Fox host Harris Faulkner worked to validate a White House lie about antifa providing bricks to George Floyd protesters. When guest Jessica Tarlov factchecked the lie, Faulkner cut her off, saying, “I want someone else.”
Snopes did a deep dive into the right-wing meme that antifa engaged in some kind of coordinated effort to provide bricks to protesters. The site concluded there’s no evidence such a thing happened and that “in many cases ‘suspicious’ bricks depicted on social media were on streets for ongoing construction projects, not ‘planted for protesters.'”
But that didn’t stop pretend-neutral Faulkner from suggesting it’s a matter of debate. First up, conservative Gianno Caldwell said that just because some bricks have been shown not to have been placed by antifa, that’s no reason to abandon the accusation. “There is absolutely something going on,” he declared, without saying what it is. That’s part of why antifa should be designated a terror group, he added.
Faulkner murmured her approval. Then she turned to Tarlov, the lone liberal out of five, for her thoughts.
Tarlov was unequivocal about condemning the violence. She called it “incredibly damaging to the cause, obviously.” But she also did not want to “bucket that all in” as antifa which, she noted is “fundamentally a disorganized group and not associated with the left.”
Tarlov continued by talking about some of the devastation from looting she has seen in lower Manhattan. “I actually saw looters on the street in broad daylight carrying sacks of sneakers, just walking through my neighborhood. not a care in the world about the consequences of that. Those people should be prosecuted,” she said.
Harris interrupted to snark, “A sneaker probably won't kill you like a brick will, though.”
Tarlov tried to tell the truth to viewers.
That was just too much anti-Trump truth for Faulkner. Without citing a single fact Tarlov got wrong, Faulkner interrupted again. “All right, I want somebody that has an opposing view to what you just said. Jessica, pause for a second,” she commanded. Then she turned to conservative Emily Compagno.
Compagno clearly had no evidence against antifa. But she suggested they were to blame, anyway: “Given the level of viciousness and violence that we have seen in combination with these riots and looting, I think it would be a mistake at this point to rule out anything prematurely,” she said. “I think that the arguments over which extremist group has hijacked the cause, and who has placed what where, at this point to come to conclusions now to prevent resources from being deployed, to investigate the causes and the orchestrators behind it, i just think that would be a mistake.” She called for a “thorough and ongoing investigation into whoever is behind this.”
Like Caldwell, Faulkner murmured her approval as Compagno spoke, uninterrupted.
Ditto for Melissa Francis. She called it “really important” to find out “who was peacefully protesting and organizing, and who was waiting with things intentionally to hurt those who came to even protect the peaceful protesters and to keep those protests peaceful.”
Sure they want to know. Just so long as it turns out to be somebody they already hate.
