Guest Cites Fox's Fictional "24" as Evidence that Terrorists are "Out There"

News Hounds
Jan. 19, 2007

Former New York City police detective Bo Dietl was Neil Cavuto's guest today (January 17, 2007) on Your World. Dietl appeared along with Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, of the Islamic Center of America, to discuss a January 7 incident in which Northwest Airlines prohibited a group of 40 Muslims from boarding a plane in Germany, after a pilgrimage to the Hajj, on their return trip to Detroit. The group said that Northwest's action was discriminatory and threatened to launch a boycott, whereupon Northwest apologized and agreed to pay for any expenses incurred as a result of the "snafu."

At one point Cavuto turned to Dietl and said, "Bo, you have a problem with Northwest apologizing, right?" to which Dietl responded:

No, I have a problem because things have changed, Hassan. We have to look at -- a bunch of Irish guys are not going to get on the plane now and blow themselves up or put themselves into buildings. The fact of the matter is, I mean, you don't watch '24?' On Fox TV? They're out there. They're out there. There are cells out there. We have to protect ourselves against them as Americans.

Comment: Either Dietl is a hack, shamelessly promoting a Fox television show; he's as ignorant as he appears, or both. Whatever happened, Cavuto, being a "journalist" and all, had an obligation to tell his audience that what appears on "24" is fictional, which he didn't do. Also, what a "coincidence" this is. Last night Keith Olbermann aired a segment with Robert Greenwald, the producer of Outfoxed, titled: "Fox Scaring You Into Watching '24?'". Maybe this is Rupert Murdoch's bullyboy way of telling both Olbermann and Greenwald to f**k off.