Fox interviews anti-Muslim “protester” without identifying him as a regular “alt-right” Fox guest

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Fox’s Pete Hegseth interviewed a “protester” at an event organized by the anti-Muslim group ACT for America without disclosing that he was actually talking to Gavin McInnes, who has frequently appeared on Fox News in the past and who is a player in the “alt-right” ecosystem. McInnes, who co-founded Vice but left the company in 2008, reportedly because he was considered a liability, has appeared on Fox several times saying racist, anti-immigrant, and sexist things. He also has a long track record of anti-Muslim statements. From the June 12 edition of Fox and Friends:

AINSLEY EARDHARDT (CO-HOST): Our own Pete Hegseth, he went out to the[March Against Sharia] protesters and he talked to them to find out what they were really protesting, and it wasn't Islam.

PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): It's not that no because we knew that's how the mainstream media would characterize it, and there were twenty eight of these protests across the country. There's one right here in Foley Square in New York City. So I went down there and said rather than the characterization, let's ask the protesters themselves why they are there. And this is what they said.

[...]

GAVIN MCINNES: I want to make sure that we're aware of everything that sharia is, everything extremist Islam stands for. And we are aware of the dangers.

[...]

MCINNES: Over in Britain they were just frogs boiling in water and now they're dead.