This just landed in my email box. Fed-up with attacks on Obama, MoveOn is exhorting their 12 million plus members to target Fox News advertisers. They have a point.
Below MoveOn lists of recent, well- publicized Fox News smears. However, far worse in my view is the drumbeat at Fox News led by Sean Hannity who seems to be leading the charge to paint Obama as a terrorist. Click here to see Karl Rove at work on Hannity and Colmes.
It happened again a few nights ago when Ann Coulter and Hannity (on Hannity and Colmes) obsessed (I won’t use the word "dissect;" that implies cogent anaysis) Obama’s recent and comments that “Along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together. Faith started being used to drive us apart. Faith got hijacked.”
Sniped Coulter - “No, but I do think anyone named B. Hussein Obama should avoid using ‘hijack’ and ‘religion’ in the same sentence.”
Hannity then beat on the Reverand Wright dead horse and talked about the Obama/Wright "black separatist agenda."
Weirdly, the video of Coulter’s appearance has been excised from youtube. But thinkprogress has the vid here.
Sean Hannity’s series "The Real Barack Obama," is a study in smears and guilt by remote association. Posted below: Hannity strains to paint Obama as a terrorist supporter because of his dinners with Columbia Professor Khalidi and his board seat on the respected, Chicago-based Woods Fund.
The most that can be inferred from the Hannity smear is that Obama listens to a wide variety of viewpoints. Gosh, what a concept for a presidential candidate.
Here’s the MoveOn advisory:
FOX must stop injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into our political dialogue. We intend to hold FOX, its advertisers, and its personalities accountable for FOX’s attempts to smear the Obamas.
Right now, FOX is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They’re trying to send Americans the message that our country’s first viable black candidate for President is not "one of us."
We’ve seen this before from FOX. They won’t stop until it becomes too painful to continue—until the public calls them out and advertisers start getting worried.
Now is the time to draw a line in the sand by putting FOX on notice that their behavior won’t be tolerated. Over 100,000 Americans have already expressed their outrage. Can you make that number even bigger by adding your name to this message?
"FOX must stop injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into our political dialogue. We intend to hold FOX, its advertisers, and its personalities accountable for FOX’s attempts to smear the Obamas."
Clicking here will sign the petition:
FOX’s longtime pattern of smearing Obama and the black community is well documented. But the outrageous moments have increased in the last month.
First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused "Obama" with "Osama" and then joked on the air about killing Obama.2 Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist bump by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a "terrorist fist jab."3 And then, FOX called Michelle Obama "Obama’s baby mama"—slang for an unmarried mother of a man’s child, and a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative stereotypes about black people.4
If you know others who’d find FOX’s recent actions despicable, please ask them to sign the petition too. The more people who sign, the bigger our impact will be.
Our friends at ColorOfChange.org—an online advocacy group focused on the issues of importance to the black community—are leading this charge. They will deliver thousands of petition signatures as a group to FOX’s headquarters (in front of other media cameras, so FOX feels more heat). Here’s how they describe the situation:
After each of the incidents mentioned [above], FOX issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again? It means the apology is meaningless.
Now is the time to call out FOX for these attacks and their fake apologies. The first stop is FOX. Next will be their advertisers and the FCC. If we don’t push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join us to demand that FOX answer for its behavior:
Sources:
1. "Fox Attacks Obama" "Fox Attacks Obama" Brave New Films at FoxAttacks.com, February 2007
"Fox Attacks: Black America," Brave New Films at FoxAttacks.com, June 2007
"Fox Attacks: Obama, Part 2," Brave New Films at FoxAttacks.com, March 2008
2. "Fox News Jokes About Killing Obama," YouTube video posted May 25, 2008
3. "Fox News’ E.D. Hill teased discussion of Obama dap: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab?" Media Matters, June 6, 2008
4. "Fox News in trouble again over Obama smear: ‘baby mama‘" Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2008
