Two days after D.L. Hughley’s epic confrontation with Megyn Kelly about Fox News racism and the police, he visited SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning show to discuss it.
On SiriusXM, Hughley talked about what an outrage it is for Fox to have Mark Fuhrman as an expert for discussing race and police brutality. Noting Fuhrman’s record as a documented and disgraced racist, Hughley rightly noted that no other news network would have hired him as an expert on policing.
I’ve been saying for years that Fox’s use of Fuhrman, especially as a supposedly neutral expert on sensitive cases involving race and the police, is a deliberate slap in the face of African Americans. In my view, it’s long overdue for someone to say this on the air, to a host’s face. That's exactly what Hughley did with Kelly.
Hughley had a lot to say in the nearly 19-minute interview, below ,that I think is worth hearing. But this statement especially struck me.
HUGHLEY: Megyn Kelly let Donald Trump run all over her. And to get her job back, she basically sucked his dick on TV and she talks to me like I’m a fucking janitor.
I’m not sure what Hughley meant by “to get her job back,” as Kelly never lost it. But he makes a great point about the respect that she showed Trump when she interviewed him vs. the condescending tone she adopted with Hughley.
Hughley was scheduled to appear on Fox Business Network’s Kennedy the day after he appeared on Fox News' The Kelly File but, according to host Kennedy, he canceled (H/T Mediaite). I can completely understand why he wouldn't want to re-visit the network but I would have loved to see him give the network another earful.
Watch Hughley react to his Kelly File appearance below.
Also, I give Hughley credit for calling out Fox’s tactic. How many professional Democrats, including African American regular Richard Fowler have never pointed out that hosting Fuhrman is a slap in the face of African Americans? And that’s only a sliver of how Fox works its message with barely a peep from those who are paid to advocate for Dems or liberals.
I’ve seen Maher on Fox’s “The Factor” and he didn’t exactly shine. Roles are reversed. O’Reilly picks the topic. O’Reilly has all the prepared research and notes in front of him. Tough forum for anyone but a sycophant (“The Factor” features many).
Though, as Maher points out, his show is live. O’Reilly’s isn’t and is heavily edited (obvious if you ever compared Jon Stewart’s pre and post edit interviews on “The Factor” as I have).
It’s next to impossible for an opposing viewpoint to shine on “The Factor” though you know you’re close when O’Reilly either does an outburst or more commonly ceases eye contact as he starts muttering “I don’t believe that” without any back-up other than his personal credibility. Ending all discussion so “The Factor” can return to its regularly scheduled establishment conservative propaganda. Not sure why even that stuff doesn’t hit the cutting room floor. Too much content cut out already to fill a show? Makes you wonder what we’re not seeing! ;^)
More to the topic: Hughley winged it and it shows.
How do you beat Fox?
Well, recognize Fox News is a news format thinly veiling it’s nothing more than a different flavor of conservative talk radio. Most of Fox’s content is field tested (on talk radio) shallow soundbites. Fox is also expert at data-mining to prop up the same. I don’t think they’ve ever done a segment or news story touching politics even remotely where they told over 1/2 the truth.
Know their repertoire of soundbites. Not that hard since they pretty much repeat the same crap over and over, day after day. Don’t fall into the trap of repeating the liberal version of the same which Fox is rehearsed at addressing because they do their opposition research well. Best to be prepared for their tired set of facts and fill it in with all the stuff they’re purposely ignoring. There’s a 90+% their audience has never heard it before.
Not saying that’ll end in total victory by any means because they’ll turn to debate tactics. But you know you’re winning if they quickly redirect to different topics or get desperate and end the segment short. Anything to bring an end to their embarrassment and a glimpse of the whole truth to their fans.
An example of this today was Kirsten Powers on “Fox News Sunday.” (Yeah, I know I’m a frequent critic of her but, while she really toned down her point, at least a bit of sunshine shown threw.) The backdrop for the show was naturally the Republican Convention and Donald Trump. It helps here that The Donald isn’t so popular with establishment Republican types you typically find dominating the “All-Star Panel” (and host Chris Wallace?). Anyhow, she brought up white supremacists supporting Der Furor. Surprisingly, there was no pushback. It’s an uncomfortable fact that was dropped when she was done and the GOP-loving panel moved on.
Yeah, a small victory. But I’ll take it!
They can usually hold their ground on the Bill Maher show but not Faux. And then there are the superficial Hollywood liberals who don’t have a clue.
Faux will invite a whole army of the latter on their network.
You can apologize for Hughley not appearing on FBN up until the point he brags here he’s not afraid to show up anywhere. Uh, really?
Also, where he derailed badly with Megyn Kelly was on Ferguson. I’ve read both Ferguson DoJ reports. If you haven’t, it’s easy for partisans like Fox or Hughley to lead you by the nose to their pov. It’s must-read material for anyone holding this conversation.
If Hughley on Fox News had stuck with a broader dialogue on cops shooting blacks and the broader Ferguson report, he’d have Megyn over a barrel. It’d be a breakthrough perspective rarely mentioned on GOP TV.
However, he chose to go after Wilson. There’s a clear preponderance of evidence including black witnesses backing up Wilson’s exoneration. Hughley should have accepted that and moved on. Unfortunately, he’s a die-hard and Megyn was allowed to undermine his credibility and deflect attention from the larger issue by continually pounding him on Darren Wilson.
Fox isn’t afraid of liberals like Hughley because he’ll get emotional, go off the deep end, and skilled Fox hosts holding all the cards will undermine his credibility. Liberals appearing on Fox need to really have their s—t together.
Royalty is treated like royalty at Faux. Everyone else can go straight to hell. What do you think this is? A democracy?