Fox News And Beheadings, Then And Now — How The Network Reacted in 2004 And 2014

Fox News has changed a lot in 10 years. Or has it? The videotaped ISIS beheadings of United States journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff in the past few weeks provoked strong reactions from commentators on the conservative cable news channel, who were quick to place the blame for the grisly killings on President Barack Obama and his foreign policy decisions — as they are likely to do in regards to the latest beheading, of British aid worker David Haines.

But 10 years ago, when Islamic fanatics beheaded two Americans, Nick Berg and Paul Johnson, Fox News had a very different reaction. Instead, in 2004 when the horrifying images of the beheaded corpses of Berg and Johnson were broadcast around the world, Fox News commentators were careful to deflect blame away from the then-president George W. Bush.

Fox News instead called for national unity and an end to partisan bickering over who was to blame for the beheadings.

The media-monitoring site Media Matters did a recent study of the astonishing disparity in Fox News reactions to the 2004 and 2014 videotaped beheadings of Americans by psychopathic Islamic extremists.

For example, here is Fox News mainstay Bill O’Reilly in 2004:

“We’ve got to stop with the partisan garbage, because that’s what it is, and we’ve got to stop with the selfishness and understand that this is a war. This is something we have never faced before. And stop the grand standing. And the politicians who exploit this for partisan benefit on both sides have got to be voted out of office. We have got to unite.”

And O’Reilly responding to the 2014 beheadings:

“It is doubtful that Barack Obama realizes the danger this country is facing. In this age of high-tech distraction, it takes a lot to wise up many of us. But most Americans now understand that President Obama’s world vision is failing. It is up to him to turn that around.”

Sean Hannity in 2004:

“The shrillness of the rhetoric, a vice president of the United States screaming that — Al Gore screaming Bush betrayed America….It’s time that we now unite a country, using this as the latest example that we have been warned. They want to kill us all.”

But Hannity in 2014 actually said that Bush’s nemesis Al Qaeda was somehow less “evil” that the ISIS group that now faces Obama, though it was Al Qaeda who attacked the territorial United States on September 11, 2001, while ISIS attacks on U.S. soil have existed only in the imaginations of local sheriffs and conservative pundits.

“If you can say there’s a more evil group than al Qaeda, this is it. I’m watching the president, he’s on vacation, paid very little attention, gave very little support to our allies in Israel. It seems like he just doesn’t want to come to grips with how brutal this push is for this Islamic Caliphate.”

It also seems doubtful that the family and friends of Berg and Johnson would consider their beheadings to involve a lesser degree of evil than the beheadings of Foley and Sotloff.

Numerous other Fox News commentators have also blamed the 2014 beheadings squarely on Obama, such as K.T. McFarland who said that Obama “stuck his head in the sand, and now we’ve seen two Americans have lost their heads.”

To be fair, in 2004, at least one Fox News commenter, former Lt. Col. Oliver North, did engage in “partisan garbage.” North blamed the beheadings of Berg and Johnson on Democrats, including Senator Ted Kennedy, who North said had “blood on their hands.” But North did not place any responsibility on the Republican president.

What do you think accounts for the difference in how Fox News reacted to beheadings 10 years ago, and today?