I’ve been watching Fox News of late. Let me rephrase that. On visits to my neighbors place Fox News is always on. He’s a good decent man and I like him. Fox News is the only news he feels he can trust. As a result the world he lives in is understood differently by him than it is by me. That is not an exaggeration. In fact all the neighbors I speak to about current affairs have their thoughts and responses molded by Fox News. I have learned to listen to them and not disagree. Disagreeing with someone informed by Fox News can have explosive results. I found that out, so I just listen and think for myself.
It would not be unfair to say that Fox News describes the world for their viewers and explains it to them enabling the proliferation of the same memes in the consciousness of the consumer. These memes then take on a life of their own in their discussion. This is done under the pretext that two sides are presenting their view with an impartial moderator serving to direct the conversation. Often it turns into an unintelligible shouting match with the moderator and the person on the ‘right’ belittling the opinion of the one on the ‘left’. I don’t find it edifying.
Fox News promotes a specific agenda associated with a recognizable segment of the populace. Because of this agenda orientated approach I would characterize it as a propaganda outlet operating under the guise of a legitimate news reporting agency. News, by my definition, reports what happened and does not include the explanation of the facts. Even more distressing than their mere content is their promotion of the well-known right wing agenda. The right wind agenda includes but is not limited to the destruction of planned parenthood, defense of the right to bear arms, whining about the federal budget and deficit and the denial of legitimacy to persons with a non-biblical sexual orientation. I’m sure there are more examples. I bet you can think of some.
Fox News is adamant about its unwillingness to support the Black Lives Matter people’s movement across the nation. Instead their reporting appears to me to demonstrate an agenda designed to normalize and justify the threat to black lives. By the use of loaded terminology such as ‘thug’ or ‘illegal alien’ those who are the subject of their words become stripped of their humanity in the ears of a Fox News consumer. The objects of this reproach are reduced to a boogeyman status becoming caricatures of the humanity they possess. The result is that these targeted individuals are not regarded as every bit as human as the Fox News viewer. A ‘them’ against ‘us’ situation is created by this kind of reporting. The faithful Fox News viewer accepts this portrayal and incorporates it into his worldview as the way things are.
A case in point.
I began to notice over the weekend what I understand to be an attack on the Black Lives Matter movement politicizing the murder of a law enforcement officer in Texas as a means of exciting prejudice against the movement. The killing was a terrible event to be sure. I can only begin to imagine the empty space in the family left by his absence. I would not wish this loss on anyone. My sympathy goes out to the family. Unlike the ordinary Fox News consumer I do not blame the large percent of socially disenfranchised Black Lives who seek justice for themselves and their communities.
I saw that the approach being taken by the news agency seeks to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement. If my hunch is right the purpose in their reporting is to make it seem as if the Black Lives Matter movement is in some very real way responsible for the killing of police officers. I regard such a tactic to be inflammatory and dimwitted if not downright irresponsible. Here is a link to a conversation between Cornel West and Bill O’Reilly on the Black Lives Matter movement and the issues affecting the Black community in the United States. West is a theologian and O’Reilly is a shill for the defense industry. The differences in their take on the subject under discussion reveal the wide gulf that exists in American opinion.
The Black Lives Matter movement arose as a result of all too frequent reports and citizen taken videos documenting police violence against unarmed citizens, many of them Black people, some of them children. That is the cultural /social cauldron the movement finds itself stewing in. Fox News is okay with saying “All Lives Matter” and of course they do. But the way Fox News uses this phrase, like the way it uses ‘thug’ or ‘illegal alien’, it comes across in a way that detracts from and slanders the underlying issues giving rise to the grievances that brought the Black Lives Matter movement into existence.
How many people are killed each year by police? The answer is uncertain due to an incomplete system of keeping records according to the Washington Post article at the previous link. To be sure the majority of unjustified shootings is smaller than the number of necessary shootings.
While even the most ardent supporter of law and order will admit that the police sometimes do not act appropriately many are unwilling to criticize this activity. While looking for info I came across COPBLOCK a blog dedicated to researching unnecessary police violence against citizens. You may find it alarming.
There are other kinds of violence that do not have an immediately obvious physical element. That kind of violence is socially mandated and reinforced. This predatory violence was revealed by the Justice Department in its review of police activities in Ferguson Missouri.
“In a scathing report released Wednesday, the Justice Department concluded that the Ferguson Police Department had been routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents.”
“According to the report, bias against African-Americans was routine and thorough, affecting “nearly every aspect of Ferguson police and court operations.” For blacks, the report concluded, distrust and fear of the police was well-founded.“ This was reported in the New York Times by WILSON ANDREWS, ALICIA DESANTIS and JOSH KELLER MARCH 4, 2015. See the link above.
What the justice department discovered was that the Ferguson police were using the Black community as a kind of ‘cash cow’. They were nickel and dime-ing them to death by the issuing of arrest warrants! This is the kind of subliminal violence the Black community of Ferguson encountered every day of their lives. The shooting death of Mike Brown was what it took to bring the world’s eyes to focus on this aspect of police on Black violence. One result of the Justice Department’s investigation was the throwing out of all arrest warrants issued prior to 2015.
The use of economic brutality and the misuse of police department resources as practiced daily by the Ferguson PD is an adjunct to the use of the firearm. It is in this context that the Black Lives Matter movement came into being.
“To solidify their claim that the Black Lives Matter movement is dangerous, this morning, they had on Sheriff David Clarke, one of their resident Uncle Ruckuses to call BLM 'A Murder Movement.' Way to start a race war, Fox!” (See the link above at Crook & Liars for full documentation)
On the other hand do not expect to see this issue handled sympathetically or completely on Fox News because to them the matter of Black lives is subjugated to the mealy mouth, feel good, self-righteous jingoism that “All Lives Matter.” While that is undoubtedly true it obscures the reasons for the necessary rise of the movement in the public’s perception. However that jingo seems to be the end of the discussion for Fox News and represents the state and status of one of the most popular information outlets in the nation. One can only sit and wonder what the outcome of this Faux News will be.
I doubt the city of Ferguson is an anomaly. I can easily imagine the same type of racketeering police work being done in many cities across the nation. While this is sad enough to consider I need to ask: are we going to require more deaths like that of Mike Brown before justice comes to other cities suffering with the same condition?