Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:03 pm
I'm going back to Fox News, man I don't think so.
After LL Cool J called Fox News out for trying to sell Sarah Palin’s Real American Stories clip show as new programming, the network responded by claiming that LL does not want to inspire people and took at jab at his acting career. LL’s real motivation was not his concern about inspiration, but the idea that people were going to be fooling into watching a prepackaged best of show hosted by Palin.
Here is the blurb about the show on its website, “What do we share as Americans? A unique history. A love of freedom. An understanding that together we can make a difference. A chance to make our dreams reality. This is a place where people – from all walks of life – can share their personal stories, and talk about what makes this country great. Join us as we celebrate the American Spirit.”
The network made it sound like the show was all new including the celebrity interviews, which included LL Cool J in the first episode. The advertising was designed to lead viewers to believe that LL would be giving an interview to Palin, which as it turns out wasn’t the truth. LL didn’t appreciate being part of the misleading campaign and let the world know how he really felt about it via Twitter, “Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palin’s Show. WOW.”
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Fox being Fox, they didn’t apologize once they were caught, but instead they removed Cool J from the show and attacked him. A Fox News spokesperson told TVnewser, “Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith’s interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.”
Of course, the Fox News spokesperson did avoid the real issue, which is the fact that the network tried to mislead viewers into tuning in to a program that would have featured a two year old interview that Sarah Palin had nothing to do with. Before anyone thinks that this is about partisan politics, you should know that LL Cool J is a Republican who has appeared at the Republican National Convention before.
I know that many of the Palin followers will read something racial into this because LL is black, but this has nothing to do with race, and it might come as a surprise to those on the right but skin color does not automatically make someone an Obama supporter. LL Cool J did not want to be a part of the fraud that Fox News was carrying out. It isn’t any kind of big shock that the network would resort to personal attacks. This whole thing would have been avoided, if the network would have said, we don’t trust Sarah to interview a roll of wet paper towels much less LL Cool J so we are going to have her introduce an old interview. That would have been the honest approach and we all know that Fox News doesn’t do honesty.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
