MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle used the Thursday edition of The 11th Hour to give credence to the idea that Fox News was responsible for shooting of Ralph Yarl by an 84-year old man after he wrong the doorbell. Former FBI assistant director counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi took it one step further and demanded Fox and “the firearms industry” feel “financial pain.”
Beginning the show by going through a list of recent shootings that were the result of either identifying the wrong car or a ball rolling into someone’s yard before coming to Yarl, Ruhle decalred “There is another deep troubling element to all of this and it relates to the shooting of young Ralph Yarl. The grandson of the 84-year-old man charged in that shooting put it this way.”
Ruhle then played a clip from Thursday’s CNN This Morning where grandson Klint Ludwig claimed:
I feel like a lot of people of that generation are caught up in this 24-hour news cycle of fear and paranoia perpetuated by some other news stations and he was fully into that and watched Fox News all day every day. Blaring in his living room and I think that stuff really, kind of, reinforces this negative view of minority groups and leaves people to be a little - it doesn't as early lead people to be racist, but it reinforces and galvanizes racist people and their beliefs.
After the clip, Ruhle added, “It’s a concerning a terrifying worldview that is unfortunately not unique.”
It is true that Yarl is a black teen who was shot by an old white guy, but that is not true of the other cases she referenced. However, a few minutes later she led Figliuzzi with a declaration rather than a question, “I want to go back to what the grandson of the alleged shooter said about the grandfather's exposure, day in and day out to certain messages and what it was doing to him because he’s not the only one sitting in a La-Z-Boy watching TV all day.”
Figliuzzi then gave a chilling case for censorship, “Yeah, this is where I'm a strong advocate of financial pain for those who spew out propaganda. We just saw Fox News, you know, paying, you know, just under a billion dollars because of what they've been doing and the question is whether or not that is enough pain or not to make a difference.”
What is Figliuzzi’s definition of propaganda? He never says, but disagreeing with MSNBC on guns or crime is not at all the same as repeating conspiracy theories about voting machines.
However, Figliuzzi would double down, “So when I say bring pain, hit them in the pocketbook where it hurts. I’m talking about lawsuits; I'm talking about lawsuits against the firearms industry. I’m talking about lawsuits-- because by the way they market this, they love this, and your guest can tell us all about that, he’s written a book about it, so let's also not forget the news networks, the social media platforms that spew this out all day and night. They need to pay a price as well so that it is painful for them and that causes them to hit the pause button on their propaganda.”
The good news for MSNBC is that this will not happen, because the standards Figliuzzi applies to Fox could just as easily be applied to them.
This segment was sponsored by Chase.
Here is a transcript for the April 21 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
4/20/2023
11:02 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: There is another deep troubling element to all of this and it relates to the shooting of young Ralph Yarl. The grandson of the 84-year-old man charged in that shooting put it this way.
KLINT LUDWIG: I feel like a lot of people of that generation are caught up in this 24-hour news cycle of fear and paranoia perpetuated by some other news stations and he was fully into that and watched Fox News all day every day. Blaring in his living room and I think that stuff really, kind of, reinforces this negative view of minority groups and leaves people to be a little - it doesn't as early lead people to be racist, but it reinforces and galvanizes racist people and their beliefs.
RUHLE: It’s a concerning a terrifying worldview that is unfortunately not unique
…
11:09 PM ET
RUHLE: Frank, I want to go back to what you were saying before because we have all covered these mass shootings, we’ve seen the shooters' manifestos focusing on certain victims. But I want to go back to what the grandson of the alleged shooter said about the grandfather's exposure, day in and day out to certain messages and what it was doing to him because he’s not the only one sitting in a La-Z-Boy watching TV all day.
FRANK FIGLIUZZI: Yeah, this is where I'm a strong advocate of financial pain for those who spew out propaganda. We just saw Fox News, you know, paying, you know, just under a billion dollars because of what they've been doing and the question is whether or not that is enough pain or not to make a difference. So when I say bring pain, hit them in the pocketbook where it hurts. I’m talking about lawsuits; I'm talking about lawsuits against the firearms industry. I’m talking about lawsuits-- because by the way they market this, they love this, and your guest can tell us all about that, he’s written a book about it, so let's also not forget the news networks, the social media platforms that spew this out all day and night. They need to pay a price as well so that it is painful for them and that causes them to hit the pause button on their propaganda.
