Fox News took a beating after tweeting a photo appearing to show Obama “in Muslim garb.”
“Photo of Obama in Muslim garb shows deep ties to faith, O’Reilly says,” the news network tweeted on Thursday night, attaching a photo of Obama at his half-brother’s Maryland wedding in the 1990’s.
Photo of Obama in Muslim garb shows deep ties to faith, O'Reilly says https://t.co/D2p966cpZW pic.twitter.com/0PGnNxWwwJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 8, 2016
Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly released the photos on his show, The O’Reilly Factor, on Wednesday. O’Reilly claimed that the images are evidence that Obama has “deep emotional ties” to Islam. O’Reilly suggested that these ties are why Obama “allows” Daesh (aka ISIS or Islamic State) to “run wild” and “murder thousands of innocent people.”
Twitter users around the world immediately pounced on Fox for being racist:
@FoxNews Wow #foxNews you're some REAL FUCKED UP #RACIST #ASSHOLES
— Dr. Kay D (@KDiddle75) July 8, 2016
Others rebuked the network for inaccuracy, claiming that the robe Obama is wearing in the photo is a traditional Kenyan garment more than it is a Muslim one:
@RenaSummersLtd @FoxNews thats Kenyan garb. How is that disgusting? He was at a family members wedding> Weird
— NIX (@NIX1331_) July 8, 2016
His father is from Kenya. This is the traditional costume of the country of his father's heritage. You bigot idiots. https://t.co/kS14r94aGC
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) July 8, 2016
I want to know what Katie Perry has to say about her disturbingly deep ties to Cheetos. pic.twitter.com/XNVa2desyD
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) July 8, 2016
I mean,if it came down to it, who would she side with? The FritoLay corp or the US Constitution? This photo should have all of us wondering.
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) July 8, 2016
Others attacked Fox for choosing to focus on something the president wore twenty years ago, when the nation is still reeling from a historic massacre of police officers in Dallas:
@FoxNews bad timing for this tweet. Dicipline or fire whoever okayed this.
— Fawks News (@JosephPruitt) July 8, 2016
@FoxNews I mean if you're going to say bad protocol for Obama to be out golfing during important stuff isn't it bad taste to report this now
— Fawks News (@JosephPruitt) July 8, 2016
Fox News may have more important matters to deal with right now. The company’s chairman, Roger Ailes, was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that he sexually harassed a top news anchor and forced her to leave the company in part because she refused his sexual advances.
-Hunter Stuart
