I consider myself to be reasonably literate. If I don't understand something, there's a good chance that it's either a specialist's language or I'm being deliberately buffaloed.
So, I was doubly disadvantaged when Fox News ran an in-your-face visual that called Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama" and then apologized for using this chyron.
What's with the baby mama insult? What does it mean? And a chyron? What's that? A figure of speech?
Well, I learn from Josh Marshall's excellent Talking Points Memo that the Urban Dictionary defines "baby mama" as "the mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are not currently involved." Got that?
The message from Fox News is that Barack and Michelle are just some local couple from the 'hood who happened to have a couple of children, whom Barack has subsequently disowned, or ignored, or abandoned, or something. Ignore what seems to be a strong marriage; never mind those Ivy League degrees; forget the Harvard law credentials. We know shiftless people when we see them, and most of them have dark skin.
But Fox apologized, right? "A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment," said Fox's Senior Vice President of Programming Bill Shine.
I don't think so. That's not an apology. "Exercising poor judgment" is just the same as saying, "Well, unfortunately things happen. We can't stay on top of everything." And, it turns out a "chyron" is the message taking up the bottom third of a television screen. Who knew? And who knew these "chyrons" apparently write themselves (since Fox takes no responsibility for them).
It's remarkable that anyone in a position of responsibility in a major "news" organization would be so out-of-touch as to reveal their prejudices in such an unvarnished way. And it's equally strange that Fox would just dismiss the incident as some sort of minor technical issue.
So, let's rewrite the apology the way it should have been delivered.
"Fox News apologizes for the demeaning, misogynist and racist insult that it aimed at the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, Barack Obama, and his wife, Michelle. Our news division produced an unseemly graphic that viewers could not miss and kept it on screen for a full minute. We are deeply distressed that a Fox News producer let personal prejudice or political preference affect her news judgment and have (pick one): (1) terminated our relationship with the individual, or (2) asked that individual to take a leave of absence while the news division looks into how this happened and what needs to be done about it."
"Exercising poor judgment" on a "chyron." Who are you kidding? It's an insult to the reader's intelligence to pretend such a statement even begins to make up for the damage that producer tried to do.