Fox News, pandering to racists in the way they do best . . .
. . . as witnessed Thursday on Hannity, Fox's attacks have taken an increasingly racially charged tone: Brent Bozell, who runs the factually challenged outfit of conservative misinformation known as the Media Research Center, likened Obama to "a skinny, ghetto crackhead."
Bozell appeared on Hannity as part of the show's weekly "Media Mash" segment to talk about purported mainstream media failings. After listening to a clip of MSNBC host Chris Matthews saying that Newt Gingrich "looks like a car bomber," Bozell responded:
BOZELL: How long do you think Sean Hannity's show would last if four times in one sentence, he made a comment about, say, the President of the United States, and said that he looked like a skinny, ghetto crackhead? Which, by the way, you might want to say that Barack Obama does. Everybody on the left would come forward and demand he be fired within five minutes for being so insulting towards a leader of the United States.
mediamatters.org
Wow! The fact that the first place this guy goes is to "skinny ghetto crackhead" says exactly what Brent Bozell has on his mind. Most people would save skinny ghetto crackhead for his third or fourth punch, but Brent leads with skinny ghetto crackhead in his long winded softball whine fest about the mean ole liberal media (meaning anything and everything that doesn't agree with the Fox/GOP narrative). So, Brent Bozell goes there. In a diatribe about how mean Chris Matthews was about Newt. And Newt is a cuddly teddy bear in the eyes of Fox spin but the other guy, I don't know, there is something about him Fox just can't trust. Hmmmm.
Keep it classy, Fox News.
More below the fold . . .
Can we all agree that "Skinny ghetto crackhead" might as well equal the n-bomb? For Godssakes he's the duly elected President of the United States, not Pookie from New Jack City! He just happens to be black, smarter than you and more popular. Deal with it.
This incident happened last week, but I was ticked off over the weekend about it, and had to write about it today. It's going to be 2012 in a few days and I'm just sick and tired of Fox & Republicans appealing to racists with dog whistle phrasing and a wink and a smile attitude about it. When it comes to racism, Fox gets so close to the line it gets chalk on it's shoes. Fox should be constantly called out for pandering to racists.
One of the reasons I love my Union Army Kepi is that it reminds me that the people who fly the confederate flag aren't allowed to call themselves the "Party of Lincoln" anymore.
What a disgrace to America that these racist, dogwhistle blowing carnival barkers at Fox are allowed to consistently say everything short of the n-bomb about Obama and not get called out on it. Where is the rest of the media on this? Hell, the GOP has been running a racist 50 state southern strategy for 40 years, you'd think someone would call them out on it eventually!
One of the worst parts of all this is that the taping of this segment was pre-recorded. I have done pre-recorded segments myself recently. The editors have much more control in a pre-recorded segment than they do over live air. Fox News could have edited out this disgraceful exchange. Instead, they aired it.
And all while whining about fear mongering and hate mongering from the "Liberal Media" Puhleeeze! So here's a New Rule: The biggest bully in the room who hates gays, black people and everyone who isn't a white male straight rich christian conservative, the guy who is pro torture and anti-empathy, that guy is not allowed to play the victim ever again. Especially not when he is comparing the first black American president to a "skinny ghetto crackhead" before adding "which he is."
Here's the truth, when people who disagree with Republicans ON THE FACTS can't be dismissed then Republicans cry about "hate mongering" and "fear mongering", you know, the same tactics Republicans use to rile up their reality-divorced homophobic xenophobic base on a daily basis. If we could put every fake Republican crocodile tear in one place there wouldn't have been a drought in Texas this year.
So keep it classy, Fox News. I mean, it's not like this hasn't happened at NewsCorp before . . .
Cheers for standing up and not backing down.
Peace and love to all,
You can follow me at @JesseLaGreca