Steve Emerson is an idiot: David Cameron.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Fox News is going out of its way to avoid wanton chatter regarding fictional Muslim “no-go zones” in Europe.
During “Fox Report” on Saturday night, Julie Banderas acknowledged that on the show “we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France.”
“To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion,” she continued.
Later the same night, Jeanine Pirro, host of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” issued her own formal correction for a segment that aired on January 10. On the program, Pirro interviewed terrorism analyst Steve Emerson to speak about the so-called no-go zones, on which he commented: “They’re sort of amorphous, they’re not contiguous necessarily, but they’re sort of safe havens. And they’re places where the governments, like France, Britain, Sweden, Germany — they don’t exercise any sovereignty so you basically have zones where Sharia courts are set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where police don’t go in.”
Emerson claimed the phenomenon is rampant in Europe, but he honed in specifically on the metropolitan borough of Birmingham, England. “There are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in,” he attested.
“Last week on this program,” Pirro responded a week later, “a guest made a serious factual error that we wrongly let stand unchallenged and uncorrected. The guest asserted that the city of Birmingham, England, is totally Muslim and that it is a place where non-Muslims don’t go. Both are incorrect.”
She also provided 2011 census data indicating that 22 percent of the city’s population self-identifies as Muslim and that the notion of no-go zones is entirely nonfactual.
David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom, couldn’t help but disclose his two cents to ITV News in regard to the whole affair:
“When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fools’ Day. This guy’s clearly a complete idiot,” he said, pulling no punches in referring pointedly to Emerson.