Is it just me, or are almost all of Fox News’ female news anchors young, blond, and sexy? According to my mother, who watches all Fox News (all the time), if you observe these women using her practiced, critical, judicial eye, all are forced to turn their torso’s sideways in their chairs, or cross their legs, or periodically tug at their creeping thigh-high dresses in an effort to keep themselves civilly under wraps, while at the same time commenting on the issues at hand. It’s very distracting she says! (I never noticed!)
My dear mother has been after me for months now to write Fox about these media bimbos and have them taken to task: the result being that management would require them to dress discreetly before public viewing! (Don’t know why “I” should have to do this?) But she is confident that if I will just email Fox and convey her sentiments to the producers, they will quickly realize the error of their ways, thank her, and make this clothing change a priority for the next production room meeting.
“What’s wrong with young women today?” she laments. “Haven’t they been taught ‘modest’ behavior?” pointing vigorously at a languid thigh and calf on the O’Reilly Factor, most recklessly displayed. And I concur almost instantly (dutiful son that I am); my eyes driven, against my will, to the offending leg in question. (It is definitely the perfect example of thigh and calf!) And by this point, for some reason, I’m no longer focused on whatever issue the panel was discussing. Was it illegal immigration or Obama? (Oh, a most distracting leg indeed!) I follow the leg up the well-rounded hip to the likely culprit- ah yes, Fox News anchor, Megan Kelly! Now what was she talking about? Can’t remember!
My mother is a feisty 87, and getting feistier each year. She’s, an “old school” lady. (Queen Victoria had nothing on her!) She remembers that back in “her” America, the lost concepts of “modesty,” “honor,” and “respect” weren’t trivial matters at all.
But her comment about Fox’s female talking heads becoming a distraction (at least to her) from the substance of the news, struck a cord with me once I thought about it. Like sex, age, hair-color, weight, personality, talent, speech, clothing, and a plethora of other personal qualities, the majority press has for years excelled in elevating “race” as a distraction from the real substance of issues and events. And these categories are a set of tools for them, and a powerful set! But, they have to be careful not to overuse them, and carefully choose when they are applied and against who. The use of the “racist tool,” their most destructive one, and never publicly admitted by liberal pundits, masks their primary target – the traditional conservative white male. This is clearly demonstrated in how that tool is selectively utilized against certain offenders and not against others: the New Black Panther voter intimidation scandal (with video evidence) is minimized, as opposed to an NAACP “generalization” that the Tea Parties are racist in nature, without any evidence at all.
The ridiculous charge that the Tea Parties are trying to take us back to the time of the “Jim Crowe South” or even slavery is clearly manifest, the NAACP would have us believe, by the images we are shown of Tea Partiers waving “Gadsden” flags or the wearing of Colonial outfits at their events. (That means me!) Somehow, the difference between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War is lost on the NAACP. Obviously the history of our country is not being taught in public schools, and I’m sure the NAACP likes it that way. They also can’t explain the appearance of speakers like Herman Cain at Tea Party events either; but I’m sure they have a category for him too.
And once the media use their “race tool,” as in the NAACP’s claim, other media, government, entertainers, and academia fearfully rush in to join the politically correct “tag-team, take-down.” (Just slap that hand and jump in the ring!) “Facebook”, by the way, just decided that sites using the Gadsden flag are to be removed, and are doing so. They are reading the NAACP’s tea leaves, and clearly don’t want J.J. suing them anytime soon! It doesn’t matter that this was one of the first American flags used in the War for Independence. (How can we make that rattlesnake a racist?) And, apart from Fox News, talk radio, and Internet blogs, the Black Panther issue was totally unheralded.
We have heard incessantly this last week (as the mid-term election draws nigh) the loaded question from the leftist media as to whether the Tea Party movement is inherently racist at its core. And like a reflex action, all other issues with which the Tea Parties are concerned immediately vanish from the national political debate, and “race” takes center stage; cascading through every newsroom or talk show and circulating hither and yon throughout the national bloodstream. No other subject except perhaps murder or infidelity drives and galvanizes media sensibilities like race. And if murder and infidelity includes race so much the better. Who cares if Israel is about to attack Iran! Is “Tiger” back on the links, has he put his peccadilloes behind him, has the country forgiven him? And best of all: why blonds? Ah, the editorial possibilities!
And the media doesn’t really care how the question on race is answered or by whom. It’s the story that counts. Are “you,” or is “it” (Tea Parties) racist? Proving a negative is a very difficult thing to do, no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on. And the more the “race target” insists on its innocence, the guiltier it will appear; especially as more and more talking heads join in the feeding frenzy. It’s the old Shakespearean line, “Methinks thou protesteth too much!” And all the media, right and left, join in the fray.
The collective media understand fully that just firing-off the race question is a rating’s money-maker for them. Just point and shoot! Doesn’t matter if any of the story is true or not. The media catalog for this strategy is filed under “playing the race card.” It’s not actually a game you can bet on, since it’s rigged from the outset, but you never know who the joker is that will sit down to play. And many of these jokers know in advance that they are being played. The card shark pundit dealer uses them to draw in all the other jokers. This week the joker was the NAACP. They were already in the deck too! (So much for “advancement!”)
And “race baiting” is the last desperate card game of scoundrels, with extra cards up the sleeves of those that make a living off of gambling on media ratings and dividing Americans into opposing groups. And yes, even the conservative media let themselves be drawn into this game, going home maintaining their ratings, and their pockets filled with shame.
The truth is that our national media are the real racists and bigots. I’ll say that again: the media are the bigots and racists! Like our professional politicians they love defining Americans along racial, gender, economic, cultural and political lines; placing hyphens liberally, wherever possible, while pretending to cover the news. It’s called divide and conquer. The media inflate events for their own ratings, knowingly; and most often the first subjects identified for public consumption are skin color or gender. They thrive in playing groups off against each other, accentuating the differences, and trying to create fear by appealing to the lowest stereotypes, all the while decrying sanctimoniously those same stereotypes. The fight today over illegal immigration is a classic example. The word “illegal,” you’ll notice, has no place in the debate for the talking heads, but rather only “race.”
William Temple is a historical re-enactor, a pastor of a Bible church in Brunswick, Ga., and a well-known figure at Tea Party events across the country.