Bill O'Reilly Show Smears Dearborn and His Pack Reacts Predictably

posted on: Oct 9, 2015

This equation works for Fox News:

Dearborn + sharia law = red meat (non-halal)

It shouldn’t add up, but hey . . . ratings are ratings and haters are going to hate.

So the untruthful trope is trotted out anew this week by Jesse Watters, a correspondent (loosely speaking) who does street interviews  on “The O’Reilly Factor” from “the largest Arab-American community in the U.S.” Monday night’s four-minute video is below.

Ali Harb, writing in The Arab American News, reports on “many false allegations in a Fox report on Arabs and Muslims in the city.”

The video segment aired on the O’Reilly Factor Monday night. A day later, close to a dozen calls for bombing Dearborn surfaced on Fox News’s Facebook page. City officials and community activists condemned the news network for its inaccurate portrayal of the city.

Calling Dearborn the “Arabic capital” of North America, Fox reporter Jesse Watters falsely alleges Muslims control the city council and the police chief is Muslim. Chief Ronald Haddad is Christian, and only two out of Dearborn’s seven-member city council identify as Muslim.
These are among Watters’ questions to people he encounters:

Do you like Christmas?
Which way is Mecca?
Do you miss the desert?

Jesse Watters of “The O’Reilly Factor,” who asks Dearborn residents: “Do you like Christmas? Which way is Mecca? Do you miss the desert?” (Fox News photo)
Harb, the local weekly’s reporter, writes:

The humorous tone turns serious when a white interviewee says that Dearborn keeps him on edge.

“Last year, there was a woman stoned,” the interviewee says. “Not too long ago, you know, I read there was an honor killing because a girl bought condoms.”

The segment shows the responses of four Arab Americans to a question about sharia law. Two residents express favorable views of the Islamic ethical, legal code; a hairdresser says that sharia law in Dearborn is a fabrication; and one interviewee says she does not know what sharia law is.
The journalists gets a reaction from Mayor Jack O’Reilly, who sent a complaint to the Fox program’s prominent host:

“There are a lot of people who are going to watch that, and they’re going to believe that there is some truth to sharia law or honor killings or any of that nonsense that they were promoting,” he said.

The mayor said the continued misportrayal of Dearborn has turned into a profitable business, where special interest groups solicit donations in the name of defending the country from Islam.

The mayor sent a letter to Bill O’Reilly, criticizing the show for “lack of sensitivity” and “factual errors.”

“While we share a common name and heritage, I am compelled to respond to your piece on Dearborn last night in which you were really spinning the truth,” Mayor O’Reilly wrote the host of the O’Reilly Factor. “While I understand that segment was intended to be lighter fare, its presentation of false ‘facts’ is dishonest and has unplanned, and very negative, consequences.”

Comments posted Wednesday on Bill O’Reilly’s Facebook page, where more than 1,900 fans “like” his link to the Dearborn video.
On O’Reilly’s Facebook page, where a link to the video has nearly 2,100  “likes” and is shared over 560 times, a few residents push back Wednesday amid almost 500 comments:

►”Lost another viewer:” I live in Dearborn and the segment couldn’t be so wrong. Goodbye Bill and Fox News. You lost another viewer. — Mark Healy

►”Could not be more incorrect:” I live here. I love this community and this could not be more incorrect. Imagine how frustrated you would be if I judged your city without ever stepping foot in it. — Donna Jernigan

►”Judgmental, lazy people:” Don’t judge someone you don’t know, I live in Dearborn and love my city. It’s judgmental, lazy people full of hate [who are] destroying America. — Angie Hammock

►”You know nothing:” I was raised a Christian and became Muslim. . . . Dearborn is a beautiful city with beautiful people. I love how when you drive down a side street you will see a home with statues of mother Mary and crosses, and the house next to it you will see decorations for Ramadan. Everyone, Christian or Muslim, gets along here. I look out my window and I see little kids playing, and the little kids are Arab, black, white — all just playing together without a single thought of race or religion. . . . Right next to the biggest mosque in America is a church! All the time at the mosque they have interfaith dinners, where Muslim leaders and Christian leaders get together in unity, or Muslims will even go to churches for interfaith programs! . . . Don’t make accusations [about] a city you truly know nothing about. — Maryam Al (from two comments)

►”Blatantly ignorant:” What a bunch of uneducated racists. Wow. I’ve never seen so much hatred and ignorance spewed on one thread. Not one of you know a THING about Islam except what you’re spoon fed by the closed-minded bigots at Fox News. I was born and raised in Dearborn and I can honestly say that any Muslim I know would give you the shirt off their back and expect not a thing in return. They are some of the kindest, most generous people that exist. Associating terrorism with every Muslim is like associating every white person with the KKK. Blatantly ignorant. — Agnes Fischer

►”No shootings and bomb threats:” It’s a nice city. Many Arab Americans are Christians, btw. He was wrong about the Chief of Police Haddad. I know him, he’s Catholic. I count many of the Arabs as my friends. The ones I know are good people. Are there bad ones? Sure. But there’s bad white people and fake Christians too. My 3rd grader goes to school with Arab kids. Everything is cool. No shootings and bomb threats here. — Regan Ford

Those local voices of reason and tolerance are vastly outnumbered by comments such as this from Richard Tsantoulis: “We should nuke this city.

Source: www.deadlinedetroit.com