The Fox “Soul” television network announced Monday that it had canceled a July 4th program that was to have featured a speech from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious antisemite, racist, and homophobe.
As Breitbart News reported Sunday:
Farrakhan’s history of hateful rhetoric is well-documented. In 2018, he compared Jews to termites. That same year, he drew criticism for defending the use of the phrase “death to America” during a conversation with students in Iran.
The main FOX network launched Fox Soul in January in an effort to reach African American audiences — and to reach beyond the conservative branding of Fox News. Fox Soul offers four hours of streaming programing daily.
In a statement Monday, Fox Soul announced that it would replace the Farrakhan program with an “inspirational” program focusing on “the greatest black leaders and thinkers about racial relations and civil rights in America.”
— foxsoultv (@foxsoultv) June 29, 2020
Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D), founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, congratulated Fox for its reversal, after he had urged the network to cancel the program:
Great news!
Thanks to @FOXTV for doing the right thing & correcting an obvious grave error.
The message is clear: vile haters like @LouisFarrakhan should never be give a large and mainstream platform to expand the reach of their poisonous diatribes!
Other networks take note! https://t.co/ZpfUOLT1EL
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) June 29, 2020
The original Fox Soul announcement of the Farrakhan program linked to the Nation of Islam website, which features, among other things, antisemitic literature.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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