up holdings cheap, sells the oil to us, the Bush Family, the Cheneys, the Rumsfelds, are all making money while this continues. We can’t afford to stay in foreign wars from now on but the rich are profitting from them so they want to. At Our Expense.
Father Orthoduck would like to make a small correction here, and it will get a little complicated. The owner of Aljazeera Publishing is Crown Prince Sultan Al-Faisal, who is a relative of the Saudi prince who is the second largest shareholder of News Corp, the Rupert Murdoch holding company.
Al Jazeera TV is a completely different entity than Aljazeera Publishing. The two entities do not like each other and have even filed against each other in several venues. Al Jazeera TV is owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al-Thani who is a cousin of the Emir of Qatar. So, basically Aljazeera Publishing is owned by a member of the Saudi royal family while Al Jazeera TV is owned by a relative of the Qatari royal family.
Ruport Murdoch’s News Corp does NOT own either Aljazeera Publishing or Al Jazeera TV. But, remember that one of the relatives of the owner of Aljazeera Publishing is the second largest shareholder in Murdoch’s news empire. And that relative is the one that has been accused by Glenn Beck of Fox News of being involved in the planning of 9/11.
Well done, Father Orthoduck! It’s lovely to see the guilt-by-association-however-far-we-can-stretch-it tactic that Fox News uses to attack anyone it doesn’t like used against them. Good for you for pointing out their considerable sins of omission. Funny how much failing to mention their own ties to “terrorists” makes them look like hypocrites.
“the guilt-by-association-however-far-we-can-stretch-it tactic”
Just keep in mind that some on both sides are guilty of this.
Even without knowing the details, and whether it is by design or coincidence, it seems obvious to me that all this fear mongering is only serving to strengthen the hand of the likes of Bin Laden who want to identify Islam with their own agenda. In the words of David Goa that I recently quoted on my blog: “Osama Bin Laden comes a little closer to winning his war for the definition of Islam each time others voice his position and give young Muslim men – and increasingly women – something to die for amidst the complexities of our fragile world. When the religious right and secular left engage in such reductionism of the faith of Islam, they contribute to Bin Laden’s cause.”
I am not going to defend Fox News, since they should come clean on their apparent/potential conflict of interest.
However, questions still remain about what the Imam actually believes, and how “moderate” he is. He may be, but some of his statements can make one pause and wonder.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2121/rauf-lecture-reveals-radicalism
But you see, that is precisely why people at both ends loathe moderates. The statements of virtually any moderate will give pause to all people some of the time and some people all of the time. By definition, a moderate has a different angle on the data than people at either end, who actually have the same angle but differ on who the guilty party is. Also, please remember that the modern American political machine uses sound bytes consistently taken out of context. Everything is done to clip quotes in such a way that they are made to sound in the worst possible way.
Finally, just because someone disagrees with the current politically acceptable opinion in the USA does not mean that one is a terrorist. Let me give you a clear example. If one in any way implies that anything that the USA may have done since 1948 might have possibly made people in the Middle East angry with us so that they might feel like hurting us, then immediately that person is labeled a radical and everyone goes off in fits of vapors about how we are not responsible for 9/11. The only currently acceptable political position in the USA is that we were attacked because we are such a beacon of freedom and a supporter of human rights. No position which even implies that there is any other reason for our being disliked in any of several parts of the world is allowable. But, that is not a position, that is a slogan.
However, as a result of the enforced belief in that slogan, let me point out that any person who expresses any variant position, even if it is a carefully considered and carefully phrased position will immediately be labeled a radical. That is what is happening to the imam. He does not hold the position that we were attacked only because we are a beacon of freedom and a supporter of human rights. He holds a more complex and nuanced position. In the USA that makes him a radical. We do not want nuanced; we want you to should our slogan and only our slogan.