Letters to the Editor
david-smith
Published Letters: 121 Editor's Choice: 8
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Fox Boycott: The Smartest Democratic Move in Decades
[Read the article: Fox muzzles Sally Field]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The decision has nothing to do with gutlessness, but with the nature and underlying purpose of Fox’s corporate existence. Fox is in no sense a legitimate news organization, but a front meant to further two objectives of the truly execrable Rupert Murdoch, disseminating Republican Party propaganda and promoting the bigotry, authoritarianism, and religious fanaticism of the Republican base.
Nope, when it comes to gutlessness, you’d have to concede that few organizations on Earth can challenge the record the Democratic Party. And yet, inexplicably, there is one thing – exactly one discrete, isolated thing – the Democrats have done completely and unambiguously right in the seven years since Bush has been wiping his ass with the Constitution on a daily basis: its decision to boycott Fox News. Indeed, it’s difficult even to fathom how that decision could have come about, as I can recall no other instance in recent memory when Democrats have found the intestinal fortitude to take such a stand.
The wisdom of the Fox boycott is readily apparent in both the sputtering indignation it inspires in the Republican base, and their incoherent and fantastically stupid assertion of its futility (“If they can’t stand up to Fox, how are they going to defeat Al Qaeda?”) Although it’s not as though anyone took Fox seriously before the boycott, it has subsequently become absolutely explicit that the organization is anything but a remotely credible source of objective reporting. Moreover, the boycott has also exposed the complete impotence of the right to do a damn thing about this challenge to Fox’s legitimacy. Are we to imagine they’re going to institute a similar boycott of The Times and NBC? Not hardly. On the other hand, perhaps they’ll merely continue their incessant whining about how terribly mean and unfair the left is. There are few things more laughable than listening to Republicans complain about how “angry” liberals are, which is a good deal like listening to Larry Craig complain about “the homosexual lifestyle” with a big dick in his mouth.
What is vitally important about the Fox boycott as well is the message it sends to the Republican base, who are not – it should be kept in mind – those who merely vote for Republicans, or distrust the Democrats, or hold specific positions on any number of particular issues. No, the hard-core base refers to the something-on-the-order-of-one-third of the American electorate that actually approves of the job George Bush is doing. In other words, they are those who – as I read in a post the other day – wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “Thank God, George Bush is our president.”
Just as they thank God that Bush is president, the Republican base genuinely trusts Fox as an organization of real integrity, and as the only reliable source of honest and truthful reporting about current events. Accordingly, boycotting Fox is essentially like spitting in their face, not unlike ridiculing the President they sincerely love and respect as a grunting baboon that is unfit to shit in a White House toilet, much less serve in the Oval Office. More broadly, it’s implying that the beliefs they hold sacred, the ideals they cherish, the institutions and people they respect are all worthless shit, and are worthy of nothing but derision, ridicule and contempt. In short, boycotting Fox is yet one more way of telling the Republican base that this country would instantly become an immeasurably better place if every one of them would pack up and move to New Guinea, or simply disappear from the face of the Earth altogether.
In other words, it is a strategy that is as deeply satisfying as it is effective, and it is critically important to make sure that the Democrats don’t back off the single smartest, most principled decision they’ve made in years, once the pressure is turned up for exposure and competitive advantage during the heat of the election. At every news conference, every campaign stop, every meeting with Party contributors and supporters, every one of the Democratic candidates should be questioned as to whether they intend to continue the boycott of Fox, or whether they will compromise their principles yet again in the pursuit of short-term and short-sighted gain.
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They Will Never Scrub The Stench of Iraq Off of Bush
[Read the article: The buck stops ... over there]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can’t even conceive of an argument that will ultimately prove to be more thoroughly satisfying or politically profitable for the enemies of Republicanism. It makes absolutely no difference what kind of greasy rhetorical maneuvers Bush’s knob-polishers invent to insulate him from accountability for the war. Nothing they say or do will change the fact that Bush is recognized by everyone but the Republican base as a grunting baboon and a simpering imbecile, and the rancid stench of Iraq will stick to him for the rest of his life, like stink on a pile of shit.