As Fox and Friends Saturday commented on the absence of media attention to National of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan at Aretha Franklin's funeral, the other networks ignored Farrakhan, but CBS and NBC did find time to highlight complaints about one of the pastors putting his arm around singer Ariana Grande on stage and making a joke about her name.
After noting the blatantly racist history of Farrakhan, FNC co-host Pete Hegseth complained about the media not giving any attention to the awkward presence of Farrakhan sitting on stage with prominent Democrats like former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder. He then added: "I just think it's such a double standard. Imagine if the inverse were to be true and there were a white national racist there, the media would blow it up."
Co-host Ed Henry added: "If President Trump attended that funeral and there was a white nationalist three seats over, I suspect that would be the lead."
Later in the show, during a segment with Christopher Harris of Unhyphenated America, the group again discussed Farrakhan's presence at the funeral.
Over on NBC's Today show, Kristen Welker read a brief, noting that Bishop Charles Ellis had apologized for his interaction with Grande as a clip of him hugging her and putting his armed around her on stage was shown. It was also noted that he was being criticized for making a joke about her Latin American name. And, on CBS This Morning, Anthony Mason read a similar brief.
None of the networks made any mention of Farrakhan's presence on stage.
As previously documented by NewsBusters, earlier this year, the dominant liberal media ignored revelations that several congressional Democrats have links to the Nation of Islam leader, as well his racist comments about Jews and whites he made in a speech in February.
