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Fox News apologizes to Greta Thunberg after a TV pundit calls her 'mentally ill Swedish child'

The channel said it had no plans to have conservative writer Michael Knowles as guest in the future.
UPDATED MAR 24, 2020
Greta Thunberg (Getty Images)
Greta Thunberg (Getty Images)

Fox News issued an apology to climate activist Greta Thunberg on September 24 after a conservative pundit on the network called her a "mentally ill Swedish child." The pundit made the jibe at the 16-year-old after she gave a speech at the United Nations in New York on September 23.

Conservative writer and The Daily Wire host Michael Knowles appeared on Fox News' The Story on Monday and said the Swedish teenager was "being exploited by her parents and the international left," while branding her "ill." A few hours after Knowles' controversial remark, another Fox News host took aim at the schoolgirl by comparing her to the children in the Stephen King horror film, 'Children of the Corn.' 

Knowles said he believed Thunberg was part of "climate hysteria" that was not about science. "The climate hysteria movement is not about science. If it were about science, it would be led by scientists, rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left," he said.

Knowles, however, was promptly slammed by Liberal podcast host Chris Hahn, who was also a guest on the show, as he said that the conservative writer should be ashamed of his comments. As Knowles began to interrupt Hahn said: "Relax, skinny boy. I got this. You're attacking a child. You're a grown man."

"She is mentally ill. She has autism. She has obsessive-compulsive disorder, she has selective mutism. She had depression," Knowles replied. Fox News later apologized for the comments made by Knowles and said the network had "no plans" for him to appear as a guest in the future.

A spokesperson for Fox News, while speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, said: "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.' 

Knowles, however, defended his comments saying that the child activist's own mother wrote about her mental health problems in the past. "There is nothing shameful about living with mental disorders. Your suggestion to the contrary is not only wrong but deeply offensive," Knowles tweeted. "Did Greta's mother insult her when she wrote a book describing the child's struggles with mental and developmental disorders?"

Thunberg, who initiated her campaign by striking from school in Sweden, has described her autism as a "superpower." 

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