Enough is enough. And even FOX News had to pull a quick switcheroo after Bundy said black people would have been far better off if they remained slaves. Still stuck in the 1950s and referring to African-Americans as "negroes," this greedy, self-serving, right-wing sociopath even promoted "cotton picking" as a good way for black people to spend their time these days.
"They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton," Bundy said. "And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
Obviously taken aback by this, on Thursday, April 24, Hannity said on his show that Bundy uttered "disturbing comments". Then Hannity fired out this statement: "I believe those comments are downright racist, they are repugnant, they are bigoted, and it's beyond disturbing. I find those comments to be deplorable, and I think it's extremely unfortunate that Cliven Bundy holds those views."
And this is why Hannity and FOX News decided to attack, rather than support, Bundy and his gun-wielding band? Being a terrorist and a tax dodger is fine; but no, being a hate-mongering racist, now that just won't do!
It's disturbing that FOX News has become such a right-wing, radical, propaganda machine. Why did FOX not see red flags when Bundy orchestrated a week-long standoff with law enforcement? What if police were shot at, wounded, or killed? If some of Bundy's supporters were maimed or killed by law enforcement, would Hannity and FOX News have lambasted police organizations involved in the skirmish? All's well that ends well, in a peaceful resolution. Thank goodness these are only hypotheticals and not realities.
But there are other questions concerning journalistic ethics left to ponder. If the standoff did not end peacefully as it did, and turned into a bloodbath, would FOX News have defended Bundy's gang as freedom fighters? Would FOX have defended Hannity? And all this begs the question that if some right-wing militia group commits an act of heinous terrorism, resulting in a bloodbath, will FOX pundits, managers and execs defend and support such an act of domestic terrorism? Before Hannity's undying support of Cloven Clivan - the media diva wearing the big cowboy hat - most Americans might even give FOX the benefit of the doubt, but now it's easy to wonder about FOX being a dangerous rogue network.
Sean Hannity is a talentless hack. He's not a journalist and his personality is so vile that he's about as likeable as an antagonist in a James Patterson novel. To call him anything less than a bullying propaganda spreader would do injustice to the valiant profession of journalism -- whether it be on the right or the left side of American politics.
I have watched him night after night, for years, cut off guests on his program who disagree with him. I have watched him become livid and red faced with other guests, barking and shouting at them as if he's some demented schoolmaster heading up a Victorian boarding school. And I have perennially witnessed Hannity not give any mention, let alone credence, to the opposing side of any argument discussed on his show. No, instead, he merely ridicules, usually with acidic sarcasm.
And I have watched Hannity's blatant sophistry as he argues for the sake of arguing. Whatever the far right wants, the far right gets. That's Hannity. He's the guy who's soaking the tea bags in the kitchen, over the stove, for this 24-hour-a-day, 365-1/4-a-day annual 'Tea Party extravaganza' that FOX News has constantly and consistently evolved in to, more volatile and dangerous than ever.
Hannity is a political Pinocchio pundit. He has no sense of humor. He's rigid, stoic, humorless, and sententiously barks words like an angry dog. Now he's been caught dead to rights in his blind support of Clivan Bundy and a house of cards came falling down, down, down. On Hannity, Bundy's refusal to pay grazing fees to the government and the standoff were the headline news of the day for weeks on end. What's laughable is that when Bundy suddenly became a ranting racist, a very sober and shocked Sean jumped around and steered his crackpot kayak as if he was 50 feet from Class V whitewater rapid.
As a regular viewer of FOX News, I do not feel that this network cares much about minorities, and even tends to manipulate the circumstances surrounding sundry news events to put minorities in a bad light. When Malcolm X said, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing," I think, if Malcolm X was still alive, he would include FOX News in this quote.
In the recent past, FOX News' empathy towards, and even siding with George Zimmerman during the time he was on trial for murdering Treyvon Martin is indicative that Malcolm X's quote still rings true. And FOX News unrelenting coverage of black kids involved with the knock-out game also is proof positive that this network stirs the pot of racial hatred. Didn't FOX not realize that other racial groups, including young whites, were punching elderly targets? Yes, white kids play the knock-out game, too, and they're so damned proud of this that they've even posted their atrocities on YouTube and on social networking sites. But in covering knock-out game incidents, why were all the participants black youths? Another example is FOX's pundits continual scoffing at Native Americans who do not like Indian sports mascots. Who cares, get over it, you Indians, seems FOX News hosts' general attitude on the subject. And when was the last time FOX did a documentary on other issues and concerns facing American Indians? Did they ever do a story on the mass adoptions of Indian children, particularly Lakota Oglala Sioux, by other races? Has FOX News covered Natives who are demonstrating against the Keystone XL Pipeline through treaty lands from the Midwest's Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico? Has FOX News ever interviewed spokesmen from the American Indian Movement, Idle No More, or tribal leaders when covering ecological or environmental issues like fracking or mining on reservation lands?
But perhaps the most conspicuous example of FOX News' ongoing surreptitious race baiting is the network's constant disparagement - for years on end now - of a black U.S. President. I have never seen this rogue news organization give Barack Obama even a small compliment in either of Obama's terms in office. How can FOX News brag about being "fair and balanced"?
FOX News megaphones the interests of the rich, powerful, entitled elite of America. They try to aggrandize all others with their web of lies and mishmash of propaganda. It's horrible - FOX News is nothing more than a tea party packed with dangerous and insane sophists who scream around a crooked table.
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