Fox is not your friend!

via email …..

7/20/2010

I would like to applaud Nelson Waller’s admonitions regarding Fox and other “conservative” personalities in his last SHNV post and add to those sentiments a few of my own.

First, let’s give Fox and Neocon talk radio hosts their due, as they do provide a public service. They provide a balance to the incessant Obama-worship that permeates the airwaves on the other news networks. They keep the pressure on the guy and they have been responsible for giving us a look into the type of folks that he seems to enjoy hanging out with. (Remember the old saying, “show me your friends and I’ll know you?).

That’s about where the public service ends and the demagoguery and dishonesty begin.

As I have said many times, just because you dislike Obama and Fox dislikes Obama does not mean that Fox is your friend. Nor for that matter are people like Limbaugh your friend. Your mutual dislike for the current el Presidente is the limit of what you have in common with Fox and with most “conservative” radio talk show hosts. Before you run out and get “Factor t-shirts”, or “Hannity Fan Girl” cups or a doctored up poster of Glenn Beck and the Founders signing the Declaration of independence, you would do well to remember the old Arab saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Its meaning is quite subtle actually – he’s not really your “friend,” at least not in the way we normally think of when using the word “friend.” He’s an ally of convenience, the relationship is temporary, and when the object of your mutual dislike is removed, all bets are off. In fact, don’t be too surprised if he rams the knife in your back even before your mutual enemy is gone. He needs to be watched as closely as your enemy. Yes, it’s fun to watch Obama and his nutcase appointees squirm when Fox sticks it to them and it’s perfectly fine to sit there and cheer when that happens. Just make sure that you keep repeating to yourself afterward….”The enemy of my enemy is my friend”…and….”Fox is not my friend!”

Do not be fooled by guys like Glenn Beck sounding off about Constitutional Government. Fox loves big government as much as anyone. The only reason Fox is now singing the “government of limited and defined powers” song is that the Democrats are currently running the show. Trust me folks, when the Democrats get kicked to the curb, Sean Hannity and company will put on their cheerleading outfits and root for big government once more, just like they did through 8 years of George Bush.

You hear things like “government of limited and defined powers” coming out of the mouths of Fox personalities and it rings a chord with you? You hear Fox personalities railing on about protecting the Constitution, and once again, it rings a familiar chord in you? Fine. Just don’t forget to remind yourself that when George Bush called the Constitution a “scrap of paper”, and when he pushed through the egregious “Patriot Act”, allegedly to protect us, that the only guy on Fox to put up a stink was Judge Andrew Napolitano, and he’s not even a regular on that network. And if Fox is currently railing against Obama for the Justice Dept’s suit against Arizona’s immigration law, ask yourself why they did not rail against George Bush, who, after 19 illegal aliens killed 3000 of us 9 years ago, continued to allow the borders to function in their current state of disrepair for 8 years.

The only reason that folks at Fox are now singing the “government of limited and defined powers” song is that the party they support (the GOP) is no longer in power. Fox, Limbaugh and others like them love big government as much as anyone – just as long as it’s the GOP that’s running the show. Their idea of good government is a government of a type so big that it would make even Massa Linkhorn’s head spin! Their only requisite is that the right people be running it – their people – Republicans. That said, don’t go out and buy that Glenn Beck t-shirt and make sure you remember to keep repeating….”The enemy of my enemy is my friend” and “Fox is not my friend!”

Now, as far as your Southern Heritage is concerned, ever notice how the folks at Fox wrap themselves in the mantle of patriotism while at the same time taking every opportunity to lay the big one on y’all, as Hannity did in the video that Nelson referenced? Hannity frequently prides himself on being a “patriot.” As I listen to his blustering on this subject for years I think I understand what Samuel Johnson meant when he said that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel!” Someone needs to tell Hannity that “Patriotism” is the love of one’s people and the love of one’s country and the willingness to sacrifice for them. It does not mean love of one’s government.

Funny how Hannity and company seem to forget that whenever America gets into a scrape and needs volunteers to go die in some far off hellhole, that it’s been Southerners who have been the first to step up?! Yet, guys like Hannity (who are usually not the first to “step up) have no qualms whatsoever about kicking Southerners and their heritage to the curb. And, if you haven’t been paying attention, this isn’t the first time it has happened. O’Reilly, Beck, Shepherd Smith and others have all taken their turn at bashing you. A Fox reporter who covered the big Confederate flag raising in Tampa two years ago admitted to me in an email that his bosses and colleagues at Fox were angry at him for giving favorable coverage to the event. Y’all should remember that as I posted it in this newsletter. What more proof do you need that these guys hate you? You got it straight from the horse’s mouth!

These people are demagogues – at present they are trying like hell to win over blacks to the Republican Party and they will pull out all the stops to do it, including running over you and your ancestors and by telling stories that they think black folks want to hear. I do hope that black Americans have the sense to see what they are trying to do. I do hope that they will perhaps gain some historical awareness that for the last 145 years, at different times, both political parties have pandered to their interest, and that the results of that pandering have been disastrous for the black community. I do hope that they will eventually recognize that in all such cases, the parties in question have ultimately sold them down the river. I do hope they realize what some of us white boys have realized – that neither party is truly anyone’s friend, and that a demagogue is no one’s friend but his own. Sadly, I am not inclined to put money on any of these things happening.

Since Fox is, in effect, the media arm of the GOP, you can bet that they’ll be appealing to blacks by first telling them what they think they want to hear, i.e., ‘we love Martin Luther King just like you do’ and then by somehow managing to blame all their perceived ills on Democrats, Progressives, and of course, Confederates. Remember this strategy the next time you watch Beck or Hannity when they deal with a black issue and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Hannity “debated” Al Sharpton? Think about that spectacle. It doesn’t exactly conjure up images of the Lincoln – Douglas debates now, does it? Do words like “ludicrous” get conjured up in your mind instead? You would think if Hannity was really interested in an honest debate that he would have chosen an opponent who at least had the sense that God gave a chicken. Why pick Sharpton? Well for one thing, Sharpton is the intellectual version of the old 98 pound weakling. For another, he is perhaps one of the most well known of the “black activists”. By engaging in polite debate with him, Hannity probably figured that he was showing blacks respect by, in effect, showing respect for one of their “leaders.” Since guys like Hannity usually wet their pants when they see more than 2 black people standing in the same spot, he’s probably unaware that not a few black people actually do see Sharpton for the slug that he is.

If Hannity were worth his salt, he would have disdained Sharpton entirely. And if he chose to approach Sharpton at all publicly, he would have reminded him of such names as “Tawana Brawley”, “Steven Pagones”, and “Yankel Rosenblum”, names which should bring to mind behavior on Sharpton’s part which would make any decent person of any race recoil in disgust. In a day and age when “apologies” have become all the rage, I have yet to hear Sharpton apologize for the incidents associated with these names. Yet, it seems, Sharpton has drawn a free pass all these years, not only from the liberal media, but from Fox as well. In fact, Hannity was downright respectful of a man who deserves no respect at all. That’s because Hannity’s sole purpose in this “debate” was simply to win over black converts to his party. And he did it by treating Sharpton like he was actually a respectable representative of the human race instead of the reprobate that he is, and, by saying to African American viewers, ‘see, we hate the same thing as you do – the Confederate flag – we have a lot in common.’ How much more transparent than that can you get?

Keep repeating this until you’re saying it in your sleep – “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” and…..”Fox is not my friend.”

Bill Vallante

Commack NY