Fox News responded on Sunday, about 24 hours after Ms. Pirro’s show was aired. “We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Representative Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” the network said in a statement.
Ms. Pirro, whose fiery monologues have helped her show’s ratings, sounded less contrite. “I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Representative Omar un-American,” she wrote in a separate statement. “My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution.” Ms. Omar caused an uproar in Washington recently after making remarks in Congress that were attacked as anti-Semitic, leading the House to pass a resolution last week condemning intolerance.
Fox News has long grappled with fallout from incendiary remarks by its commentators — in 2017, Ms. Pirro was criticized for saying that prosecutors investigating Mr. Trump “need to be taken out in cuffs.” Another host, Laura Ingraham, lost advertisers after she mocked students who survived the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, and after she referred to American facilities holding immigrant children as “essentially summer camps.”
Still, the network has faced unusually sharp scrutiny over the past week, starting with an article in The New Yorker that chronicled the close-knit relationship between Mr. Trump’s inner circle and Fox News personnel. One network alumnus in the White House, the deputy chief of staff Bill Shine, resigned from his position on Friday after a brief, bumpy tenure.
Late Sunday, another Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, came under fire for remarks about women and underage marriage that he made about a decade ago on a shock-jock radio program. His comments were exhumed by Media Matters for America, a left-wing advocacy group that closely follows Fox News.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/business/media/jeanine-pirro-ilhan-omar.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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