Briggs’ Disturbing Double Entendre?

Dave: “Is #PennSt now ‘leading from behind?’” Today, Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Dave Briggs seemed to joke jarringly about the incredible Penn State tragedy. He  Tweeted, “Is #PennSt now ‘leading from behind?’ Assistant coach Mike #McQueary placed on administrative leave tonight.” Not funny.

According to the Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment,* a Penn State graduate assistant (namely, McQueary) allegedly witnessed former Penn State defensive coach Gerald Sandusky rectally raping a “naked boy…estimated to be ten years old” in a Penn State football locker room shower in 2002. Prima facie, Dave’s query, “Is #PennSt now ‘leading from behind?,” sounds like a disturbing reference to that horrific event. If it is, Dave, the devoted father of two young children, should apologize sincerely and profusely for his remarkable lapse of judgment.

Hopefully, Dave meant something entirely different (and innocuous) by his remark. If so, he may do well to explain. Posthaste.

* To reference the Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment, click the link “a grand jury’s findings of fact” contained within the Sports Illustrated article.

Shep: Iranians “Protesting Against Their Own Creator”?

Shepard Smith, host of Studio B, navigated somewhere between the lazy and the loony in his final analysis of the Iranian protesters this afternoon. First, Shep reported that the Iranian opposition was marching in the streets in Tehran and across the country against both Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After doing so, he interviewed Penn State professor Fariborz Ghaddar, a former vice-minister of the Shah of Iran who is currently with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

As Ghaddar began his segment, he confirmed Shep’s account that the government had “shut down all communications for three days,” “slowed down the Internet,” and “telling reporters [that] if you see something, you can’t say something.” He added that the government had put the paramilitary Basij into the streets; that “massive demonstrations” were still continuing; and that “more importantly,” thousands remained detained from the election protests and that “there actually have been killings and rapings in the prison.” In closing, Ghaddar pointed out that the protesters were not only questioning whether Ahmadinejad should be President but whether Iran should remain an Islamic republic. (He noted that it was “very telling” that some of the flags being flown had the red, white, and green without the Islamic Republic seal.)

As Shep finished the segment, he asserted, “The reason it’s so telling is that those people, the Supreme Leaders, the Ayatollah Khamenei, is supposed to be, under the Islamic Revolution terms, sent by God to do that job. So, in protesting, they’re protesting against their own Creator.”*

Somehow, it is highly doubtful that the Iranian opposition would concur with Smith’s conclusion. Rather, more likely, they believe in the justness and rightness of their cause and are not “protesting against their own Creator.” Surely, Shep knows or should know that.

*Studio B with Shepard Smith – 12/07/09 (@3:38 p.m. ET)

Rick Parries Clayton

Fox & Friends Clayton Morris laid a “Lewinsky” trap for meteorologist Rick Reichmuth after a “Former [FNC] Interns” segment today. Clayton and fellow-anchor Dave Briggs had just interviewed Ann Zagari, an attractive, diminutive former intern and Penn State student. In a segue to Rick, with a twinkle in his eye, Clayton asked, “Does she [the intern] take care of you out there, too? Hesitating, Rick closed his eyes and smiled, turned his head as if to think, and wisely stuttered, “Uh, well, I could use some coffee: how about that? Clayton chuckled at his colleague’s discomfit.