Day: 8/13/2012

Fox Nation’s Blatantly Racist Coverage Of Child Sexual Assault

Posted by on August 13, 2012 at 2:33 pm. 4 Comments :

Today Fox News published a story on their Fox Nation web site about an alleged sexual assault on a four year old child. That is always a tragic occurrence under any circumstances and perpetrators should be severely punished.

The problem with Fox’s coverage of this crime is that, for some reason, they thought it was necessary to include in their headline a detail of the investigation that has absolutely no bearing on the actual crime.

By highlighting the allegation that the suspect is an “illegal alien” the only purpose that Fox can hope to serve is to exacerbate racial animosity against Latinos and imply that they are inherently perverted and dangerous. There are, sadly, way too many sexual assaults against children, but the race or religion of the perpetrator sheds no light on the crime. Unless there is some pattern of behavior that merits investigation, it would be absurd to slander any particular group for the actions of an individual. The frequency with which such crimes are committed is reason to be concerned, but no racial, religious, or national group has a monopoly on either morality or evil.

Fox News has never published a story about a criminal act that featured a headline declaring, “White Protestant American Charged with Raping 4-Year-Old.” The reason for that is that they have no agenda to denigrate white Protestant Americans, even thought there have probably been more molesters in that group than among undocumented immigrants.

If Fox News were truly “fair and balanced,” they would have featured a story about their own Charles Leaf, a Fox reporter who has been charged with sexually assaulting a four year old girl and for possession of child pornography. Leaf was a frequent presence on Fox News when they were attempting to smear the builders of a mosque in Lower Manhattan. After his arrest he seemed to fall off the face of the earth with no mention by Fox of their feature reporter’s sudden disappearance.

Fox Nation

If it is important for a Fox headline to note the citizenship status of a crime suspect, than it is just as important to note his profession and affiliation with the network. This is particularly true when, as I noted above, a pattern of behavior exists. With respect to Fox it should be noted that other Fox News personalities have exhibited perverse tendencies, including Bill O’Reilly who paid a multimillion dollar settlement to a former producer whom he sexually harassed, and Dick Morris who was caught sucking the toes of a prostitute whom he let listen in on phone calls to President Clinton.

So parents, if you love your children, keep them as far away from Fox News as possible.

Glenn Beck Bumped Off Twelve Radio Stations By Geraldo

Posted by on August 13, 2012 at 10:45 am. 1 Comments :

Glenn Beck

The precipitous decline of Glenn Beck continues with the announcement that Geraldo Rivera’s national rollout will result in Beck losing twelve more radio affiliates. Crain’s New York is reporting the news along with an assessment of Beck’s performance by an executive with one of his syndicators:

Cumulus Senior Vice President Dennis Green: “When you look at the audience for these more aggressive, more vitriolic [hosts], those shows have started to show erosion. We think there’s a changing of the guard.”

This is an opinion that affirms previous statements about the genre of ultra-right-wing talk radio. A few months ago Cumulus Media released a disappointing earnings report and blamed it substantially on the backlash from Rush Limbaugh’s degrading of Sandra Fluke and his acerbic and offensive personality:

Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey: “It hit us pretty hard. A couple of million bucks in the first quarter and a couple of million bucks in quarter two.”

One of the stations that has dropped Beck noted his evolution into a pseudo-evangelical broadcaster:

KARN program director Dave Elswick: “Glenn about two years ago began to move away from what he did best, a daily look at the news and politics. After August 28 in D.C., he began mixing in a large measure of religion into his view which started a decline in ratings in our and other markets.”

Beck has indeed assumed the demeanor of an Apocalyptic prophet. He preaches a message of doom and gloom descending on an apostate nation that has the gall to affront God by caring for the less fortunate and treating everyone equally. But. as it turns out, God’s wrath seems to be afflicting Beck more than the targets of his attacks.