Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:52 pm
While this week’s Friday Fox Follies is being compiled, Fox is on quietly in the background in case there’s breaking pedantry.
Is it just me or is the Fear & Resentment network taking particular delight in the National Review trashing Donald Trump’s Conservative cred? We would be remiss in not pointing out how Fairly Balancing Hate & Resentment led to the Rise of Trump in the first place, but more about him later.
Broadcasting a steady stream of Hate & Resentment has consequences as a Lawyer Blames Fox News and Booze For Client’s Criminal Threats on Muslim Group. This must have been a hard core, long-time viewer, right? Uh, no. Cali man threatened to shoot up Muslim civil rights group after watching Fox News for a week. Just a week?
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We would also be remiss if we didn’t provide additional historic context with Glenn Beck and the Oakland shooter and Bill O’Reilly Has Dr. George Tiller’s Blood On His Well-stained Hands.
As I reported back then, Kicked to the Curb Elisabeth Hasselbeck [asked]: Why Hasn’t #BlackLivesMatter Been Classified as a Hate Group? But, when will the mainstream media start asking whether Fox “News” qualifies as a Hate & Resentment Group?
#FOXLIESMATTER: Nothing shows how Fox pits one element of society off against another more than any time the story is about race. This week there were 2 doozies, starting with Foxy Friend Steve Doocy and How Fox News Celebrates Martin Luther King Day:
Jesus, if Steve Doocy were any dumber he’d have to be fed by hand by a pet monkey. But it’s important to understand the role that Alveda King plays in the bizarro universe that the right wing has invented and lives in. She provides the right wing with a handy spokesperson to dishonestly claim that MLK was really a conservative, not a left-wing democratic socialist. And she’s more than happy to lie about him to provide both herself and other far-right extremists with a thin veneer of respectability to cover their regressive agenda.
It helps no one when Fox Invokes MLK To Race-Bait ‘War On Police’ or when a Fox News Focus Group Member Complains, ‘You Can’t Even Speak The Truth Any More Or Else You’ll Be Called A Racist.’ While the Camptown Races sing this song all the doo dah day, Fox Panel Shocked SC Debate Sponsored By Congressional Black Caucus Institute Spotlighted Racial Justice.
The second story on race led to this unfortunate contretemps in which Stacy Dash, in her first public appearance on Fox since being suspending for using a word that I cannot use in this column without adding asterisks (so why bother?) blew up the internet, as all the hip writers now say.
First some context: In my decade of working on a morning tee vee show, no one got on the air without us knowing what they were going to say. I did enough pre-interviews to provide notes to the host to know why that’s done. So, when ‘Clueless’ actress Stacey Dash shreds Oscar diversity, BET, Black History Month and Obama, those Foxy Friends on Fox & Friends knew exactly what they were getting: Cheap publicity for a new controversy. [Mea culpa, I guess.]
Stacey Dash Speaks Out on 2016
Oscars Boycott: ‘It’s Ludicrous’
From there the story gets even stupider. Within minutes of that Uncle Tomfoolery we get the Plantation Owner’s point of view when Donald Trump Agrees With Stacey Dash’s ‘Amazing’ Point About BET Awards, according to Mediaite:
“I saw somebody on your show today saying well, what do we do with BET? Black Entertainment, right?” Trump said, as the hosts indicated it was Dash. “So over there — the whites don’t get any nominations or don’t get — and I thought it was an amazing interview, actually. I never even thought of it from that standpoint.”
Before you start up your #BETAwardsSoBlack hashtag, though, Trump went on to say that he doesn’t think this year’s awards are properly representative, that it’s a “sad” and “difficult situation,” and in a rare case of the pot calling the kettle black while avoiding actually calling him black, that Al Sharpton just wants publicity.
The whole Oscar boycott dealie even had a Talking Pointy Head™ talking when Bill O’Reilly [said]: Black People Not Nominated For Oscars Should Be Like Him: “I’m Not Boycotting”:
BILL O’REILLY (HOST): There is a lot of people of color work in the industry so maybe you branch that out. I want to raise this specter. I’ve had two movies nominated for best TV film for the Emmys. Killing Jesus and Killing Kennedy. Alright? Now we knew we were going to lose. We knew. Because of me. Now if the executive producer would have been Bill Maher, those movies I think would have won. But I’m not boycotting. That’s not the kind of guy I am. But, there are politics to be played. But it would be hard it believe they were just trying to exclude black films.
No better this: On The Kelly File, Kevin Jackson Says Black People Should “Make Better Films” If They Want To Get Oscar Nominations, but our fave reax was when Roland Martin Destroys Stacey Dash: ‘Don’t Make an Ass Outta Yourself, Lookin’ Like a Damn Fool.’ Watch as you read along:
Martin began by pointing out that white people do participate in and win the award ceremonies Dash cited, then began a slideshow of Dash’s appearances on the covers of pretty much every black-skewing magazine known to man, and several I think he just made up. He finished by advising Dash to give him a call next time before she goes on Fox News:
If you go on Fox News and you dare to open your mouth to criticize things that are black-specific, you might want to check your own history and your past, Stacey. Because guess what? I know how to use Google, I know how to call you out, because see I’m not a fake, fraudulent commentator on television, see? I don’t act. This is real. I went to school for this. You didn’t.
So the next time you embarrass yourself, and you lie, please pull your phone out, pull your iPad, and say ‘Let me at least call a brother like Roland, who might tell me before I go on, don’t make a ass outta yourself, lookin’ like a damn fool.’
It didn’t stop there. BET Hits Back at Stacey Dash: Hey, Remember When You Appeared On Our Network? It even infected The View — which is The Five for thinking people — when Whoopi Grills White Co-Host: ‘What Do You Know About Black History?’
IN LIKE FLINT: To paraphrase almost everybody, “if the Flint Poisoning happened in an affluent White community, would the Fox reaction be any different?” The corollary to that? If a Democratic governor poisoned a majority Black city, would the Fox reaction be any different?
Fox News host dismisses Democratic
concern for Flint water crisis as
a way to “get more black votes”
Fox Host: Democratic Response To
Michigan Water Crisis Meant To
“Potentially Get More Black Votes”
Fox Blames Flint Water Crisis On
Residents And President Obama
Fox News Race Baits Flint Water Crisis
Only on Fox “News” could a humanitarian disaster like the Flint water crisis be used to race bait.
A FOLLOW-UP TO LAST WEEK:
Rupert Murdoch Calls Report
Of Ailes’ Diminishment ‘Bulls***’
But Didn’t Really Disprove It
Meanwhile, was he tipping his hand in a little tweet sent out this week?
Rupert Murdoch: Donald Trump
Has “The Winning Strategy”
Maybe the winning rating’s strategy is to promote Trump until there is no more Trump as Fox News Releases Criteria for Next Week’s GOP Debate, while Fox News Partners with Google for Next Week’s Debate.
Talk of the next debate makes me think of the Trump-Kelly feud, which may have just been given more fuel when The Anti-Trump Conservatives Megyn Kelly Hosted All Want Ted Cruz. That doesn’t seem very Fair & Balanced to me. Neither does the 5 worst right-wing moments of the week — Megyn Kelly will never be a voice of reason.
While still on the Trump stump, which has always been a Fox Production:
Donald Trump Cites The
War On Christmas As Proof
Christianity Is ‘Under Siege’
Fox Reporter Uses European
Sexual Assaults To Justify
Trump’s Muslim Ban
Here’s why only true adults should be pundits on the tee vee:
However, after he trashed her father for being captured, Meghan McCain [said what everybody else was thinking]: ‘It’s Hard for Me to Watch’ Palin Endorse. However, the endorsement may have backfired due to Palin Family Values because these Fox News Pundits Think Palin’s Rant About Son Track’s Arrest And PTSD Was Nuts.
BENGHAZI BOX OFFICE BOMB: Why Did 13 Hours, Michael Bay’s Benhgazi Film, Do Poorly in Opening Weekend? as it is REPORT[ed]: Fox News Spent Nearly Three Hours Promoting Michael Bay’s Benghazi Film As A Threat To Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t quite 13 Hours Of Fox News Benghazi Cheerleading, but it sure seemed like it. The best reason given for this BO dud? Gutfeld Takes Out ’13 Hours’ Failure On ‘Finger-Sniffing’ Lefty Bloggers.
True, the Benghazi movie didn’t make as much money as others. But let’s use that metric of success on the sad lefty blogger. You’re still at home in your stained sweats, eating Top Ramen over the sink, waiting for the next comic book blockbuster to rescue you from your finger-sniffing misery.
That knee-slapper was followed up by a discussion in which cohost Eric Bolling argued, with a straight face, that it was the left that “injected” politics into the movie, thereby suggesting it was their fault the movie was unpopular.
According to Eric Wemple’s WaPo story Report: Fox News totally gorged on ’13 Hours’ Benghazi movie coverage:
The game plan of Fox News vis-a-vis “13 Hours” (which is based on the book “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi“) was telegraphed by “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy over the summer, when the film’s trailer came out. Yes, Fox News found the trailer newsworthy. “This movie, if it’s really popular, is going to force her to answer some questions,” said Doocy of Clinton. Precisely!
So Fox News set out to make the movie really popular. On one level, it succeeded, as “13 Hours,” according to reports, performed well in red states, though not so well in liberal precincts. Overall, it fell far short of other films of its genre. Maybe the movie-going public, after watching endless Fox News segments about Benghazi over the past few years, felt there wasn’t much left to learn about the tragedy.
Maybe there are limits to the Fox “News” Channel getting its audience out of the house and away from the tee vee.
LOOFAH LAFFS: Sometimes he deserves his own section for his supreme hypocrisy. Every weeknight he tries to sway public opinion in his Spin Zone, but Bill O’Reilly Attacks Group Criticizing Donald Trump’s “Hate Speech”:
O’Reilly went on to criticize the statement of “Stop Hate Dump Trump” member Eve Ensler in which she criticized the media for “normalizing Trump’s extremism by treating it as entertainment.” O’Reilly claimed this was a threat, saying the group was not “free to threaten anyone who reports on him.”
O’Reilly’s criticism of the group ignored Trump’s own repeated threats to members of the press, having reporters physically removed from events, and even mocking a journalist’s disability.
Why did O’Reilly Goes Off on ‘Totalitarian’ Dump Trump Group: Trying to ‘Control Thought’? Maybe because:
There are a lot of big names that have signed on, including Harry Belafonte, Noam Chomsky, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, Danny Glover, Macy Gray, Michael Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Gloria Steinem, and Cornel West.
Look at that. They’re all people The Falafel King hates. Other headlines he generated this week include:
Bill O’Reilly Whitewashes
White Domestic Terrorism In
Newest Anti-Professor Fatwa
O’Reilly’s Tip Of The Day:
Socialism “Damages Human Beings”
Bill O’Reilly: It Would Be “A
GOP Dream” If Bernie Sanders
Wins The Democratic Nomination
[On the O’Reilly Factor] Fox
Co-Host Praises Center For
Medical Progress’ Misleading
Planned Parenthood Videos
As “Investigatory Journalism”
O’Reilly: Is There Anything
More Loathsome Than
Planned Parenthood?
The easy rejoinder: Is there anyone more loathsome than Bill O’Reilly? Maybe there is.
O’Reilly Calls Out Cruz: We’ve
Been Trying to Book Him for Weeks
O’Reilly Grills Huckabee for
‘Casting Aspersions’ on Cruz’s Faith
I RAN FROM IRAN: Fox “News” demonstrated its anti-POTUS bias in how it handled the release of 4 hostages from Iran.
Fox Too Busy Trying To Cut ‘Entitlements’ To Discuss Americans Released From Iran • Fox’s John Bolton Complains Americans Freed From Iran Is ‘Diplomatic Debacle’ For The US • Fox ‘Balances’ Republican Criticism Of Iran Prisoner Release With A Democrat – Who Criticizes It
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT’S DUE: I’ve long made fun of whiny man-boy Tucker with an F Carlson, but he managed to impress this week, with a truth bomb:
Carlson Blasts Palin’s ‘Disjointed
Speeches,’ Says Trump Looked ‘
Out of His Element’ at Rally
I’m probably the only one thinking this, but I’m not convinced that Sarah Palin is good for Trump at all. She’s not that impressive, she squandered this great political capital she had eight years ago and hasn’t achieved anything since, and also she gives disjointed speeches. The whole point of Donald Trump is that he doesn’t take endorsements or need them. He is running outside normal channels, he doesn’t suck up, he’s beholden to no one. And that is one of the reasons he looks so uncomfortable. I’m sure I’m only one who think this, he looks like a guy out of his element all of sudden.
Not the only one. The station’s other whiny man-boy felt the same way:
Fox’s Gutfeld Goes Off on
Palin: She’s ‘Abandoning’ Her
Faith to Throw In with Trump
Maybe it’s a whiny man-boy thing.
THE TARANTULA BITES:
Fox’s Tantaros: “We don’t know if
John Kerry is mentally alive or not”
Andrea Tantaros Lies About Hillary
Clinton “Jailing” Anti-Muslim Filmmaker
Is there anyone on Fox more loathsome than Tantaros?
FOX BYTES: Fox News’ Herman Cain Blames Stock Market Plummet On Obama • Anna Kooiman Gushes Over Light Effect Resembling Jesus’ Cross • Fox News Hosts Robin Leach To Bash England For Considering Banning Donald Trump • In Unhinged Rant, Fox’s Pirro Warns Nikki Haley To Be ‘Very, Very Careful’ And Support Donald Trump
Headly Westerfield is Head Writer at the Not Now Silly Newsroom, which recently published The Palin Family’s Greatest [Literal] Hits.
