Fox News: A Trifecta of Racism

There can be no doubt, now, that the general election season has begun: John McCain will have no need to break his promise to run a friendly campaign, since Fox News is doing his dirty work for him. This disreputable news network now seeks to subtly invoke ideas of difference and foreign-ness in connection with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, hoping to tie him to terrorism and all that’s wrong with inner-city culture. Fox is playing upon the worst part of the American consciousness, appealing to our xenophobia and our unspoken racisms and biases, to tar the name of our candidate, thus glossing over the deep, deep failings of the Republican platform. After all, what do real issues matter if you can convince the public that the Democratic candidate is a terrorist, Black Panther, secret Muslim?

Now more than ever, Fox News is bad for democracy. This is an election that must be about America’s future; we are so screwed, in so many different ways, that we need as high-level, as national, and as serious a dialogue about our future as is possible in the 24-hour news network era. By pandering to emotion and base biases, Fox is doing more than undermining Barack Obama; it’s selling out America’s future, and wrecking our chances at repairing the damages of the Bush years. This must stop. And now, a recap:

First, we have a nice moment of a husband and wife connecting on the campaign trail – with a little fist pound – turned into, according to Fox News, what might be seen as a “terrorist fist jab.” Watch and learn:

Now, you may say that the Fox News reporter is just “reporting what someone else thought.” That’s the position their reporter takes in the clip below. Rather than excuse Fox’s conduct, though, in my mind it compounds the error: it shows that the name of Fox News’ game isn’t to openly advocate, but more to subversively suggest that others are saying something racist… so maybe you should too. There is a point at which reporting on others’ insane racism, without coupling the report with criticism or explanation, becomes an endorsement thereof. Fox News crossed that line, discussing and thereby “mainstreaming” a racist interpretation of an innocent gesture. Best case scenario, the remark and explication were careless, tactless, and tasteless; worst case, they were attempts to insert into the American mind the idea that mischaracterizing a simple hand gesture as a terrorist act or symbol is more mainstream than it actually is. Fox is trying to make it acceptable to be suspicious of everything a black man does. And that’s not okay.

Let’s watch the laughable apology anyways:

And last, we have Fox News referring, in caption, to Barack Obama’s wife Michelle as his “baby mama.” Background: a “baby mama” is, in street or rap lingo, the unwed mother of one’s child. The term connotes a casual relationship, devaluing the love between Barack and Michelle, and also evokes an equivalence between Barack Obama and casual sex, and the degradation of the family. But, let’s watch Fox News dig itself deeper:

Setting aside the horrifically racist undertones evoked by the usage of the term, the context of the quote is so bad as to be laughable. Fox issues its offensive innuendo just before Michelle Malkin – handmaiden to Ann Coulter – comes on camera to counsel Republicans to stick to Michelle Obama’s issues, and avoid attacking her or Obama’s family personally, lest the Republican party face “backlash.”

Oops.

But let’s talk silver lining. Malkin talks about backlash, but it’s better than that. We knew that Obama would face flak, stereotyping, and rumors, for being the first serious black candidate, but we did not know that his wife would called, essentially, a tramp. This is a chance to show disenchanted women voters – who, for God knows what reason, would apparently consider voting for McCain now that Hillary’s out – where the line is. Malkin and Fox News have proved exactly how anti-feminist the modern Republican party, and the modern conservative movement, have become, half-baked apology notwithstanding.

First, they came for Hillary Clinton. Then, they came for Michelle Obama…