Fox Rage
Our friends to the south (the United States) in particular the fine folks at Fox News have taken an exciting new direction in their constant battle against the annoying right of freedom of expression. What makes this latest initiative most exciting is the fact that the person they’re cracking the whip and shaking their fingers at is a Canadian. A Canadian who, by the way, works at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (AKA: the CBC) and lives in Canada. This person who has single-handedly managed to PO the entire Fox News organization is named Heather Mallick, and she dared to write an opinion piece posted to the CBC web-site on September 5, 2008 that was, to be generous, less than flattering about vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.
Now I’m pretty sure that this is not what got our friends at Fox all discombombulated (they are, after all, fair and balanced, or at least they used to be), since such things are an unfortunately expected part of the modern political landscape in times of election. The candidates all have to have thick skin and when you consider past presidential campaigns, anything said by Mallick was pretty tame. The thing that I (and I suspect, my good friends at Fox) object to are Mallick’s comments on Palin’s family, her husband, her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. That stuff is totally offside. The candidates are free targets and take your best shot, but you do not aim at their families. (Watching the Fox coverage of this I was struck at just how tough the television regulations are in the United States. The Fox journalist I was watching, I missed her name, was not even allowed to use the term “pramface” on air as it would have been too disgusting for sensitive United Station ears. Wild.) The candidates families are off limits and Fox is totally aware of this and is rightfully disturbed by Mallick’s having written about them.
I recall years back when right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh called President Bill Clinton’s daughter “the new White House dog”. No doubt they were as disgusted as I was at the time, wondering, as I did, what sort of a low-life, fat, drug addicted, coward Rush must be to say something like that about a young girl. They probably find it just as weird as I do that Limbaugh is still on the air, and with plenty of listeners, I understand. Obviously these are people who agree with Mallick and Limbaugh that politicians children are fair game. Sick.
I am also reminded of a joke told by then senator John McCain at a 2000 Republican senate fund-raiser, about (again) President Clinton’s daughter (what is it with these freaks, going after a young girl all the time. Calling someone who would do something like this a hero really cheapens the term ‘hero’). I assume that the Republicans in the audience that night laughed at this joke at a young girl’s expense and what a wonderful bunch of “pro-family” folks they must be. That is, if “pro-family” means “hypocrite”. I’m not going to repeat the joke here but it was bad enough that McCain had to call the president and apologize. I don’t know what Fox had to say about either of these incidents but it had to be pretty hard hitting, I would expect nothing less. Good on you, Fox.
Anyway… Humouroceros
Now I’m pretty sure that this is not what got our friends at Fox all discombombulated (they are, after all, fair and balanced, or at least they used to be), since such things are an unfortunately expected part of the modern political landscape in times of election. The candidates all have to have thick skin and when you consider past presidential campaigns, anything said by Mallick was pretty tame. The thing that I (and I suspect, my good friends at Fox) object to are Mallick’s comments on Palin’s family, her husband, her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. That stuff is totally offside. The candidates are free targets and take your best shot, but you do not aim at their families. (Watching the Fox coverage of this I was struck at just how tough the television regulations are in the United States. The Fox journalist I was watching, I missed her name, was not even allowed to use the term “pramface” on air as it would have been too disgusting for sensitive United Station ears. Wild.) The candidates families are off limits and Fox is totally aware of this and is rightfully disturbed by Mallick’s having written about them.
I recall years back when right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh called President Bill Clinton’s daughter “the new White House dog”. No doubt they were as disgusted as I was at the time, wondering, as I did, what sort of a low-life, fat, drug addicted, coward Rush must be to say something like that about a young girl. They probably find it just as weird as I do that Limbaugh is still on the air, and with plenty of listeners, I understand. Obviously these are people who agree with Mallick and Limbaugh that politicians children are fair game. Sick.
I am also reminded of a joke told by then senator John McCain at a 2000 Republican senate fund-raiser, about (again) President Clinton’s daughter (what is it with these freaks, going after a young girl all the time. Calling someone who would do something like this a hero really cheapens the term ‘hero’). I assume that the Republicans in the audience that night laughed at this joke at a young girl’s expense and what a wonderful bunch of “pro-family” folks they must be. That is, if “pro-family” means “hypocrite”. I’m not going to repeat the joke here but it was bad enough that McCain had to call the president and apologize. I don’t know what Fox had to say about either of these incidents but it had to be pretty hard hitting, I would expect nothing less. Good on you, Fox.
Anyway… Humouroceros
posted by humouroceros at 8:00 am
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