Fox News Lady Sorry She Insisted That Home Alone 2 Edit Was A Candian Plot To 'Censor' Trump

What has the world come to?

This week, there was a whole bunch of hubbub over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation airing an edit of the seminal 1992 holiday film Home Alone 2: Lost In New York in which Donald Trump's cameo was cut for time. Trump himself even claimed that this was somehow the nefarious doings of one Justin Trudeau as some kind of NATO-based revenge. On Thursday's edition of Fox and Friends , co-host Katie Pavlich claimed that this was obviously "censorship" and all the other co-hosts agreed that it was exemplary of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and that the scene was cut because Canada itself was terrified to show that before Donald Trump was the New Hitler, he was a beloved cultural figure.

And sure, that was a thing. For a while. Right up until he started hollering at Rosie O'Donnell, and accusing President Obama of faking his birthplace and generally turning himself into a national joke. Lots of people have been beloved cultural icons prior to everyone figuring out they are actually horrible.

Anyway, the big problem with this very prescient take is that this particular edit happened not this year, but in 2014, back when "President Donald Trump" was still a bad Simpson's joke. So unless these editors had psychic powers of some kind and just knew that Donald Trump was going to run for president two years later on a platform of pussy-grabbing and racism, it really was just a not-very-important-scene being cut for time to make room for commercials.

On Friday's edition of The Five, on which Pavlich also appeared, she actually — shockingly enough — acknowledged this and admitted that she was wrong about it being "censorship."

Via The Daily Beast (where you can also watch the clip):

At the end of Friday's edition of Fox News chatfest The Five, Pavlich—serving as one of the hosts—took a moment to issue something of a mea culpa. After co-host Dana Perino noted that the CBC insisted the film wasn't edited for political purposes, which guest host Michael Loftus called a "lie," Pavlich addressed her previous remarks.

"I have to issue a correction," the conservative Fox host stated. "Because apparently this edit happened in 2014."
"I was saying it would have been censorship if they did it now," she added. "Because it would have been political. But it happened before he was president. So I apologize for that. However, it is still stupid."

And that is probably the best anyone is getting out of her. Why it's stupid, we don't know. Maybe she feels as though this was a very important plot point in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York ? I wouldn't know! As much as I do love Tim Curry and Catherine O'Hara, I don't think I've actually seen that movie since I was a child.

Just to be clear though, there's a reason they are doing this — and as absolutely stupid and petty as it sounds, it's actually quite smart. In a way. It makes these people identify even more fiercely with Trump, it makes them feel like they have to step up and defend him from the mean liberals who won't even let him have his Home Alone cameo, and that creates loyalty like you can't believe. Are Trump, his supporters, or Fox viewers in general actually being "censored?" Of course not. But "I've been censored" is a lot easier on the ego than "No one wants to hear my shit." So the more Trump and Fox play up the "censorship!" and "freeze peach" angles on things, the more validated their target audience feels. They know they've got a winner with this particular line of bullshit, and they're not wrong .

The way this particular incident ended was perfect. It wasn't that Trump was being "censored," it was that the movie was edited well before he was ever president, and instead of looking like victims, they all looked like fools. All they needed was enough rope.

[ The Daily Beast ]

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