The right wing world is full of dualities that are painted in stark contrasts. Part of the genius of its media mouthpiece, Fox "News," is its ability to morph the "us vs. them" motif with "good vs. evil" and create a finished product in which the "good" conservative "us" is seen as being in a constant state of battle with the "evil" liberal "them." In an effort to further divide (and conquer?), Fox "News" is very adept at creating social wedge issues with which to further divide the country and further poison the debate. What are essentially unimportant local issues are made into national issues thanks to the propaganda that seems to have its genesis with Fox's Todd Starnes, an intrepid culture warrior who is always on the lookout for threats to our American way of life. The "news" then travels to the Fox website and the Fox hate blog, Fox Nation. If it really needs reinforcement, it ends up on Fox TV. The most recent "outrage" is a flap over an American flag, with President Obama's face where the stars should be, flown at a small Democratic party headquarters in Florida. The flag is down but the issue isn't as seen by coverage on the Fox website, Fox Nation, and - wait for it - Fox TV where alleged news anchor, Megyn Kelly, covered it on her alleged news show.
Yesterday, Kelly began with the perfunctory use of a loaded phrase: "Fierce backlash forces the Democratic party in Florida to take down the American flag bearing President Obama's face." A photo of the flag was shown. Kelly said that it "proudly" flew until a group of "outraged veterans demanded that the flag be taken down." She tossed to her pal Trace Gallagher (who, with Kelly, was part of the opening salvo of Sandra Fluke slut shaming) who provided the back story about the flag at Lake County Democratic Headquarters in Tavares, Florida.
Gallagher said that a local veteran was "outraged" (second use of the intense term that is a standard part of the Fox agitprop lexicon) because it was a desecration of the flag code. He played audio of the outraged veteran. Gallagher claimed that "things got a little bit tense" and showed video of a quiet spoken woman discussing the matter with veterans who were polite. Tense? Not so much. Gallagher reported that after the woman did some research, she came out and took down the flag. He noted that the veterans gave the Democrats a POW-MIA flag to replace the Obama flag but it's not clear if that flag is being flow. Kelly said, "wow, what a story."
Wow indeed. Hopefully the headquarters isn't receiving death threats thanks to Fox "News" in depth coverage.
Alabama Tea Party violation of Flag Code? "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature"
Uh ya’ll aint from these parts are ya
or just ignorant?
Some people swear to a piece of cloth, some people swear to true ideals. Symbol worship. And so on. However, since this is also a valid argument that is ongoing, I would encourage News Hounds followers to stay on this way-more-sinister-than-seems mentality, that actually reflects a bigger and more serious problem represented by this issue as raised by them.
I can’t speak for others, but I personally couldn’t care less about something like that if I tried. Mostly because that would imply I care about anything involving Rick Santorum.
