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Fox News slammed over ‘pathetic’ attacks on Gisele Fetterman over Senate photo: ‘She’s not white enough for them’

Fox has repeatedly attacked senator-elect’s wife Gisele

Josh Marcus
San Francisco
Wednesday 16 November 2022 19:26 GMT
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Fox News host claims Pennsylvania elected John Fetterman's wife, Gisele

Critics are calling Fox News “pathetic” and misogynistic for recent segments attacking a photo of Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania Sen-elect John Fetterman.

During a Wednesday morning segment on The Faulkner Focus, host Harris Faulkner mocked Ms Fetterman for seeking “15 minutes of fame” in a photo showing her and Mr Fetterman outside his new Senate office.

Meanwhile, guest Clay Travis commented on Ms Fetterman’s attractiveness, while also implying she was power-hungry.

“The reality here is that it does feel as if Pennsylvania has elected his wife, and she certainly is furthering that idea with these photos,” Mr Travis said.

The segment also featured the hosts reading tweets from conservative commentators like Tiana Lowe, who accused Ms Fetterman of wanting fame “so badly for herself” that she was “subjecting her husband and her marriage” to scrutiny.

Various liberal commentators took issue with Fox’s coverage, which has for weeks attacked Ms Fetterman, including repeating claims she is bisexual, even though Ms Fetterman doesn’t appear to have spoken publicly on the subject.

“This is so unspeakably pathetic,” journalist Aaron Rupar said on Twitter on Wednesday. “Fox News has repeatedly attacked Gisele Fetterman in the last 24 hours.”

Former Hillary Clinton campaign organiser Sergio Grant accused the network of being racist, given Ms Fetterman’s identity as an immigrant from Brazil who arrived in the US as a child.

“I guess they’re fearmongering because she’s a brown person who came here as an undocumented immigrant as a child, and they need a boogey(wo)man,” he wrote on Wednesday on Twitter.

“She's not white enough for them. They're playing the hits,” wrote Jon Sternfeld in response to the video.

The Independent has contacted Fox News for comment.

Some saw the attacks as a positive sign of the Fettermans’ clout in Washington.

“Dear Gisele Fetterman, you know you’re doing EVERYTHING right if the news personalities at Fox News are coming for you,” educator and PBS contributor Sari Beth Rose,” wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

As The Independent reported, the Fetterman campaign was acutely aware of its image, and often used fashion to communicate important ideas about where Mr Fetterman stood on key issues.

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