FOX News reporter David Lee Miller was shot at by Israeli troops while reporting from Gaza. The exchange, shown in this clip, between the anchors and the correspondents on the ground is very telling of the ostrich mentality at FOX News. Two of the three anchors, thousands of miles away from the incident, attempt to excuse Israel: “If you’re somebody and you’re a long ways away and you just see something and you don’t know who it is, sometimes you just start shooting”. One is utterly incredulous: “Really?” After exiting the scene with his crew, the journalist, David Lee Miller, had time to put together that the shots originated from the Israeli position several hundred yards away.

Partial transcript of the incident

FOX HOST: Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, says, “Israeli’s incursion into Lebanon could start a regional war.” We got David Lee Miller there, live, in central Gaza. David Lee, I see you have your flak jacket on. What’s happening?

DAVID LEE MILLER: Right now, Brian, fortunately, not a great deal. We’re on the outskirts of Abala[sic] but yesterday at this very location — in the city here — some 12 Palestinians were killed. At least half of them, according to local sources, were militants. One of them was also a policeman and this is normally a very busy roadway. This is Sala Adini[sic] street. This is the main artery that cuts through the Gaza strip. It goes from the very bottom to the very top of the script. As you can see for yourself, it is a ghost town at this hour. Not a single car is on this road. The reason for that, the Israelis have effectively now, they have cut Gaza in half. There is a strong Israeli presence here. This is the first time that there Israeli troops in Gaza since the withdrawal last summer. And just over my shoulder, off in the distance — you can’t see it in camera range — there are Israeli tanks. There are Israeli tanks and there has been some military activity from shelling and for that reason, as you point out, we are wearing the flak jackets.

[..]

MILLER: …and despite this action in Gaza City, targeting the Foreign Ministry building that is all but gutted at this hour, militants in Gaza today did continue to launch rockets from the northern part of the strip, over the border into nearby Israeli towns and… whoa! We just go fired at. That’s the end of this [broadcast], I think. I don’t know if you guys can still hear us.

HOST: Go… Do what you need to do.

MILLER: I guess we’re still on the satellite here.

HOST: David, do what you need to do to be…

MILLER: someone… fire at us.

HOST: Where… Where…

MILLER: Yes?

HOST: [unintelligible]

MILLER: You see the camera shot don’t you guys?

HOST: Right. Get into a safe place.

MILLER: I think… It sounded… Yeah, we’re actually hunkered down behind our vehicle… it’s difficult to ascertain who fired that shot. A single shot but…

HOST: It’s ok.

MILLER: Oh, someone’s firing. I think we are going to boogie out of here. I… but as we do that — before we just rush into the car, we don’t want to make any sudden movements here. We’re going to get into the vehicle guys.

HOST: Ok. Hold on… David, David, get in the car. Get in the car. Go. We’ll come back to you later.

MILLER: We’re going to get into the vehicle guys. Get in the vehicle… We’re in the… You know… Ok, it’s difficult to tell who’s firing at us. Again, I don’t know if we’re still up on the satellite.

HOST: David, is that an armored car?

MILLER: Overhead we can, over… We’re in an armored car. That affords us a great degree of protection. Another concern that we do have in this location, is that overhead, we can hear off in the distance — again, it’s difficult to ascertain how far in the distance — an Israeli drone aircraft. And it is from those aircraft that the Israelis have launched a number of airstrikes. So, that is an additional concern that we have broadcasting from this location. So, again, I don’t know how far away that gun fire was. If it was Israeli gunfire it’s difficult for us to say. It could just be someone with a weapon. For the most part, the area we’re talking to you from is deserted. We still have that camera picture up and there is no one in sight here in front of us. The road is complete empty the buildings are abandoned. On the left side of your screen, just out of camera range, is one of the abandoned Israeli settlements. There is absolutely no one, no one that we can detect. So, at this time what I’d like to do is communicate with my photographer and see if we can get him to safety…. Pierre, are we going to get in the vehicle here and very slowly but deliberately leave the area. Ok, that said… We still hear shots… We’re going to take our camera down, guys, and we’re going to talk to you from a safer position. We’re going to go.

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