Fox News Attacks And Cheap Shots L.L. Cool J

If anyone ever wanted additional evidence of how dirty the power people at Fox News can be then a good recent example is rapper and actor L.L. Cool J.

In its ongoing efforts to provide high-profile platform to potential candidates for president of the United States, Fox News has handed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a new show on its airwaves. Palin, who cut her teeth on a grueling half of one term as governor of Alaska, ditched that job to make money and chase the media spotlight. As part of her run to fame and riches, Palin has jumped into bed with the network that conservatives (but really no one else) trust: far right Fox News.

Anyone, I will get to the excerpt from TVNewser:

A Fox News spokesperson tells TVNewser, "Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith's interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith [LL Cool J] does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career."

As you can see, Fox News takes a cheap shot at L.L. Cool J in typical Fox News fashion because he didn't quietly play along with their misleading exploitation (a clip used in an effort to promote Sarah Palin's new Fox show, Real American Stories) of an older interview he conducted. In its attack, Fox News seems to tip its hand at what its real motive for having him on as a guest might have been: having a black man on their show that they felt could appeal to minorities, a hip-hop segment of the population and younger generation.

From Media Matters for America:

But LL Cool J never said he did not "want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others," he simply said that Fox has "lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show." In other words, he took issue with Fox building up Palin's debut with a blatant falsehood.

And in fairness to Mr. Cool J, Fox does strongly suggest -- in all of its promotional materials for Palin's show -- that LL Cool J, Toby Keith, and Jack Welch were interviewed by Palin, or had somehow purposefully attached themselves to her show (you can see the video on the Media Matters page).

Fox News wanted L.L. to be their token "diversity" guest and when he benignly said that he felt the Fox video promotion was not an accurate portrayal of him, the network declares all out media war on him.

Forget The Grunting, Ban The Whining In Tennis

I’ve been amused listening to all of the whining the last few days about some tennis players grunting when they hit the ball. We have some of the old-school women tennis players coming out with their complaints about grunting – whether some call it cheating or some simply see it as an annoyance. Whether it’s cheating or an annoyance – the whining about it is nothing short of pathetic.

There’s no crying in baseball, but there is whining in tennis. Check out the article below that can be found at ESPN’s Web site: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4293867

SYDNEY — Tennis great Chris Evert has joined the chorus of complaints about the noise level in women’s tennis, saying the “grunting” was getting out of hand.

Evert stopped short of joining former rival Martina Navratilova in labelling the practice as cheating, but agreed it had reached unacceptable levels.

“Grunting is one thing but the shrill sound that you hear with players nowadays, and especially they get louder when they hit a winner, that’s the thing that I observe as a player,” the former world No. 1 told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

“It comes before they hit the shot. That’s the first thing you hear and you are kind of like thrown off guard as a player and then before you know the ball gets past you.”

Evert is visiting Sydney with her husband Greg Norman, who announced he would play in the Australian Open golf championship for the next three years.

“It is distracting when you are hearing this and I think the grunts are getting louder and more shrill now with the current players,” she said.

“The next time you watch say a Maria Sharapova — the grunting is consistent but all of a sudden when she has a set up to hit a winner.

“I don’t understand, they say you’ve got to blow air out when you hit the ball.

“Steffi Graf hit the ball a ton and she didn’t grunt. There were a lot of players, hard-hitting players, and you never heard a peep out of them.

“I don’t understand the philosophy of it.”

I’m cool with Chris Evert, but this is the kind of whining about things that are happening in tennis that seems to serve no useful purpose. In a way, it almost makes some of these former players sound older and bitter (modern translation: player haters).

It’s time for the whiners to focus less on the grunting and more on the great tennis.

Otherwise, it perpetuates a negative image of snobbery.