Was Cruella de Malkin Fired by Fox over Smear of 12 Year Old?
Is it possible there is a bottom to the depths of rightwing hackery? Probably not, but there is a rumor going around that Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit most likely to skin puppies to make a fur coat, has been fired as the occasional guest host for the Bill O’Reilly comedy hour on Fox News because of her vicious attack on 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family.
Graeme and his sister were seriously injured in a car accident in 2004, after which SCHIP, the children’s health insurance program Pres. Bush has vetoed, covered the costs of their extensive hospital stays and rehab. On Sept. 29, Graeme gave the Democrats’ rebuttal to Pres. Bush’s radio speech in which he sought to justify vetoing SCHIP, and Malkin, along with Rush Limbaugh and their running dogs at sites like Free Republic and Redstate — and even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office and the Bush White House, no less — have been trying to silence and discredit the kid ever since.
Conservative bloggers even went so far as to publish the Frost family’s address online and, to no one’s surprise, the Frosts have been receiving death threats ever since.
The Malkin controversy arose just as the dust was settling after Bill O’Reilly’s racist comments about African-American restaurant-goers, and may have been too much for Fox executives and, more to the point, FNC advertisers.
If the rumor is true, Malkin’s cover story for her departure has it that she is leaving in a fit of pique because an apology she received from Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera on an unrelated matter was not sincere enough:
