Now comes an irony.
Recently, at my mention of President Obama singing "Let's Stay Together," an
acquaintance sort of instinctively let out: "I can't stand Obama."
This was a stunner because the assumption was that he's thoroughly apolitical.
Regardless of the candidate or the issue, this guy never votes.
He was asked if he
watches "Fox News" and though he replied in the affirmative, it was
later determined that he actually views general programming on a local Fox
affiliate (like The Simpsons or American Idol). But he never watches
the Fox channel that matters; the spiteful "fair and balanced"
network of Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and a host of other journalistic frauds.
So, as it turns out this guy doesn't even know that he doesn't watch Fox
News. Yet he's likely to score higher than someone who watches the Fox News Channel
every day.
As this incident
seems to illustrate, you don't necessarily have to watch the Fox News Channel
to dislike President Obama. However, it sure seems like the place to go if you
want to learn to hate him. And that's something that I gather is linked to Fox
News Channel's "dumber than a doorknob" viewer demographic which the
Farleigh-Dickenson study again uncovered. But it wouldn't be "fair and
balanced" to fail to acknowledge that "dumb," isn't exactly how
Fox viewers were identified in the study: "least informed" was
the description used.
While one can only
speculate how hard-core Fox viewers would react to that bit of
politically-correct terminology, it's hardly conjecture to presume that at the
very least, only the least informed would give credence to the aborted "re-swift boating" if you will, of
President Obama. It was to be a multi-million-dollar plan -- underwritten by
the owner of the Chicago Cubs -- to resurrect Rev. Wright as a
campaign issue. As is generally the case when it comes to anti-Obama agit-prop,
racially-motivated or otherwise, this endeavor would rely heavily on the
immense network of right-wing conservative media outlets including of course,
the place to turn for blatant liberal distortions and distinctive WTF-did-they-say?-style
presentations of over-the-top hyperbole -- Fox News.
A
Racist Renaissance?
It should be pointed
out that Fox News Channel is not the primary focus here. But its
influence on social and political discourse in America and abroad is far too
significant to be overlooked, particularly when the topic is racism . It's also worth noting that media
racism is not a problem struggled with by Fox alone. And while it seems to run rampant among Republican social conservatives,
one can safely assume that racial prejudice doesn't discriminate on the basis
of political party or philosophy. What is inarguable however is that since the
election of this President, both the presence of racism
within the GOP and Fox's contributions to racial
pot-stirring have grown so overt that denying it would be nothing short of
delusional.
But it's said that
only a fool leans upon his own misunderstandings and clearly within the ranks
of the Obama-haters reside quite a few. As such, there's rarely a shortage of
stalwart defenders of an alternate reality. And they come forth prepared to
respond to charges of anti-Obama racism in a manner expected of anyone prone to
under-thinking and overreacting: by blocking their ears and bellowing out the
familiar litany of nauseatingly trite denials. But the challenge to anyone
considering joining those ranks is how to explain any of several
well-publicized events with racial overtones that involved the President.
Among them:
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