After a Detroit school voted to remove Dr. Ben Carson’s name from it, with majority support from parents and the community, Fox News “forgot” all about how much it values their input to school boards.
Fox loves to promote “parental rights” when conservative activists appear on the network as “concerned parents.” Even though those activists advocate for book bans and the restriction of subjects taught in schools. But now that real grassroots parents wanted to change the name of The Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine in Detroit – why, that’s left-wing censorship according to Sean Hannity and Dr. Ben Carson, playing a MAGA victim on TV. Never mind that Carson has previously claimed, on Fox News, “We need to abolish the victim mentality.”
Really, there is nothing to this story other than an excuse to hype conservative victimhood. Hannity opened the discussion by calling it “a troubling story” from “a far-left school board.”
“Now, let’s be clear,” Hannity continued. “Dr. Carson is an inspiration to so many, has an outstanding record of accomplishment inside and outside of the hospital that he worked in. He saved many lives in the course of his career. He should be praised and celebrated, not smeared and slandered just because he happens to be a Republican.”
Although Carson’s record as a surgeon seems laudable, his record in other respects includes corruption, ignorance, dishonesty, divisiveness and plagiarism.
But on Hannity, Carson should be praised and celebrated just because he happens to be a Republican.
“To the far-left lunatics inside America’s schoolboards, only one thing matters, whether or not you have a D next to your name,” Hannity said, apparently quoting from a Fox News opinion piece written by a Carson supporter.
Although a Fox News banner read, “BREAKING NEWS,” the decision to rename the school happened a month before.
As Hannity introduced Carson for their sympathetic “interview,” Hannity said, he was “friends with” Carson and that “nobody should have to put up with” what he’s going through.
Carson was fine with the victimhood framing. “It’s very sad that we’ve reached a point where political ideology trumps the whole purpose of an educational institution, and we’re seeing this wokeness spreading throughout our community to the destruction of our community. How does it do any good for us to demonize people with whom we disagree?” He didn’t indicate any concern that Hannity had just demonized those with whom he disagreed nor the stream of demonization spouted by Donald Trump, Carson’s former boss.
“And to teach that to our children at a time when the math scores are down, the reading scores are down, academic performance is down,” Carson added. “In many of our public schools and high schools, people are graduating from high school [who] are functionally illiterate. … We’re failing them by pushing this ideology.”
But the name change was supported by an “overwhelming majority of students, alumni, staff, parents, and community,” Chalkbeat Detroit reported. The new name, Crockett Midtown High School of Science and Medicine, “recognizes Dr. Ethelene Crockett, the first African American woman in Michigan to become board certified in obstetrics and gynecology,” according to Chalkbeat.
The message is clear: Fox and its cronies only care about the views of "concerned parents" who are in synch with its own conservative ideology. Otherwise, they are painted as enemies.
Carson went on to promote some conservative school program he is associated with (which we will not promote here).
You can see how Fox seizes on a nationally insignificant piece of local news for the sole purpose of hypocritical, political weaponization below, from the December 13, 2022 Hannity.
“By humility [!] and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life” — Proverbs 22:4