Fox News Apologizes After Daily Wire Host Calls Greta Thunberg a 'Mentally Ill Swedish Child' on Air

Conservatives who are presumably shocked at being one-upped by a teenager armed with facts and passion have been piling on Greta Thunberg for days. On Monday night, Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles added to that pile, calling Thunberg a “mentally ill Swedish child” on Fox News. Fox News, to its extremely mild credit, has apologized—for Knowles, not for its own equally awful hosts.

Knowles joined commentator Christopher Hahn to discuss efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, and immediately started in on Thunberg.

“The climate hysteria movement is not about science,” he said. “If it were about science, it would be led by scientists, rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who’s being exploited by her parents and by the international left.”

For one thing, scientists have spent decades screaming from the quickly-melting rafters about impending climate doom—if anything, politicians have only just now jumped on the bandwagon. For another, reducing a 16-year-old activist on the autism spectrum to a “mentally ill” child is downright despicable, and Hahn told Knowles as much.

“You’re a grown man and you’re attacking a child. Shame on you,” Hahn said. When Knowles tried to protest, Hahn cut him off:“

Relax, skinny boy, I got this. You’re attacking a child. You’re a grown man, have some couth. Maybe on your podcast you can get away with whatever you want because nobody’s listening, but you’re on television. Be a grown up when you’re talking about children. She’s trying to save the planet because your president doesn’t believe in climate change. You should apologize on national television right now…You called her mentally ill. You’re despicable.

It’s pretty good:

Fox News immediately tried to put out fires, telling the Daily Beast in a statement, “The comment made by Michael Knowles who was a guest on The Story tonight was disgraceful—we apologize to Greta Thunberg and to our viewers.” Never mind Fox & Friends spent this morning attacking Thunberg for spreading a “message of fear,” (fear of climate change, which is very real, and should be eliciting way more fear and panic than it is) or that conservatives spent today calling Thunberg a “freak,” with one saying she “needs a spanking or a psychological intervention” The right better fucking come for their people.