Roger Ailes, head honcho at Fox News, gave a speech at that RTNDF 1st Amendment Awards which contained numerous attempts at humor.
One line was:
And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don’t know if it’s true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, ‘Why can’t we catch this guy?’
As a result of which, Matt Stoller at MyDD has a post headlined: Roger Ailes Jokes About Obama as Terrorist.
I clicked over on the story out of curiosity, wondering if perhaps Ailes said something outrageous.
However, I ask the audience, isn’t the joke in question aimed at Bush and not Obama? It strikes me as a fairly mainstream “Bush isn’t very bright” joke that plays on the fact that “Obama” sounds like “Osama” and therefore Bush might be confused.
As simply a matter of joke interpretation, am I not right here?
[…] Our own Dr. Steven Taylor, a/k/a Poliblogger, has what Ailes actually said, which was actually a joke about Bush’s anguished English. […]
Pingback by Pros and Cons » Is this how a majority party behaves? — Saturday, March 10, 2024 @ 3:37 pm
I am with you on that one.
Comment by Danny — Saturday, March 10, 2024 @ 4:39 pm
One casuality of the last 20 years is that any joke that is remotely ethnic in nature is by definition offensive. Look for this to be a bumper year for that as being offended gives at least 2 news cycle coverage to the offended party.
A Mexican, a Pollack, a Black and a Blonde walked into a bar…..and their campaigns held press conferences bemoning the fact that a joke was made of it.
[Richardson, Kucinich, Obama, and Clinton]
Comment by Buckland — Saturday, March 10, 2024 @ 6:12 pm
It seems like all of the Bush jokes are getting old…Let’s joke about O’Bama and Hillary…No, wait, they’re not white males, so it’s not PC to make fun of those groups.
Comment by Bill — Saturday, March 10, 2024 @ 9:43 pm
Sounds like the usual play on Bush’s stupidity to me, too. Buckland, with material like that, you should write for Leno!
What’s sad is that people REALLY ARE confusing Obama and Osama. I think it was CNN that took cameras to the street asking people how they felt about Barack Obama, and people responded with statements like, “We need to catch that guy.”
Comment by Alabama Moderate — Saturday, March 10, 2024 @ 10:15 pm