An overview: Fox News and its problem with
African-Americans
Fox News’
race problem comes more clearly into focus when you look not only at what Fox’s
own reporters and commentators say, but also at which guests are invited, what
kinds of ideas are given voice, and how those ideas are introduced and framed
by Fox’s on-air personalities. Fox’s broadcasters will occasionally say
something shockingly inappropriate, but more often they leave it to their
invited guests to actually express bigoted opinions, while framing those guests
as respectable, authoritative and mainstream, asking just the right questions,
and usually giving little or no air time to anyone who would challenge their
views. Other times, they frame issues to convey a racist message, without conveying
the statement themselves.
It might be
easy to dismiss one or two inappropriate comments by Fox’s guests as the
inevitable result of reporting on news and opinions in a society that has been
shaped by racism. But an honest, thorough examination of Fox’s record reveals
an undeniable, overwhelming and consistent trend of giving a privileged voice
to bigoted and problematic views on race and racism, while shutting out other
views.
Our staff
drew from Media Matters and News Hounds reports to create a list of
examples that illustrate this trend.
For a video that details
Fox’s attack on Senator Obama go to http://www.foxattacks.com.
Denigration
of Black people as a people and Black institutions
On Hannity & Colmes, Reverend
Jesse Lee Peterson and nationally syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher smeared
the African American holiday Kwanzaa and attacked its founder. Peterson
declared: "Kwanzaa is a racist,
pagan, Marxist holiday" and then claimed that the "so-called seven principles of Kwanzaa are socialist, Marxist,
separatist ideas." Peterson attacked Kwanzaa founder Maulana (Ron) Karenga, calling
him a "racist" who "want[s] to get rid of God" and saying
he committed a felony in the early 1970s and led a movement "fighting
against blacks and whites uniting together." Peterson told co-host Alan Colmes that the United States has no need for
Kwanzaa because "we are a Christian nation, Alan, and we already believe
in Christ." He declared that if
"a white man started a white holiday, seven-day white holiday, black folks
would be burning down America."
Gallagher, who was filling in for co-host Sean Hannity,
asserted that Kwanzaa is a "fake holiday" that was meant to
"tweak white America
back in 1966" and now serves to "secularize the Christmas
season."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200412230012
Commenting
on Hannity & Colmes
about the speakers at Coretta Scott King's funeral,
Mary Matalin said, "I think these civil rights leaders are nothing more than
racists" who are keeping "their African-American brothers
enslaved." Continuing, Matalin claimed that
"they're keeping constituency, they're keeping their neighborhoods and
their African-American brothers enslaved ... by continuing to let them think
that they're -- or forced to think that they're victims."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602090003
On Hannity & Colmes, Rev. Jesse
Lee Peterson argued that the controversy surrounding remarks made by nationally
syndicated radio host Bill Bennett, linking crime rates to abortions by blacks
was simply "an attempt by the liberals to prevent white, conservative
Republicans from speaking the truth about black America." Peterson then
suggested that "the root cause of
crime is a lack of moral character." He explained that "crime and
out-of-wedlock birth, black folks having babies without being married, and
stuff like that is out of control." According to
Peterson, "Not all ... but most of
them lack moral character. Look what they did to the [Louisiana Super]dome.
In three days, they turned the Dome into a ghetto."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200510030005
Sean Hannity defended a controversial remark by Bill Bennett that
"if you wanted to reduce crime ...
you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go
down." Hannity echoed Bennett's own false claim that the
remark was not his "theory" and that Bennett was "quot[ing] from a book."
Bennett purported to explain the comment by falsely claiming that he was simply
reiterating a theory presented in the book Freakonomics
by authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
But, neither Levitt, nor the book, discuss "the racial implications of
abortion and crime," as Bennett did.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200603130004
On Hannity & Colmes, discussing
O.J. Simpson, former Los Angeles Police Department detective and Fox News
contributor Mark Fuhrman asserted that the type of "people" he
"dealt with ... for 20 years" will "kill somebody and go have some chicken at KFC. You will catch
them eating chicken and drinking a beer after they just murdered three
people." Fuhrman added that "these
people are out there. They're all over the place.”
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611200003
Stoking
white fear of loss of power
On The Big
Story, John Gibson urged viewers to "[d]o
your duty. Make more babies," because he had found out, from a
recently released report, that nearly half of all children under the age of
five in the United States
are minorities. Gibson added: "You
know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is
Hispanic." Gibson later repeated: "To put it bluntly, we need more
babies."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605120006
Regarding
the issue of amnesty for undocumented immigrants, Bill O'Reilly claimed that
The New York Times and "many far-left thinkers believe the white power
structure that controls America
is bad, so a drastic change is needed." O'Reilly continued: "According to the lefty zealots, the white
Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a
rainbow coalition, if you will."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605170006
Referring
to news coverage of the May 1 "Day Without
Immigrants" demonstrations on Fox News Watch, Newsday columnist James P.
Pinkerton claimed that "[t]he media
like brown people, but they like black people more." He then added:
"[W]hat they really dislike, of course, is white people."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605080017
David
Horowitz: "The only lynch mob in America that is allowed to exist in America is a
black lynch mob."
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/18/fox_news_bigotry_its_not_just_for_sean_hannity_any_more.php
White
victimization; denial of racism
"Most of the discrimination
today is from black folks toward white Americans". - Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, "Hannity & Colmes",
1/2/07
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/08/outrageous_quote_of_the_week_week_of_january_1st.php
Regarding
Senator Biden’s recent inappropriate characterization
of Barack Obama, Bill O’Reilly said: "Instead of
black and white Americans coming together, white Americans are terrified.
They're terrified. Now we can't even say you're articulate? We can't even give
you guys compliments because they may be taken as
condescension?"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200702060012