On Fox News, your morning dose of apocalypse

The U.S. intelligence community says Iran has halted work on nuclear weapons, but on Fox, the country is still a threat to civilization itself.

Published January 31, 2008 2:43PM (EST)

Full-time blogging, I'm discovering, means sacrificing a lot of things. Like, say, the chance to have a cup of coffee before starting work in the morning. Fortunately, I have something better than caffeine to wake me up: Apocalypse talk on Fox News. On the network's "America's Newsroom" this morning, we were reminded that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is looking to bring about, yes, the very end of civilization.

Coanchor Megyn Kelly teased the segment before a commercial break, saying, "Well, he's at it again -- the crazy leader of Iran making more threats. He's now saying the rogue nation, his, is less than a year away from nuclear power, reaching its nuclear peak. And wait until you hear what he's saying this time about Israel."

This despite the fact that what Ahmadinejad was talking about was civilian nuclear power, for generating electricity, but never mind. Oh, also never mind that pesky little National Intelligence Estimate that said Iran had halted work on nuclear weapons. (Hey, President Bush doesn't believe it anyway.)

But the fun was only getting started. Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, was the guest for the segment itself, and he provided some fireworks. "His ultimate aim is not only to achieve nuclear power, nuclear capability, but to use it to destroy Israel and to destroy civilization as we know it," Gillerman said.

Strangely enough, that NIE never came up.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

MORE FROM Alex Koppelman


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Fox News Iran Middle East War Room