In Context Of AZ Shooting, Fox Embraces Obama's Call Against “Jumping To Conclusions”

Special Report: Obama “Move[d] Swiftly To Rein In Speculation” About Ft. Hood, But Hasn't Sounded “Similar Alarms” About Tucson Shooter. From the January 10 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier:

JAMES ROSEN (Fox News correspondent): A gunman opened fire, 13 innocents were dead, another 30 wounded. The scene, of course, was Fort Hood, where the alleged gunman turned out to be a Muslim, a fact that prompted leading liberals, from the president on down, to move swiftly to rein in speculation.

OBAMA [video clip]: We don't know all the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.

ROSEN: But after the Tucson massacre, in which the alleged gunman turned out to be a disturbed young man with vaguely anti-federalist ideas, neither President Obama nor any other liberals sounded similar alarms. Quite the contrary, and starting with the sheriff on the case, a Democrat who instantly blamed, quote-unquote, “vitriol” from the right as a prime cause.

[...]

JUAN WILLIAMS (Fox News contributor): What you're seeing here is, I think, a double standard on the part of the left, that you'll say that when it comes to the Fort Hood shooter, oh, don't leap to any conclusions about the fact that he's a Muslim and that he has ties to people who have been advocating terrorist violent activity. But yes, when it comes to Loughner, look for any scintilla of evidence that would links him to right wing rhetoric. [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 1/10/11]

Hannity: After Ft. Hood, Obama Told Us Not To Jump To Conclusions, But With Tucson Shooting, The Left “Raced To Politicize This.” From the January 10 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

DICK MORRIS (Fox News contributor): There was a very interesting point made -- I think it was by Dan Greenberg, the blogger. He said whenever there is a Muslim who kills somebody, there is an effort by the news media to characterize him as mentally unstable, deranged, bad childhood, blah, blah, blah, and to give causes other than Islamic terrorism for the act of terror. And whenever there's a non-Muslim doing the attack, the exact opposite takes place.

There's a focus on trying to see him as a creature of the conservative movement -- and it's just ridiculous. You go back to Lee Harvey Oswald and the guy who shot Reagan. These people are not motivated by ideology. They're crazy. They're nuts. And to attribute political motivation to it is ridiculous and really hypocritical.

SEAN HANNITY (host): You know, Dick, you're right, because, if anything, after the Fort Hood shooting, the media, the president, and everybody else on the left was lecturing everybody: Don't jump to conclusions. Now, I watched this whole thing unfold. I was watching the Fox News Channel all weekend, and as I -- I did flip over a couple of times to other media outlets. Within seconds, within hours, people are still fighting for their lives, you know, they raced to politicize this. [Fox News, Hannity, 1/10/11]

At Time Of Ft. Hood Shooting, Fox Attacked Obama and Muslims And Pushed For Profiling

Fox's Kilmeade Suggested That “It's Time For The Military To Have Special Debriefings” Of U.S. Soldiers Who Are Muslim. The day after the shooting, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade asked: “Do you think it's time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim Army civili-- officers, anybody enlisted?” He added: “Because if I'm going to be deployed in a foxhole, if I'm going to be sitting in an outpost, I've got to know that the guy next to me is not going to want to kill me.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/6/09]

Fox's Carlson: “Could It Be That Our Military Is So Politically Correct ... To Be Careful About Treatment Of Muslims” That This Happened? Also on the day after the shooting, Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson asked: "[ Police] Commissioner Kelly here in New York City told us he's thwarted nine terrorist plots in New York City alone since 9-11. And here you have one of our own, a member of our own military, who by all accounts gave out tremendous red flags over the last six months. Could it be that our own military is so politically correct right now -- and I'm not denigrating them right now. I'm just saying -- so politically correct to be careful about treatment of Muslims that they would have allowed this to go by?" [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/6/10]

Hannity Concocts Theory To Blame Obama For Fort Hood Shooting. On November 9, 2009, Fox News host Sean Hannity speculated that “there is a chance our government knew all about” alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan “and did nothing because nobody wanted to be called an Islamophobe,” and asked, “What does it say about Barack Obama and our government?” But there is no evidence that Obama was aware of the emails between Hasan and an imam with alleged ties to Al Qaeda; moreover, Hannity did not address what the incident says about President Bush, who was in office when the authorities reportedly first intercepted the emails. [Fox News, Hannity, 11/9/09]

Fox News Contributor Peters On Fort Hood Shooting: “It's Clear That The Problem Is Islam.” Five days after the Fort Hood shooting, Fox News contributor Col. Ralph Peters (ret.) criticized Obama for saying the Fort Hood shooting was “incomprehensible.” Peters said: “No, it wasn't hard to comprehend and it's not now. It was the act of an Islamist terrorist” who “believed he was doing the will of Allah in accordance with the Quran. Not hard to understand -- the evidence is there.” Peters concluded: “It's clear that the problem is Islam.” [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 11/10/09]

Criticizing Statement That We Should “Not Rush To Judgment,” Peters Said Fort Hood Shooter Was A “Protected Species.” Peters also said that the Fort Hood Shooting has shown that “we've been a lot too politically correct.” He later said: “If this nut case, this Mike Foxtrot in Army terms, had been a white supremacist, he would have been gone long ago as he should have been. But because he was a protected species, a sort of one-off Muslim psychiatrst officer, he got a pass again and again.” Peters also said: “We're told not to rush to judgment. That, well it might really have nothing to do with Islam. It's not really terrorism. Give me a break.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 11/9/09]