Macklemore Said 'Free Palestine.' Fox Wrote 'Antisemitic Rants.'

Fox News has a small problem. Its headline and its own article can't agree on what Macklemore actually did.

Here's the headline, on Fox's sports site OutKick: "Ex-Auburn coach Bruce Pearl hails Robert Kraft as a hero for banning Macklemore over antisemitic rants." No quote marks. No "accused of." That's Fox talking, not the coach.

Now scroll down. In the article, Fox says Macklemore "sparked controversy with anti-Israel rants." Anti-Israel inside, antisemitic on the front door. Same article, same writer, two different labels.

Those aren't the same thing. Criticizing a government is one thing. Hating Jewish people is another. A headline is supposed to know which one it means.

What actually happened? On September 4, opening for Ed Sheeran in New Jersey, Macklemore played a pro-Palestinian song, chanted "Free Palestine" and showed footage from Gaza. Venues then refused to host the tour with him. Patriots owner Robert Kraft banned him from his stadium, pointing to his history, including a 2014 costume widely condemned as a Jewish caricature. Macklemore apologized for that costume in 2014.

Here's the funny part. Fox used to be careful. In 2023, its headline said Macklemore "was accused of antisemitism." Accused. Three years later, the accusation dropped its quote marks and moved into the headline as a fact. No trial. It just got promoted.

Fox's other Macklemore story, about his new Free Palestine Tour, is headlined "Macklemore slammed as 'performative'." Slammed by whom? Anonymous people on X. Fox also quoted fans calling him "a hero." So "slammed" really means "the internet had opinions." It always does.

Other newsrooms kept it plain. NBC went with "Macklemore announces Free Palestine Tour."

You can think Macklemore is wrong. Bruce Pearl clearly does, and he's free to say so. But "a coach calls it hate" and "it's hate" are different sentences. In our view, a news headline should know which one it's printing.