{"id":1564,"date":"2010-02-19T16:41:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T00:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2010-02-19T16:49:29","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T00:49:29","slug":"fox-nation-lies-michelle-obama-is-a-socialist-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1564","title":{"rendered":"Fox Nation Lies: Michelle Obama Is A Socialist Librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have encountered a good deal of complaints from rightist critics who take offense to my characterization of right-wingers, Tea Baggers, etc., as ignorant. But it’s hard to sympathize with their protestations when Fox Nation does stuff like this:<\/p>\n

This image appeared as a featured story on the front page of the web site. It linked to a posting by Rob Port on the SayAnythingBlog<\/a>. Obviously he will “say anything”<\/em> without regard to its truthfulness. In this post he regales readers with tales of his recent tour of the White House. While there he snapped a photo of some books on the shelf in the library. Among the titles he observed were “The American Socialist Movement”<\/em> and “The Socialist Party of America.”<\/em> Then Port scampered back to his blog to smear First Lady Michelle Obama and effusively gush, “lookie, lookie what I found.”<\/em> The Fox Nationalists exclaimed…<\/p>\n

“It figures. Michelle Obama stocked the White House Library with books on socialism.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With no apologies to rightists who may object…That’s really stupid! Steven E. Levingston, literary columnist at the Washington Post, quickly refuted<\/a> the asinine allegation. As it turns out, those books have been there since 1963.<\/p>\n

But the stupidity transcends the easily debunked nonsense that Port unleashed on the First Lady. What if she had personally selected those books? What’s the problem with stocking a library with books that encompass a broad range of the ideological spectrum and of American history? It is utterly absurd to condemn someone because they have books that represent unpopular ideas. In fact, in order to fully understand those you oppose, it would be folly not to own and read the writings of your opponents.<\/p>\n

Port made a rather lame argument that the presence of these books represented a pattern in the administration’s philosophy. He asserted that in context these books prove something. He cited the Mao Christmas ornament and comments by former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, all of which were taken out of context. The only pattern I see is how pathetically averse to education the right is. I see how consistently the right seeks to promote a fear of books and knowledge. I see them belittle academics as a path to elitism. We used to admire people with advanced degrees and academic achievements. But today’s conservatives argue that the more you know, the farther removed you are from the common folk. So whatever you do, if you want to serve the public, do not work hard to obtain a degree from a prestigious institution because it will just prove how out of touch you are.<\/p>\n

If we are going to castigate people based on the books on their shelves, then let’s start with Glenn Beck. He owns and promotes titles like “The Coming Insurrection,”<\/a> a communist tract that advocates revolution. He waves it around on his TV show and implores his viewers to buy it and read it. As a result of his promotion the book is currently the #1 Public Policy book on Amazon.com and #14 overall. Beck’s library also includes Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”<\/em> – another book he has featured on his TV program. He has even cited Hitler as his favorite political philosopher:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n

The rush to demonize the First Lady for collecting a diverse cross-section of books (even though she didn’t) is emblematic of the stupidity on the right that I have pointed out in the past. It is stupid to disparage the quest for knowledge. It is stupid to seal yourself off from views with which you disagree. It is the very definition of stupid to purposefully abstain from learning and to chastise those who aspire to learn.<\/p>\n

If you don’t like being called stupid – don’t be stupid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have encountered a good deal of complaints from rightist critics who take offense to my characterization of right-wingers, Tea Baggers, etc., as ignorant. But it’s hard to sympathize with their protestations when Fox Nation does stuff like this: This image appeared as a featured story on the front page of the web site. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[527,44,242],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-fox-nation","tag-glenn-beck","tag-michelle-obama"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-pe","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6170,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6170","url_meta":{"origin":1564,"position":0},"title":"Fox Nation Paints Michelle Obama As A Very Angry Black Woman","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/11\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing their campaign to disparage the Obama family at every opportunity, Fox Nation posted an article this morning that asserts that Michell Obama is engaging in \"damage control\" because \"people try to paint me as some angry black woman.\" Hmm. I wonder who would try to paint Mrs. Obama as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5713,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5713","url_meta":{"origin":1564,"position":1},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: On Angry, Unpopular Michelle Obama","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/31\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"For today's episode of Fox Nation vs. Reality, we've got a twofer. The Fox Nationalists are reviving an old and insipid insult directed at First Lady Michelle Obama. Right-wingers are obsessed with portraying her as angry, but the op-ed to which Fox Nation links goes even further. Joseph Curl, for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7568,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7568","url_meta":{"origin":1564,"position":2},"title":"The Fox Nation Thinks It’s ‘Funny’ That A DC Cop Threatened To Shoot Michelle Obama","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/13\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This will just be a short heads up about the sort of people that populate the Fox News community web site, Fox Nation. In a posting linked to Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, Fox Nation reported that \"A DC cop who worked as a motorcycle escort for the first family\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23194,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=23194","url_meta":{"origin":1564,"position":3},"title":"Racists Swarm Fox Nation’s Post About A Michele\/Barack Obama Romance Movie","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/6\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It doesn't take much for the vile bigots who inhabit the Fox News community of Fox Nation to let their true feelings show. News Corpse has been compiling documentation of their nauseating prejudices on this page for quite a while: The Collected Hate Speech Of The Fox Nation Community. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox Nation Racist Comments","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-comments-obama-romance2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-comments-obama-romance2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-comments-obama-romance2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3078,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3078","url_meta":{"origin":1564,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation’s Racist Attacks On Michelle Obama","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/27\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If there is still anyone who doubts that the GOP\/Tea Party\/Fox Nation of Beckerheads is overtly and proudly racist, here is yet another example to which you can direct them to try to set them straight. An item on Fox Nation links to an article in the ultra-conservative CNSNews that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9145,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9145","url_meta":{"origin":1564,"position":5},"title":"The Fox News Community Reveals Their Racist Vulgarity – Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/21\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Those who have been paying attention are already aware of the blatantly dishonest practices of Fox News, particularly on their community web site (see Fox Nation vs. Reality) The only thing more repulsive than their disregard for the truth is the disgraceful conduct of their audience. So for anyone out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}