Fox Nation, the Fox News discussion board, is full of fevered denunciations of President Obama on guns ("Freedom, Tyranny and Granny's .38"; "King of the Gun Grabbers"), while Fox prime time last night gave Rand Paul a forum to announce his nullification plan for Obama's executive orders (shown at the bottom of the screen on Fox as Paul spoke: a headshot of Obama and the phrase "STANDING UP TO THE KING").
But the main Fox News site is a bit less fevered -- when I woke up this morning, this was the lead story:
But note the unmitigated gall of this: it's an attempt to deflect criticism of guns by focusing it on Hollywood -- from the news division of a media empire that includes a huge film studio.
But Murdoch knows Hollywood is safe, so the harrumphing is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. And the huge picture of Quentin Tarantino (there's also a still from Django Unchained on the home page) is a way of telling the easily led Fox audience not to go see Tarantino's violent movie -- which is not a Fox release -- at a time when Fox's big movie is the rather more high-minded Lincoln.
(The Murdochians are pretty much the last folks in America still engaging in the old tabloid-news practice of trashing the competition at every opportunity. The New York Post regularly bashes the Daily News. Fox Nation regularly mocks NBC and what it regularly calls "left-wing Politico.")
Don't worry -- Fox News won't keep this up. Fox certainly won't be lamenting movie violence a month from now, when its big release will be this:
4 comments:
Rand Paul - determined to give Coburn and Imhofe a run for their money in the competition for "Stupidest Motherfeckin' Idjit in the Senate."
And as for FOX, and Ol' Rupe and Rog, uhm, if you're so pro-2nd Amendment, then why are FOX studio's windows bullet-proof - especially Ailes office?
Are you concerned about someone firing "Freedumb" bullets at you?
I have to admit that that series (with the exception of Installment 2, which sucked) is a guilty pleasure; indeed, the original "Die Hard" is the best Christmas movie of all time.
It does seem at least possible that these gun proposals are "light" on film and video games because representatives for both were able to cite a body of credible science that has never found a link between consuming violent media and actual violent acts.
Meanwhile, the gun lobby has primarily directed their efforts at blocking public health research on guns, which is why several of Obama's executive orders are directed at encouraging this research to occur.
Of guilty pleasures - the obnoxous "reporter" getting tazed in Die Hard II is right up there.
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