Objectify This

Welp, bro-hemes, it’s no news to most of us that Faux News is not all it’s cracked up to be - for instance, a Google image search for ‘faux news’ turns up a lot of interesting variations on this graphic.

Yet at the same time, a newer report on Faux’s antics sees its standard of journalism perilously close to the kind of satire achieved in such masterworks as Brohemian Rhapsody, (hat tip to Shmitten Kitten for the link).

Wikipedia reports that “According to former FOX News producer Charlie Reina, unlike the AP, CBS, or ABC, FOX News’s editorial policy is set from the top down, stating that “The roots of FOX News Channel’s day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered.” Sweet, right?

That bias pervades the channel whose tagline remains “We Report. You Decide” to this very minute. The current headline reads, “Obama RIck-Rolled!” There’s a caption beneath it with the details: “A new video surfaces featuring Barack Obama ’singing’ to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit ‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’” In fact, the “video” is of Obama, on Ellen, in 1987, shaking it in a dignified manner, interspliced with clips of Obama collaged to coincide with the lyrics of the song.

Not only is the song a celebration of monogamy, but he’s also Rick-Rolling, if that’s what the dance my 87 year-old white Jewish grandfather does when he’s making fun of dancing is called, approximately 20 years ago. Now, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s such a travesty to roll your fists in a circular motion every 20 years or so. Also, I love that jam.

I concur with YouTube’s The Liberal Viewer in his multiple catches of Fox New’s bias — for example, they have repeatedly twisted stories to impugn Obama’s discussion of race, and to remove the Daily Show’s criticism of McCain from a clip, even though that also excises the entire joke.

What I love about the Rick Roll’d example, though, is that it has entirely backfired. It is exactly for this reason that I love Obama: he’s not a stranger to love. He will never give me up, or let me down, or make me cry, or fail to Rick-Roll on the Ellen DeGeneres show in 1987. Not only is his medical history of the last 21 years 1/1,200th of McCain’s medical history of the last 8 (I am not making this up), but he’s got moves. What’s not presidential about familiarity with 80s music?

America, let’s not be strangers to love. I just want to tell you how I’m feeling. I’m feeling like we should all be getting our news from Counterpunch and ZCommunications and Democracy Now!

Ok, ok, I’ll let you see the video. I am, after all, playing it for only the seventeenth time as we speak. I suppose I can share, even if it means that it will load more slowly in the future.