It’s been just 24 hours since a homeless man lit the Christmas tree outside Fox News Headquarters in New York City on fire and everyone’s already sick of hearing about it. So sick in fact that a recent on-air guest absolutely lost it when the network’s host wouldn’t shut up about the blazing bush and how it somehow relates to the rampant crime causing chaos on American streets.
On a Thursday morning segment titled “America’s Crime Crisis,” host Harris Faulkner invoked the sage wisdom of one of New York’s top neighborhood watch volunteers, Meghan McCain. McCain famously tweeted updates on the “warzone” that the city had become thanks to protests happening earlier this year even though she was in her family’s estate in Virginia at the time.
Meghan, we live in the same building, and I just walked outside. It’s fine. https://t.co/ZvwNrjL6P7
— Kristen Bartlett (@kristencheeks) June 2, 2020
So really, it makes sense that Faulkner would turn to her for help stirring up fear and outrage amongst Fox News viewers, reading bits from McCain’s Daily Mail column in which she stated, “I really don’t think people want to live in a city where even the Christmas trees need bodyguards.”
“Where are we right now that Christmas gets under attack, the trees, everything?” Faulkner asked before welcoming her guest, Democratic strategist Richard Goodstein. “It is such a signal, Richard, if they’ll set that tree on fire imagine what they will do to human beings walking around? Well, we’re finding out. The stabbings are off the charts in New York.”
Unfortunately for Faulkner, Goodstein didn’t take the bait. Instead of playing into the “War on Christmas” rhetoric Fox News has been pushing the past few days, Goodstein called out the show’s host and her fellow anchors for devoting more airtime to a burnt tree than to more serious issues, like how the unvaccinated are hurting our chances of ever ending the current pandemic.
“If Fox would put as much energy into decrying the anti-vaxxers — we have 100,000 people dead and one tree destroyed — I think there is a lack of, kind of, symmetry there,” he said. “I think that’s where the energy should go.”
Faulkner clapped back, saying the network is committed to covering all sides of the debate but her argument felt a bit weak considering other Fox News personalities like Brian Kilmeade and Tucker Carlson continue to push vaccine misinformation despite most likely being vaccinated themselves.
Here’s hoping we’re all granted a Christmas miracle this year: that the Fox News All American Christmas tree is quickly rebuilt so we don’t have to hear about it ever again.
You can watch the full exchange below:
(Via Mediaite)