December 23, 2021

On Fox’s Outnumbered show Tuesday, cohost Kayleigh McEnany excitedly teased an upcoming discussion by saying that Kyle Rittenhouse "was treated like a rock star" at his TPUSA AmericaFest speech. This was the same event where Fox host Jesse Watters talked up a “deadly” “kill shot” against Dr. Fauci. Maybe they should consider renaming the conference “AmericaKillFest.” But I digress.

“Why the young man is saying the media is still getting the facts of his case wrong as he hints at legal action,” McEnany continued.

Cohost Lahren made a point of saying she agrees with the not guilty verdict Rittenhouse received after he shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters. “I believe that he was innocent, I believe that he should go after the media for how they have slandered him and mischaracterized him. I believe that wholeheartedly,” she said.

But then came the surprising moment of decency. “However, I do think that as conservatives we need to be a little careful when it comes to this,” she added. “But I think we should step back a little bit and maybe not treat him like he’s a rock star or a celebrity. I don’t think that’s necessarily a good look for the conservative movement."

It was cohost Kennedy, not Lahren, who pointed out that the Rittenhouse shootings were a tragedy: "I’m glad that Tomi said that because I think that is something that is very, very important. I don’t think that – you know, this is still a tragedy. No one wants to be in this situation. It’s not something that should be celebrated, and that’s a really good point" she said.

Personally, I doubt that Lahren or Kennedy went rogue here but that Fox gave at least tacit approval to this slight distancing from Rittenhouse, generously padded as it was by support for his killings and his supposed media martyrdom.

Then, with apparently unintended irony, Kennedy said, “My message is, you can dislike something, but you can still be factual about the story. You can express your opinion that you didn’t like the outcome of something but you don’t have to lie about it in order to bolster your feelings. And that is something that journalists have to stop doing.”

Gee, if only Kennedy’s own colleagues had followed that advice about the 2020 presidential election, she might have saved her network two billion-dollar lawsuits.

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