Media Accuse Rubio Of ‘Selective Editing’ For Tweeting Video Of Ilhan Omar Interview
On Thursday, Rubio quote-tweeted The Daily Wire’s Molly Prince, who shared the video, and added: “I am sure the media will now hound every Democrat to denounce this statement as racist. Right?”
Rubio’s sarcasm regarding media bias was immediately confirmed, with outlets accusing him of providing an edited clip that misrepresented what Omar said in a February 2018 interview with Al Jazeera. The clip cuts a brief portion of Omar’s comments out, which various media outlets claimed removed vital context. Here’s the quote from the video shared by Rubio:
I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country. We should be profiling, monitoring and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.
And here’s her full statement:
I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country, and so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep America safe, Americans safe inside of this country, we should be profiling, monitoring and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.
The Hill published an article titled “Rubio shares edited interview clip, calls Omar ‘racist.’” ThinkProgress went with “Rubio shares doctored video of Ilhan Omar.” Vox’s headline read, “How Marco Rubio ended up broadcasting a lie about Ilhan Omar,” calling it “a rare instance of actual fake news.” The article was written by the same person who once wrote of a bridge connecting Gaza and the West Bank on which Israel restricted traffic.
The Washington Post went the furthest by actually publishing a “fact check” on Rubio’s tweets and giving him the worst possible rating of four Pinocchios.
The Post attempted to claim that Prince’s tweet suggesting “Ilhan Omar contends that Americans ‘should be more fearful of white men’” is also misleading, even though Omar literally says “I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country…”
The Post labeled Rubio’s quote-tweet as an example of “Deceptive Editing - Omission” because a portion of once sentence was removed. The full interview, according to Omar spokesman Jeremy Slevin, was in reference to the Anti-Defamation League’s bogus report that right-wing extremists killed more people than Islamist extremists. To get to that conclusion, one has to stretch the definition of “right-wing extremist” and tighten the definition of “Islamist extremist.” Another similar report — from the Government Accountability Office — looked at extremist attacks between September 12, 2001 and December 31, 2016.
The Post noted that the report only found more deaths caused by Islamist extremists “because 41 percent of the deaths stemmed from the Orlando shooting rampage. Almost three times as many attacks were carried out by far-right extremists in that period.”
The Post only dinged Omar “for using sloppy language” because she doesn’t limit her answer to “white supremacists or white nationalism.”
Rubio responded to the Post and other media outlet’s criticism of him by saying they proved his point about media bias:
These questions prove my point. If a Republican grouped all men, of any background or ethnicity, together in any negative context — especially terrorism — many in the media would immediately demand that other Republicans disavow their statement. But when Rep. Omar suggested white men — not white supremacists or white nationalists, white men — pose a greater danger than jihadists, many in the media rushed to her defense and attacked me for pointing out this double standard.
