While most people probably don’t care if Debra Messing’s son sits or stands during the national anthem, Fox & Friends was oh-so offended, they branded it as un-American. While they were at it, the show smeared other forms of liberal protest – while demanding “great defenses” for conservative free speech.
In case you missed it, Will & Grace star Messing admired her son, in a now-deleted Instagram post, for sitting down during the national anthem at a hockey game. Naturally, Fox used that minor incident to smear the entire left.
After cohost Lisa Boothe read Messing’s message, in which she suggested she was crying with pride over her son’s support for Black Lives Matter, cohost Todd Piro broadened the messaging with his opening “question”: “What is the left getting so wrong about patriotism?”
Piro introduced guest Jeremy Hunt, the latest of many conservative African-Americans who serve as Fox/Trump enablers on the network.
Active-duty soldier Hunt, who believes that “victimhood culture,” as opposed to systemic racism, is the real problem for the black community, got the patriotic-propaganda ball rolling. He asked, “How can patriotic Americans best respond to these kinds of acts of disrespect to the national anthem and to the flag?” He acknowledged that while we can’t control others, we can “commit ourselves to teaching others a better way.”
The patriotism just kept coming. Hunt, who was embarrassed by the African-American response to Trump’s election, expressed thanks that he grew up in a “family that taught me to love this country.”
The reality is that the national anthem protests are about police brutality towards minority communities. But Boothe framed it as a slap on the red, white, and blue: “A lot of Americans, including a lot of the viewers at home right now, they view this kneeling as an affront to patriotism, as affront to our country, or anti-American.”
Piro then switched gears to Hunt’s “editorial” (on the Fox website) about a Disney World robot that was “the target of a screaming rant.” Piro asked, “Is there really any safe space left from the leftist insanity?”
He played video of a man repeatedly yelling “Lock him up!” at a new animatronic Donald Trump robot at Disney World. Later, Piro read a comment from the heckler, gay comedian Jay Malsky, who suggested anyone he had offended should “check their privilege” because the real offenses are Trump’s mmigration policies, his transphobia and unfair tax bill.
Hunt responded that he wrote his piece to “point at the absurdity” of heckling at a children’s event. He also advanced the Fox/right wing loathing of the “check your privilege” phrase by calling it just “an escape from having to address any kind of criticism about their positions on issues” – and – wait for it – “really un-American.”
Somehow, that just happened to remind Boothe of the “intolerance” of liberals on campuses.
Hunt took that ball and ran with it, too: “Just the absolute hysteria, the violence. And I think the worst thing about it all, as we have seen time and time again, a lot of the college administrations are not cracking down on the violence, especially if it is against conservative groups.” He spoke of the necessity for free speech and having “a strong stand against any limits on free speech.”
So when Messing and Malsky engage in free speech, they are ridiculed and demonized as anti-American on Fox News. But conservative free speech is to be zealously protected!
One thing is for sure: Fox & Friends has started off its 2018 culture wars bright and early!
Watch the phony patriotism below, from the January 1, 2018 Fox & Friends.