It’s that time of year again–a time of
- Christmas trees
- Nativity scenes
- singing carols
- exchanging gifts with family and friends.
And, if you’re an employee of Fox News, creating fresh ways to stir up controversey over a non-existant “war on Christmas.”
Stirring up false controversies is a daily assignment for the alleged reporters of this company owned by Right-wing patriarch Rupert Murdoch.
Consider the attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012.
The attack caught the United States by surprise. Clearly, with the 11th anniversay of the 9/11 attacks approaching, America should have beefed up security at its diplomatic missions throughout the Middle East.
But Fox News wasn’t content to simply make that claim. Instead, it accused President Barack Obama of deliberately sacrificing the four Americans killed in Benghazi that night–including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
So long as Fox “reporters” spoke only with other Right-wing critics of the Obama administration, the slander went unopposed.
But then Fox News interviewed Tom Ricks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning warfare expert who had covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 to 2008, and the author of The Generals.
Thomas Ricks
The exchange between Ricks and Jon Scott, co-host of Fox News Happening Now went as follows:
SCOTT: Pressure mounting on the Obama administration over its response to the deadly attack on our consulate in Benghazi….
Two senators even expressing concerns about a possible White House cover-up. Let’s talk about it with Tom Ricks. He is author of The Generals. He has spent decades covering our military. He joins us now….What do you make of it?
RICKS: I think that Benghazi generally was hyped, by this network especially, and that now that the campaign is over, I think he’s backing off a little bit….
SCOTT: When you have four people dead, including the first dead U.N. ambassador–U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years, how do you call that hype?
RICKS: How many security contractors died in Iraq, do you know?
SCOTT: I don’t.
RICKS: No. Nobody does, because nobody cared. We know that several hundred died, but there was never an official count done of security contractors dead in Iraq. So when I see this focus on what was essentially a small firefight, I think, number one, I’ve covered a lot of firefights.
It’s impossible to figure out what happens in them sometimes. And second, I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of Republican Party.
SCOTT: All right. Tom Ricks, thanks very much for joining us today.
* * * * *
But Christmas is special, so, each year, the executives at Fox find a new way to stir up emotions by resurrecting the “war on Christmas” slander.
This year, it fell to Fox hostess Megyn Kelly to carry the ball. And she did so on December 11 on “The Kelly File,” her popular Fox News program.
Referring to an article by Slate writer Aisha Harris on “Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore,” she said:
“When I saw this headline, I kinda laughed and I said, ‘Oh, this is ridiculous. Yet another person claiming it’s racist to have a white Santa.’
“And by the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white. But this person is maybe just arguing that we should also have a black Santa. But, you know, Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we’re just debating this because someone wrote about it, kids.”
Of course, Santa Claus is a completely fictional character. Arguing about his skin color is as pointless as arguing about his weight.
But Kelly wasn’t content to talk only about Santa. So she turned next to Jesus, a historical figure about whom we have not a single reference to his appearance, let alone a picture.
“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man, too,” Kelly said.
“He was a historical figure; that’s a verifiable fact–as is Santa, I want you kids watching to know that–but my point is: How do you revise it, in the middle of the legacy of the story, and change Santa from white to black?”
Santa Claus a verifiable historical figure? Not even Charlie Brown, in the annually telecast “Peanuts” special, would make that claim.
In George Orwell’s classic novel, 1984, Oceania is always at war with Eurasia or Eastasia. Its citizens are kept in a constant state of frenzy as they’re directed to search for endless “enemies of the state.”
This, in turn, allows the unseen rulers of Oceania to run their dictatorship without interference.
It’s a blueprint for power not lost on the men who run Fox News.
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DA PLANE! DA PLANE!
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 20, 2014 at 12:35 amOn March 8, 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing Capital International Airport.
Less than an hour after taking off, the boeing 777-200ER last made contact with an air traffic control tower–and then vanished.
With it vanished 227 passengers–the majority of them Chinese–and a crew of 12.
By March 18, 26 nations were participating in the search.
Not since the 1937 disappearance of aviatrix Amelia Earhart has the disappearance of a single plane triggered such an international frenzy.
And that frenzy extends to the media coverage given it–especially on CNN.
Since its disappearance on March 8, Flight 370 has been the preeminent story on CNN.
With no telltale wreckage or even an oil slick to indicate the plane’s fate, CNN has been forced to make do with maps and “talking heads” speculation.
And to keep audiences attuned while there is no actual news to report, CNN has been forced to rely on a steady stream of “BREAKING NEWS” headlines.
And then what follows is more “talking heads” offering more speculation.
On March 16, CNN anchor Don Lemon and Brad Meltzer, host of Brad Meltzer Decoded, raised the possibility of “the supernatural” as responsible for the disappearance.
Lemon used a toy plane to demonstrate a series of turns and dives before simulating a landing on his anchor desk.
Don Lemon with his toy plane
“We go to church, the supernatural power of God,” said Lemon. “People are saying to me, ‘Why aren’t you talking about the possibility?’
“And I’m just putting it out there–that something odd happened to this plane, something beyond our understanding.”
And Meltzer responded: “People roll their eyes at conspiracy theories, but what conspiracy theories do is they ask the hardest, most outrageous questions sometimes, but every once in a while they’re right.
“You can say, ‘Oh, it crashed into the ocean. But where are the parts? Where are the pieces? Why did it keep going for seven hours?”
This, in turn, has had both a positive and a negative effect.
On the positive side: CNN–which has found itself struggling in the ratings war against Fox News and MSNBC–has seen its ratings surge.
Over the weekend of March 15-16, CNN’s ratings soared, rising by almost 100% in prime time.
On the negative side: CNN’s “All-Vanished-Plane/All-the-Time” coverage has annoyed and angered many other viewers–including some prominent ones.
One of these is Bill O’Reilly, host of Fox News program The OReilly Factor.
“When I’m watching this, I’m like throwing–I’m upset about it,” he said on March 18. “I know it’s ratings obviously or people wanna watch the mystery, but it’s now corrupting the news business I think.”
Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist, replied: What bothered him was that networks were treating the tragedy as “a game, when actually it was a terrible, terrible event.”
“There comes a point where it becomes a burlesque show, it becomes a farce and we’ve reached that point on this coverage,” O’Reilly said.
“When does Godzilla come in? And on another network they actually said aliens might’ve taken it. They actually said that on the air!”
As a result, there are three journalistic truths that CNN can–and should–take to heart:
There’s nothing wrong with a network’s sticking with a story as long as (1) it’s truly important, and (2) it’s actually ongoing.
The classic example of this: When, in August, 1991, the KGB and other Right-wingers overthrew Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union.
Closely following this story–for reporters and viewers–made sense: The Soviet Union commanded enough nuclear weaponry to destroy the United States.
Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, denounces the KGB coup
So it truly mattered whether Gorbachev–a moderate reformer–remained in power or was replaced by a KGB-sponsored coup.
Fortunately–for Gorbachev and the West–he was returned to power and Communism collapsed.
Watching on TV as Russians throw off the yoke of 70 years of Red slavery was like watching the fall of the Roman Empire.
This was a truly monumental and historical event. And those who lived through it as spectators could be grateful to CNN and other networks for their ongoing coverage.
But the disappearance of a single Malaysian plane doesn’t fit into these categories. Even if it proves monumentally good for CNN’s ratings.
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