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.

Big Hollywood Writer Singles Out Minorities for Attack

The backlash against minorities continues to build since the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States of America. Now, in reality, this is hardly an unexpected occurrence as many older members of the Republican and conservative wing of the political spectrum are angry. The country they knew is slipping away and what many of these individuals see is the browning of America. And, they don’t like it one bit. These bitter and angry individuals show their frustration with the severe backlash to anything even remotely resembling affirmative action and with illegal immigration (with the way that the Latino population in this country is growing and the projections for the future).

This all brings me to a blog published on Big Hollywood by a man named Brian Jennings. Jennings goes on and on about how the country is going into debt (conservatives didn’t care as much about it when George W. Bush was president) and then laments bailouts (or potential bailouts) for minority broadcasters.

Here is what Jennings wrote (with the graphic included):

Well if we can spend millions to protect the salt marsh mouse in San Francisco Bay, we can surely shell out billions to bail out minority broadcasters. It’s good for the economy and after all Congress is on record as saying it needs to save our nation’s newspapers, too. So, the table is set for government financial intervention of the media.

Minority broadcasters are asking tax-cheat Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for financial assistance. Sounds like the financial and auto industries, and it is. These broadcasters, including the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, the Inner City Broadcasting Coalition, the Spanish Broadcasting System, and others say they can bounce back because “unlike the auto business, broadcasting has been healthy for many years.” Has it now?

Jennings continues:

As the nation digs itself further into debt and unemployment continues to increase, media is being hit as hard as any sector. But, there is an important point to be made. Perhaps suspect business models should be allowed to fail. If there is bailout money for minority broadcasters, what about bailout money for the nation’s non-minority broadcasters who face what many believe is their only path – bankruptcy. The answer to that is a forgone conclusion. Minorities will get a bailout because after all they are minorities and deserve special treatment. But, other broadcasters – especially the consolidated media will not get a dime. No media should be bailed out.

It’s the same old politics of fear in regard to under-qualified minorities supposedly getting so muchspecial treatment while “others” work sooooooooooooo hard and, well you know, just can’t get a break.

Jennings seems to think that minorities get all of this special treatment that “other broadcasters” don’t seem to get.

I doubt Jennings, or others like him, truly would want to trade positions with minorities.

He makes some reasonable points in regard to conflict of interest if the media is taking money (in the form of a bailout). So, maybe no media should be bailed out, but to take an obvious and angry shot at minorities (the way this writer did) has a bit of a smell of resentment and perhaps racism to it.

He also took an angry, partisan cheap shot at Timothy Geithner.