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Fox News is showing its true colors, yet again.

The right-wing television network has remained entirely silent amid fierce backlash stemming from Islamophobic comments made on its top-rated show, "The Five," by one of its top hosts, Jesse Watters.

In an astonishing and ugly rant, Watters on Wednesday said that he was fed up with Arab Americans and the entire Muslim world. "We have had it with them," Watters declared during the diatribe, which aired during a segment about activists ripping down posts spotlighting Israeli hostages.

The remarks earned Watters and Fox News another stinging rebuttal from the White House, which called them a "sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans." The White House added that Fox News "owes an apology to every single viewer."

If you're waiting for an apology from Fox News, however, don't hold your breath (you should probably know this by now). As usual, Fox News hasn't said a word about the hateful rant that streamed out of a top host's mouth and into the homes of millions.

And it's not the first time that Watters has made abhorrent comments since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. In October, Watters said, "I don’t like how people try to differentiate between the Palestinians and Hamas."

"To me, I see people with guns. That’s Hamas. The people without the guns are the Palestinians. They believe the same thing," Watters said at the time. "The Palestinians hire Hamas to run their government. You poll them; they all love killing Jews. It’s in their charter. They say they believe in suicide bombings."

At an actual news organization, and in the vast majority of corporate America, such comments would unquestionably be unacceptable. The host would almost certainly be publicly reprimanded, and an apology would immediately be issued — at the very least.

But Fox News is much different. Its refusal to address the matter underscores once more that Rupert Murdoch's television arm is comfortable broadcasting hate to the masses. Tucker Carlson might be gone, but appalling comments like this still find their way to air — and the network turns a blind eye to it.

It goes without saying that voicing hate — and profiting from it — is a reprehensible act. But in the charged environment we now find ourselves in, where hate against Muslim Americans is surging alongside anti-Semitism, it is particularly irresponsible and repugnant. 

Stamping out bigotry from the public discourse should be everyone's mission. For some, however, injecting intolerance into the conversation seems to be the modus operandi. 

———  BELOW THE FOLD  ———

Murdoch in the Mix: He may have retired, but Rupert Murdoch isn't just sitting idly by on the bench. Addressing investors Thursday after Fox Corporation's earnings report, Lachlan Murdoch said of his father, "I can assure you that he is still very much involved and will continue to be for years to come." The comment was in sync with what Murdoch said earlier this year, vowing to be "involved every day in the contest of ideas." THR's Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing have more here.

► Lachlan also addressed the advertising market: "We hear, and understand, that the advertising market appears to be mixed, or unsettled. However, we are not seeing that to the same extent due to our focus on sports and news. With sports, we’re seeing high demand around our NFL and college football schedule."

Misled by Microsoft: Another day, another example of A.I. and news not mixing well. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and Allison Gordon revealed how Microsoft, after laying off human news editors, has been spotlighting false and bizarre stories on MSN.com, which he noted "remains one of the world’s most trafficked websites and a place where millions of Americans get their news every day." As O'Sullivan noted, "The apparent role of A.I. in Microsoft’s recent amplification of bogus stories raises questions about the company’s public adoption of the nascent technology and for the journalism industry as a whole." Read O'Sullivan and Gordon's full story here.

A 'Very Dumb' Idea: HBO boss Casey Bloys apologized on Thursday for directing staff to fire back at television critics through the use of fake online accounts — an embarrassing move exposed by Rolling Stone, which obtained some of Bloys' text messages as part of a lawsuit. "For those of you who know me, you know that I am a programming executive who is very, very passionate about the shows that we decide to do," Bloys told reporters at a pre-planned event. "I want the shows to be great. I want people to love them. I want you all to love them. It’s very important to me what you all think of the shows. So when you think of that mindset, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I’m home, working from home and spending an unhealthy amount of time scrolling through Twitter. And I come up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration." CNN's Liam Reilly has more here.

► "Obviously, six tweets over a year and a half is not very effective. But I do apologize to the people who were mentioned in the leaked texts," Bloys continued in his remarks. Obviously, nobody wants to be part of a story that they have nothing to do with. But also, as many of you know, I have progressed over the past couple of years to using DMs. So now, when I take issue with something in a review, or take issue with something I see, I DM many of you, and many of you are gracious enough to engage with me in a back and forth and I think that is probably a much healthier way to go about this."

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. We will see you back in your inbox next week.