Le Petit Journal 'investigated' Fox News' claims.
Fox News has issued an apology for something. No, not for Sean Hannity's continued existence or for unleashing
Fox & Friends onto an unsuspecting world, but for spending a week peddling the idea that European nations are littered with Muslim-only "no-go zones" in which only Sharia law applies. And you know they're serious because they did it during a
lazy Saturday night:
The statement was referred to as “a correction” by the Fox Report host Julie Banderas, who said that “over the course of this last week, we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France.”
“Now this applies especially to discussions of so-called no-go zones, areas where non-Muslims allegedly are not allowed in and police supposedly won’t go,” Ms. Banderas continued. “To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.”
The news channel had been mocked mercilessly for the claim (repeated by multiple of their "personalities"), but it was the French media that had the most fun with it, with news parody show
Le Petit Journal venturing out to some of the supposed "no-go zones" and seeking out residents' thoughts on the Fox News claims.
Whether this public humiliation will shame other conservatives peddling the claim—like, say, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal—into submission remains to be seen. While "terrorism expert" Steve Emerson first made the claim on Fox News, assisted by such network luminaries as Sean Hannity and K.T. McFarland, the New York Times attributes the original theory to a 2006 claim by longtime wackadoodle Daniel Pipes, who seized upon a map of French urban renewal projects and decided that they were, for some reason, lines of Sharia demarcation.
It has apparently been peddled among the gullible ever since, so it's no great surprise that Fox News would wrap their network arms around it and give it a great big hug. But kudos on the weekend evening correction, I'm sure that'll clear things right up.