Aggrieved Christians, especially those on Fox, claim that the librul education, media, and arts community attack Christians because they, unlike those evil Muslims, are peaceful people who won't fight back. But their contention that Christians gracefully accept whatever is thrown at them is a crock of crap as shown by their reaction to yet another Fox fueled "outrage" over a Florida university professor's request that students "stomp on Jesus" as part of a lesson on symbols. While the controversy began on right wing blogs, "fair & balanced" Fox News gave it national attention. Not surprisingly, it was the topic for discussion on Fox & Friends, the Fox sanctuary for persecuted Christians. Fox's culture war ayatollah, Bill O'Reilly, covered the "controversy." During all the segments, a photo of the teacher, who is black, was shown. And now that the Deandre Poole has received racist comments and death threats on his voice and e-mail, he has been put on leave because of safety concerns. Praise Jesus?
As reported in the Miami Herald, what began as a misunderstanding of a class assignment quickly became a political "gotcha moment" - one, I might add, that was fueled into a national overreaction thanks to Fox News. During a class on intercultural communications, at Florida Atlantic University, the professor asked students to write the name of Jesus on a piece of paper and then stomp on it. The expected revulsion of the students was to show the power of symbols, as detailed in the lesson developed by a professor at St. Norbert's College - a Catholic school in Wisconsin. Suffice to say, Fox News never mentioned that.
A devout Mormon student who refused to do the exercise was suspended from the class. The school stated that no students were forced to participate in the exercise and that no students were disciplined. After he obtained the services of Liberty Institute, a firm that specializes in aggrieved Christians, the school apologized and the student is taking the same class with a different professor. After the case received publicity (Thank You Fox News) the Florida governor got involved and is demanding that the school "investigate" the lesson.
O'Reilly used this incident as a basis upon which to bloviate about corrupt radical campuses and how political activists shouldn't be allowed to teach at colleges. (Poole is involved in community outreach for the Democrats.) Fox & Friends provided even more extensive propaganda. Clayton Moore didn't understand the "context" of the lesson plan even when Alisyn Camerota read the relevant section of the textbook which clearly explained that the point was to communicate that words mean something. There was rich irony in his accusing the school of being "idiots."
American Taliban mullah Mike Huckabee even weighed in on the issue on yet another Fox & Friends "Trouble with Schools" segment. Huckabee was so proud of the kid whose religious devotion got him his more than 15 minutes of Fox fame. Huck said the student should have stomped on the name of the professor. More irony, this time not rich, in Huckabee's prediction that the professor, now getting death threats from good Christians, will "get a raise."
Clayton Moore asserted that there would have been international outrage if it were any name other than Jesus. On cue, Huckabee retorted - wait for it - that if it had been Mohammed's name, instead of Jesus, there would be riots.(Duh, the students were, most likely, Christian so why would the teacher have used Mohammed's name?) Again, Deandra Poole is getting death threats. More irony with Clayton Moore referencing the death threats made to the Danish cartoonists who drew the infamous Mohammed cartoons. Camerota suggested that because Poole is involved with Democrats, he has a bias. Even more irony in Huckabee's comment that stomping on Jesus is an act of aggression. Again, Poole is getting death threats.
Last week, Fox & Friends, after joking in the earlier show about how the professor would be getting a raise, reported that he had been put on leave "for safety reasons." They didn't specify that the reasons involved racist death threats.
So this lesson did accomplish one thing. It demonstrated that it's not only Muslims who have religious sensibilities that elicit aggressive behavior involving death threats. Words do matter. Fox News knows that and that's why their words get results!
Fox & Friends videos here and here.
Also - check out Amanda Marcotte's article "Christian Right Now Outraged At Being Told Their Faith Is Meaningful to Them." She sums it all up quite nicely.
Knoxville, Tiller, Williams, The Mosque Arsonist, and now this. The story comes out, they glow like a newborn’s mother. These people are seriously Manson-grade sick.
We encourage all the masses to send Florida Atlantic University emails and tell them the link to these Fox “News” frauds.
Their ratings continues to fall because the masses are on to them.
It’s true that Fox won that case in the Florida appeals court. What I find disturbing is the case behind this decision giving Fox “right” to tell outright lies or bend the truth.
Fox had commissioned a journalist (Jane Akre) to investigate rumors that a Monsanto plant in the Tampa area was polluting the underground water. She discovered that milk from dairy farms in the area contained unsafe levels of chemicals produced at that plant and wrote her report accordingly. That’s when the two parties disagreed:
- Fox told her not to divulge those findings or to downplay the significance (contaminated milk!).
*She refused to fudge her findings.
*Fox refused to pay her.
*She sued and won in three courts.
All three sentences were overturned by the Florida appeals court on Feb. 14, 2003, on the grounds that Fox does not provide news but rather infotainment.
Milk unsafe for human consumption (including infants and children) was at the core of this story.
Fox won a court case about that.
To quote an original…..from a News Hound…….“We are so screwed!!!!”
sharon