Fox News Uses An Incredibly Unfortunate Graphic To Prove Steve Bannon And ISIS Aren’t Alike

On Sunday, USA Today published an op-ed making the argument that Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi share similar worldviews, with both men harboring frightening “apocalyptic visions of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West.” As one can imagine, the editorial did not go over so well with the Fox News crowd, so last night Tucker Carlson invited USA Today Deputy Editorial Editor David Mastio on to defend the piece.

Before Mastio even appears on screen, Carlson condescendingly explains the parallel the publication attempts to make by explaining to viewers, “The justification? Apparently both see the battle between the U.S. and radical Islam as a clash of civilizations — or something.” When Carlson does introduce his guest, he doesn’t even allow him the opportunity to speak before playing a “quick game” of “who did it,” throwing a graphic up on screen that literally displays a list of atrocities to check off which had been committed by Bannon and al-Baghdadi, respectively.

Impressively, Bannon manages to come out looking squeaky clean, as he has personally never beheaded journalists, used chemical weapons, held mass executions, and so on. Although to be fair, we are only a few weeks into his political career! Never say never.

For the record, the editorial stated:

Each man spins a narrative for his followers of sprawling conflict between believers of Prophet Mohammed and followers of Jesus Christ. “There is a major war brewing, a war that’s already global,” Bannon warned an audience at the Vatican in 2014. A year later, Baghdadi said: “Oh Muslims … this war is only against you and against your religion.” Each man proselytizes for this vision of war. A decade ago, according to The Washington Post, Bannon outlined a movie proposal based on the fear that radical Muslims will overrun the U.S., turning it into the “Islamic States of America.”

Mastio went on to try to explain his stance, but since Tucker Carlson isn’t typically a “bigger picture” type of guy, his words unsurprisingly fell on deaf ears.

That graphic, though. At least a few people on Twitter noticed, because this is what we’ve come to now.

https://twitter.com/DavidCovucci/status/829669416149336064

https://twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/829732469624684545