Here’s a follow-up to my post on the Obama’s fist pound and the discussion of which my E.D. Hill on Fox’s American Pulse in which the phrase “a terrorist fist pump?” was deployed.
From the LAT’s Top of the Ticket (No high-fives over 3 words of Fox News’ chat on the Obamas’ fist bump):
The phrase apparently came from a simple reader comment posted on an article on the conservative website Human Events that accused Michelle Obama of being un-American and employing “’Hezbollah’ style fist-jabbing.” (The comment has since been removed.)
[...]
On Tuesday, Hill apologized, saying the words were not her characterization:
“I want to start the show by clarifying something I said on the show last Friday about an upcoming body language segment. Now I mentioned various ways the Obamas’ fist-bump in St. Paul had been characterized in the media.
“I apologize because unfortunately some thought I, personally, had characterized it inappropriately. I regret that. It was not my intention. I certainly didn’t mean to associate the word terrorist in any way with Sen. Obama and his wife.”
Here’s the video:
The thing is, one has to wonder how in the world anyone could see the line “a terrorist fist jab” in the copy to be loaded onto the teleprompter and not think “whoa! that might be problematic!” it certainly makes one wonder what in the world they were thinking (and the options aren’t too impressive).
It makes me think of the following line from J.S. Mill’s On Liberty:
Judgment is given to men that they may use it.
Clearly, Hill and her producers failed to use their judgment/they used it quite poorly.
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Clearly, Hill and her producers failed to use their judgment/they used it quite poorly.
I would add to that the lameness of the “apology.” To say that they were merely repeating phrases that had been circulating in “the media” is just as damning as the initial transgression. Since when are reader comments on a blog considered “the media”?
If anything, this is further evidence that Fox News is a joke.
Comment by Ratoe — Wednesday, June 11, 2024 @ 11:56 am
The apology was quite lame.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, June 11, 2024 @ 12:34 pm
Are we really talking about this?
Comment by CV — Wednesday, June 11, 2024 @ 3:15 pm
The conventional media does things like this on purpose. The goal is to get exposure, and it works really well - the clips end up on YouTube and spread to blogs all over the internet. Thus, the conventional media has a path to the people like me who pay it little or no attention at all, but get information from less conventional sources on the internet.
I mean, honestly - can we really believe that everyone who saw the fist bump script was oblivious to the idea that it would cause controversy? Does the network have nothing but complete fools working for it? Hardly! They knew exactly what they were doing, and all the fuss and bother was both planned and desired.
The purpose of the fist bump/terrorist comment was to get attention, and it has done that, quite well.
Comment by Captain D — Wednesday, June 11, 2024 @ 4:35 pm
Nice the way you worked Mill into this.
Comment by MSS — Wednesday, June 11, 2024 @ 6:31 pm
Thanks.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, June 11, 2024 @ 11:22 pm
Nice the way you worked Mill into this.
Come on Steven! You could have done better than that!
How about this little gem from his autobiography, speaking of his old man:
Right and wrong, good and bad, he regarded as qualities solely of conduct—of acts and omissions; there being no feeling which may not lead, and does not frequently lead, either to good or to bad actions: conscience itself, the very desire to act right, often leading people to act wrong. Consistently carrying out the doctrine, that the object of praise and blame should be the discouragement of wrong conduct and the encouragement of right, he refused to let his praise or blame be influenced by the motive of the agent.
Comment by Ratoe — Thursday, June 12, 2024 @ 1:32 pm