In January Fox Nation, a conservative blog hosted by Fox News, thought it was a perfectly fine idea to publish a highlight reel of people driving through protesters with their cars. Months later, after a white nationalist rammed his car into a protest in Charlottesville, VA, Fox Nation deleted the story — perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea after all.
The nauseating video was originally posted by another conservative canker sore, The Daily Caller, and Fox Nation picked it up. Set to an equally as offensive acoustic version of Ludacris’ “Move Bitch,” the video showed a minute and a half of several different cars driving through demonstrators. It was called: “Here’s A Reel Of Cars Plowing Through Protesters Trying To Block The Road.”
Do you feel sick to your stomach? I do. And it only gets more stomach-churning. Mike Raust, The Daily Caller video editor who compiled the footage, described his atrocious “plowing through protesters” porn as a good “technique” for future anti-Trump protests.
“Here’s a compilation of liberal protesters getting pushed out of the way by cars and trucks,” Raust said. “Study the technique; it may prove useful in the next four years.”
Fox News editor-in-chief Noah Kotch told CNN Money that the video was “inappropriate” and that they “regret posting it in January.” So, a woman had to die before both Fox News and The Daily Caller realized maybe they shouldn’t be posting how-to manuals for would-be domestic terrorists?
This is not to say I’m surprised by either website’s decision to publish a violent video like this in the first place; they have no moral barometer. Several southern states have introduced laws that would protect drivers who run into protesters — North Carolina, it seems, has backed off debating one such bill following the attack in Charlottesville.
However, I’m surprised that Fox News and The Daily Caller could be so willfully naive to think that not a single person would heed their advice and “study the technique.” Sure, James Alex Fields Jr., the man who allegedly murdered Heather Heyer on Saturday, may have never watched the glory reel. But if “plowing through protesters” isn’t a encouragement of violence, I’m not sure what is.