“Fox News killed my mother!”

A leftist brick-thrower named Tracy Knauss made that claim on his Facebook page several years ago. I was reminded of Knauss’ claim last week while I watched Brain Stelter’s head nearly explode over Fox’s 25^th anniversary. Mr. Knauss has a substantial Facebook following and his claim was picked up by talk show host Stephanie Miller as well as the popular leftist blog “Crooks and Liars”. They said:

“Don’t write this woman off as some ignorant back-country hick. She clearly wasn’t. She owned a company at one time. She paid attention to events and politics in the news, or at least, in the news as she understood it. She, like most of her neighbors, voted Republican. But until Fox News came along, Republicans weren’t stupid. They had different philosophies about government and its role, but they weren’t blatantly invested in advancing a lie-based ideology until Fox News came along.

It isn’t hyperbole to say Fox News killed her. She fell and feared the doctor would kill her…When are they going to be held accountable for this?”

Awful if true. But it wasn’t true.

After his mother died, Knauss authored her obituary, adding the line: “dyed in the wool Republican” ostensibly to set up his Facebook post where he claimed his mom was killed by Fox News.  His post included a photo of a coffin with “Fox News” photoshopped across the side. His Facebook followers went nuts. They wanted Fox News prosecuted for murder.

Knauss claimed that his 84-year-old mom had fallen and refused a doctor’s care because his mother feared a doctor would steal her information. 10 days later, she was dead. One would assume, based on Knauss’s homicide claim, that his mom suffered a very bad fall and had died, in bed due to her injuries. But she didn’t die in bed. She didn’t die of her injuries or because she had fallen. Fox didn’t kill her. The 84-year-old suffered a massive heart attack while sitting on her toilet. I requested a copy of the coroner’s report, the official cause of death was arteriosclerotic heart disease.

The report included a physical examination of the body. The examiner noted upper dentures, severe decay of the remaining lower teeth, and few remaining front teeth. I don’t recall Fox News telling anyone not to go to a dentist.  She also had kyphosis (a humpback), and some small healing cuts. She had some small scabs on her nose and her forehead.

The coroner found two areas of bruising, one was on the interior of her left arm about two/three inches of soft tissue edema and a dime-sized insult to her right wrist. Did she take a tumble 10 days before? Maybe. My mom fell a month ago, and she was black and blue for weeks.

The coroner reported that her husband found her on the throne, dead. The cause of death was a massive heart attack.

Exploiting your own mother’s death to gain “Fox is Evil” clicks is disgusting. Claiming your mom died because Fox told her to refuse medical care after a fall, when in fact she died of a heart attack on a toilet, for a cheap political point is about as low as you can go.

But don’t expect the left to let up. There are lots of people out there willing to go this low