UPDATE - Fox Veep Defends Hip Hop BBQ Headline
Reported by Aunty Em - August 5, 2011 -
Earlier today I reported on the story of Fox Nation blowing the racial dog whistle, once again. Yahoo News spoke to Bill Shine, Fox "News" executive vice president of programming in charge of the Fox Nation site, who not only defended the headline, but added details of which I was unaware [italicized emphasis added]:
Bill Shine, Fox executive vice president of programming in charge of the Fox Nation site, defended the decision in a statement to The Cutline: "We used the hip-hop reference per Politico's Playbook story this morning which stated 'Also present: Chicago pals, law-school friends, donors--and lots of kids of friends, who stole the show by doing dance routines to the hip-hop songs, in the center of the East Room.'"The network has shut off further comments on the article, which were becoming incendiary.
"We found many of the comments to be offensive and inappropriate and they have been removed," Shine said.
It had been my mistaken assumption that comments were closed from the get-go. However, it would appear the comments were so beyond the pale that Fox Nation felt the entire comment thread should be removed. Considering what comments Fox Nation usually leaves up, it begs the question: How far is too far for Fox Nation?
It also begs another question: Why does it continue to blow the racist dog whistle when Fox Nation knows full-well what kind of comments they will get?
