Yellow Journalism is alive and well on cable
Alright, I admit, we know that FOX is an entertainment network in an unabashed hunt for ratings, but at some point you have to call a slander a slander even when it comes from the “Fair and Balanced” people. To imply that the Obama children were born out of wedlock, that Michelle Obama is a single mother, is ludicrous. It flies in the face of the evidence, and tells us more about Megyn Kelly and Michelle Malkin and how out of touch they are than anything else.
Did they think they’d fool somebody? I realize it’s lately fashionable to try to smear and irritate Mrs. Obama, but with all the effort going in to finding mud to fling at her it’s stunning that FOX would support such an overt, transparent lie. Make no mistake, the network supported it – the graphic at the bottom of the screen during the slanderous falsehood makes that abundantly clear.
Want to read more? Check out Salon’s coverage. There’s a video and further explication if you’ve missed the story up ’til now.
Want to give FOX a piece of your mind? Don’t bother: they’re after ratings, so the controversy delights them. Even my writing about it probably builds their joy. What’s effective is only what undermines their ratings. So encourage people to rely on credible outlets if they want news; if it’s political humor they want I suggest the Colbert Report.
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Filed under: 2008 Election, Media coverage, Michelle Obama, politics, presidential campaign, slander, smear | Tagged: baby mama, Colbert report, faux news, FOX, Megyn Kelly, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Obama, slander, smear, yellow journalism
It should be noted that I realize single parents can, and generally do, raise fine children while overcoming the challenges. My objection in this case is to what I feel is an attempt to both objectify and (for lack of a better word) ghetto-ize Michelle Obama.
I met Michelle when she was in Minnesota for a fund-raising luncheon appearance well prior to the Minnesota caucuses, and I find her an elegant, eloquent, admirable person. She knew what she was getting in to when she agreed to Barack’s desire to run for President – in fact, they’re probably quietly chuckling over the uproar this has caused.
But it’s a despicable disservice to voters for a network to embrace the use of a disparaging, insulting, and derogatory term as a way to demean Mrs. Obama and detract from the discussion of real issues during the campaign.
Malkin is a Racist Whore,
as you can gather from her comments.
In fact, I cannot gather any insight into how promiscuous she is, or if there’s any money or other compensation involved (prostitution is closely tied to the concept of whores to my way of understanding) based on what I’ve observed of her conduct.
She seems to have walked a very fine line in the racism arena, though I’ll concede her lack of respect is most consistent with people who think skin color is a useful way to separate us. I disagree with that reasoning. The link above relates to that “careful” line some people walk, though I don’t follow Malkin enough to know it’s applicable.
Now, as I interpret your epithet to be a figurative expression and think others would tend to concur (with my interpretation) I’ll let that post stand for the time being since it’s indicative of the depth of your distaste, but I’d prefer we keep to more objectively verifiable descriptors – and I reserve the potential of removal at a later time.
I note, also, that there’s a move to bring pressure on FOX advertisers, such as Snuggle, for supporting a network that enables verbal bashings of married mothers by what can, at best, be called uninformed “punditry” and is considerably more consistent with old-fahsioned smear-mongering. Advertiser backlash is probably more painful to FOX than pulling a show for ill-advised commentary such as “terrorist fist jab.”