Fox News might finally have the chance to meet its natural enemy — Paris, France — in a court of law. On Tuesday, Paris Mayor Ann Hidalgo told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that she intends to file a lawsuit against Fox for its coverage of the French capital’s Muslim “no-go zones,” which do not exist.
Fox has already apologized several times for the claims of its terrorism “expert,” Steven Emerson, who last week confidently stated that parts of England and France were currently under Islamic rule, complete with sharia law and zero intrusion by the secular authorities. (In addition to Emerson’s comments, the conservative network made several other references to these supposed European caliphates, with Fox and Friends even creating a very unhelpful map of Paris’s “no-go” neighborhoods.)
But that wasn’t enough for Hidalgo: “When we’re insulted, and when we’ve had an image, then I think we’ll have to sue, I think we’ll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed,” she said. “The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced.” Fox has yet to issue a statement about Hidalgo’s legal threat, but we assume that headquarters is already cooking up some freedom fries.
Update, 4:57 p.m.: Fox has issued a response! “We empathize with the citizens of France as they go through a healing process and return to everyday life,” said executive vice president Michael Clemente. “However, we find the Mayor’s comments regarding a lawsuit misplaced.”
