PUNK’D (WHITE HOUSE EDITION)
Jul. 23rd, 2010 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI’m sure by now most of you have familiarized yrselves with the Strange Case of Shirley Sherrod, the US Agriculture Dept official sacked by the Obama admin over a YouTube video of her telling an NAACP audience that she discriminates against white farmers ... only it turns out the clip took her words out of context and she was saying no such thing, etc.
The result of which is, of course, more screaming from both sides. The liberals say that Andrew Breitbart intentionally tried to portray a black Obama official as racist. Breitbart and his Tea Party posse say, “You started it by calling us racist, and why are you ignoring the fact that the NAACP is racist?”
And I’ve tried to follow the debate, but basically all I hear is:
“Yr racist!”
“No, YR racist!”
“No, YR racist!”
“No, YR racist!”
“No, YR racist INFINITY!”
“I know you are but what am I?”
Which bores the shit out of me. Which is probably racist of me at some level. Not that I’m saying racism isn’t worth debating. When someone actually starts a REAL debate instead of hurling tired polemics back and forth, let me know.
I’m also not that interested in the manner in which Andrew Breitbart posted the video, or the manner in which Fox News ran with it and milked it – sure, it was childish, amateur and irresponsible, but what else is new? Breitbart and Fox have been doing this kind of thing for years.
What’s far more interesting and disturbing is the fact that Team Obama fell for it and sacked Sherrod before even bothering to look into it. Because you would think that they would know better than to take the drastic step of firing someone on the word of Fox News and BigGovernment.com, both of which (1) openly have it in for Obama and (2) have a history of this kind of thing.
It’s already led to speculation that Fox News is a far more powerful force than anyone (or at least the Democrats) has realized, or at least can no longer be dismissed as a crank news organization (albeit one with awesome ratings) that most people don’t take seriously. I’m not sure Fox has quite that much influence, but what matters is whether the Obama admin thinks it does.
That’s a troubling notion in light of the jiu jitsu move Fox basically pulled here – first blasting Sherrod for saying racist stuff against Whitey (and simultaneously blasting Team Obama for allowing radical racists to work for him), then blasting the White House for jumping to the same conclusions and being all jumpy about race.
At this rate, Fox could start reporting stories from The Onion about Obama having the White House Jester beheaded for making jokes about the national debt, and Robert Gibbs would be forced to go on national television, apologize to the jester's family and promise an investigation into the beheading.
I’m joking, of course. Even the people at Fox (or at least Shep Smith) knows The Onion isn’t real news. I’m sure the Obama admin does too. It’s one thing to be hoodwinked by an out-of-context video clip, but who would be dumb enough to mistake a satirical Onion piece as a real news –
Oh.
Well, in that case, fuck it. I’m going back to bed.
News you can use,
This is dF
The result of which is, of course, more screaming from both sides. The liberals say that Andrew Breitbart intentionally tried to portray a black Obama official as racist. Breitbart and his Tea Party posse say, “You started it by calling us racist, and why are you ignoring the fact that the NAACP is racist?”
And I’ve tried to follow the debate, but basically all I hear is:
“Yr racist!”
“No, YR racist!”
“No, YR racist!”
“No, YR racist!”
“No, YR racist INFINITY!”
“I know you are but what am I?”
Which bores the shit out of me. Which is probably racist of me at some level. Not that I’m saying racism isn’t worth debating. When someone actually starts a REAL debate instead of hurling tired polemics back and forth, let me know.
I’m also not that interested in the manner in which Andrew Breitbart posted the video, or the manner in which Fox News ran with it and milked it – sure, it was childish, amateur and irresponsible, but what else is new? Breitbart and Fox have been doing this kind of thing for years.
What’s far more interesting and disturbing is the fact that Team Obama fell for it and sacked Sherrod before even bothering to look into it. Because you would think that they would know better than to take the drastic step of firing someone on the word of Fox News and BigGovernment.com, both of which (1) openly have it in for Obama and (2) have a history of this kind of thing.
It’s already led to speculation that Fox News is a far more powerful force than anyone (or at least the Democrats) has realized, or at least can no longer be dismissed as a crank news organization (albeit one with awesome ratings) that most people don’t take seriously. I’m not sure Fox has quite that much influence, but what matters is whether the Obama admin thinks it does.
That’s a troubling notion in light of the jiu jitsu move Fox basically pulled here – first blasting Sherrod for saying racist stuff against Whitey (and simultaneously blasting Team Obama for allowing radical racists to work for him), then blasting the White House for jumping to the same conclusions and being all jumpy about race.
At this rate, Fox could start reporting stories from The Onion about Obama having the White House Jester beheaded for making jokes about the national debt, and Robert Gibbs would be forced to go on national television, apologize to the jester's family and promise an investigation into the beheading.
I’m joking, of course. Even the people at Fox (or at least Shep Smith) knows The Onion isn’t real news. I’m sure the Obama admin does too. It’s one thing to be hoodwinked by an out-of-context video clip, but who would be dumb enough to mistake a satirical Onion piece as a real news –
Oh.
Well, in that case, fuck it. I’m going back to bed.
News you can use,
This is dF
