TikToker Katherine Abughazaleh, who shares footage of right-wingers behaving badly on Fox News, posted a savagely dark spoof on Sunday imagining a Fox News writers room after yet another mass shooting. (Watch the video below.)
The Media Matters for America senior video producer, better known as Kat Abu, plays all the writers in her skit. One proposes the boilerplate “thoughts and prayers” angle. “Love it, got it, thank you,” the boss replies.
Another suggests blaming the shooting on immigrants, arguing that no reason is needed.
But the last idea is the breakthrough: Interview a gun. “Aren’t guns the real victim here?” asks a reporter portrayed by Abu. “Who has been hurt more in this shooting than the gun? I’m just saying, I’d like to hear the gun’s side of the story, which the liberal media refuses to tell you.”
That does the trick. “I want an AR-15 in this studio in 10,” the boss says.
Abu’s post comes after a gunman killed at least eight people and injured at least seven in a Dallas-area mall on Saturday. There have been more than 200 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Abu preemptively fended off “too soon” arguments against her video. “When exactly is it ‘soon enough’ to criticize inaction?” she wrote.
After a wave of shootings last year, Abu shared a clip of Fox News hosts and guests offering dozens of so-called solutions to gun violence ― and not one of them was tightening weapons laws.
Republicans, who control the U.S. House, refuse to support most gun restrictions, claiming they violate the Second Amendment.
Even when Fox News noted Sunday that most Americans favor stricter weapons restrictions, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blamed gun violence on anger and mental health.