ADL slams Fox News on anti-Semite

By JTA Staff · October 13, 2008

The Anti-Defamation League slammed Fox News Channel for airing an uncritical interview with an anti-Semite.

Hannity’s America, hosted by popular the conservative news channel’s personality Sean Hannity, recently ran a report detailing numerous allegations against Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential candidate.

It included an interview with Andy Martin, a conservative activist who has falsely claimed that Obama is a Muslim. On the show, Martin, described as a journalist, said Obama had once trained to overthrow governments.

Martin has a long history of spurious lawsuits peppered with anti-Semitic diatribes. “We were astonished to see that during the October 5, 2008 edition of Hannity’s America, you interviewed Anthony Martin, a man with an extensive track record of making anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks,” Abe Foxman, ADL’s national director, said in a letter to Hannity. “A person who espouses such odious views ought not to be given the opportunity to enhance his credentials or his standing by appearing on Hannity’s America.”