When it comes to vapid, jingoistic patriotism, Fox News is painted in the biggest, boldest, red, white and blue. Any perceived affront to the American flag or American patriotism, including American politicians not sporting American flag bling, quickly becomes part of the Fox propaganda narrative. The latest faux right wing "controversy" is an installment of the very successful CBS show, "The Amazing Race," which OMG was set in Hanoi, Vietnam. While this country is open for American tourism and business, Fox, in echoing right wing complaints, has determined that this was not only an inappropriate venue for the race, but downright unpatriotic and un-American because the racers had to listen to a Vietnamese freedom song and take a clue at the site of a downed American B-52. And in typical Fox fashion, Megyn Kelly's "news" coverage of the episode twisted reality for propaganda purposes which is funny considering that the focus of her and Bob Beckel's complaint was about Vietnamese propaganda!
Yesterday, Megyn Kelly hosted Bob Beckel for a bitch session about the "insensitivity" of CBS in putting a clue box next to the "so-called" B-52 Memorial in Hanoi." While the "Race" host, Phil Keoghan accurately described the memorial as "the site of the wreckage of a B-52 bomber shot down during the Vietnam War," it would appear that Kelly and Beckel felt that he owed the audience some sort of commentary about the evil Commies and the noble Americans who, in reality, were bombing the crap out of the Vietnamese who were defending their country. But they saved the bulk of their outrage for an innocent challenge that, according to Kelly, was an "instance where they made the contestants memorize the lyrics to a [air quotes] patriotic Vietnamese song and (OMG) a pro-communist song." Once again, fair & balanced (?!) Megyn Kelly wasn't telling the whole story.
The racers did, indeed, listen to a patriotic Vietnamese song which, with its lyrics about love for liberty and "freedom of our nation," isn't any different from American patriotic songs except for the mention of the Communist Party which is their chosen political system. Kelly didn't mention that the words were in Vietnamese. The racers didn't see the subtitles used for the show's audience. At the end of the song, dancers revealed, on pom-poms, words of a "celebrated quote." Each dancer had one word which, when put together, spelled out "glory to our young nation" - in Vietnamese. After memorizing the words, the teams went to an adjacent room to find the quote which was hidden among many political posters.
So while the chagrined and appalled Kelly was technically correct that the racers "memorized" a part of the song - she DIDN'T SAY IT WAS IN VIETNAMESE. Somehow, I don't think that the racers were brainwashed - unlike those who watch Fox News which, when it comes to pure propaganda has them, thar Commies beat by a landslide!
You can watch the "Amazing Race" video here.
