NewsHounds
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
  • Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Forum
  • Blogroll
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
Home →

Why Did Fox News Give John Boehner A Pass For Not Wearing A Flag Pin At SOTU?

Did you notice that many Republicans didn’t seem to be wearing flag pins during the State of the Union address? Most notably missing was John Boehner’s. Addicting info has a nice still shot that shows it either blends in with his suit or it’s clearly missing. Note that on Fox News’ article, they used a picture that shows the area covered by his hand. This brings up an interesting point- given Fox News’ past obsession with the flag pin, how big a deal would this be if Boehner was a Democrat? Let’s review.

Let’s go back to the campaign of 2008. In late 2007, then-Senator Obama refused to wear a flag pin because he felt it had become a perverse substitute for true patriotism. This did not sit well with Fox News and kicked off attacks on him over it. It was still a hot topic with them almost two weeks later. Months later, when Obama was wearing it again, it was a big deal to them again. The flag pin craze may have hit its most ridiculous peak when Steve Doocy held a pin-measuring contest between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

How ridiculous was it? Here’s a video of how bad it got with Chris Wallace alone. Despite admitting to Obama’s face that it was just a distraction, I never saw much evidence of him condemning Fox News for such “distractions,” or calling out a right-wing guest who joined in the attacks on other shows. Bill O’Reilly declared himself a Patriot while not wearing a Flag Pin and yet participated in the farce. Huffpo has a pretty good rundown of who has room to talk…

Apparently only three of their host and full-time contributors who discussed it- pro or con- wore one themselves: Brit Hume, Neil Cavuto and Karl Rove.

Did we mention that we never heard anyone on Fox attacking McCain when he forgot his towards the end of the 2008 campaign? So we have strike one…

Now let’s fast-forward a bit. Remember the employee who was allegedly fired over for refusing to remove a flag pin? Remember Gretchen Carlson’s astonishment over the “propensity” for that kind of disrespect towards a “symbol of patriotism?” I noticed it wasn’t there when three candidates- Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were all going without a flag pin – and on Flag Day. In fact, I didn’t hear a peep about their patriotism, did you? From anyone? Come to think of it, Gingrich seems to regularly forget his pin. He’s not wearing one in the picture for this article, either. Or in this interview with pinless Sean Hannity. Romney and Paul forgot theirs as recently as the SC Primary, some bloggers even cited that as a reason Romney lost. But not Fox News…

The flag pin is apparently so important that there’s a conspiracy against it, yet no problem when Republicans won’t wear it by choice? Strike two.

Strike three, of course… is where both this article and the timeline come full circle. We know Obama would never hear the end of not wearing his pin during a presidential campaign, because well… scroll back up and read that passage about the 2008 campaign again. So why did Boehner get a pass? For the same reason McCain, and all the other Republicans/FNC hosts did: The perfect one-word summary is Bill Maher’s coined word “IOKIYAR.” How did we ever get along without that word?

Follow @NewsHounds

Follow @NewsHoundEllen


Do you like this post?
Tweet

Showing 11 reactions



    Review the site rules
el84 commented 2012-01-27 11:51:44 -0500 · Flag
Is flag waving “patriotism” or “nationalism”?
doors17 commented 2012-01-27 10:53:25 -0500 · Flag
All jokes aside, what this flag pin crap does is remind us of is how silly all this was four years ago when Sean tried to make this an issue. I can’t believe that when this was hatched that anyone would think, you know this a winner. Go with it.

It’s frightening to think that we even have a fraction of the population that would say you know I was going to vote for Obama until Sean pointed that he didn’t wear a flag pin.
Anne-claire Souza commented 2012-01-27 10:01:17 -0500 · Flag
Boner not wearing his flagpin is in excuseble how will we know if he is a true American?
Antoinette commented 2012-01-27 03:26:34 -0500 · Flag
Those flag pins are made in China, just like the Tea Party pins.
mj - the same one commented 2012-01-26 22:57:41 -0500 · Flag
@ truman: let’s not forget his afternoon visits to various lobbyists {passing out checks on the House floor is frowned upon nowadays.}

@ doors17: only the ones purchased at Wal-Mart . . .

.
mlp ! commented 2012-01-26 19:17:48 -0500 · Flag
I heard he had it made into a swizzle stick.
mlp ! commented 2012-01-26 19:17:48 -0500 · Flag
I heard he had it made into a swizzle stick.
doors17 commented 2012-01-26 19:07:31 -0500 · Flag
Well it should be obvious to all of us. He took off the flag because the sun went down.

Are all America flag pins made in China?
truman commented 2012-01-26 18:30:14 -0500 · Flag
Between daily visits to the spray-on tanning booth and nightly visits to various Georgetown bars, Boner doesn’t have time to worry about a flag pin.
Kent Brockman commented 2012-01-26 18:25:56 -0500 · Flag
flag pin – family values – hard workin’ families – values voters – right to work – Americans for prosperity – family research council – freedom works

Because vapid people need someone to tell them what’s what.
doors17 commented 2012-01-26 18:19:22 -0500 · Flag
I want to know who did his make-up. A mortician?








or sign in with Facebook or email.
Follow @NewsHounds on Twitter
Subscribe with RSS


We’ve updated our Privacy Policy
Sign in with Facebook, Twitter or email.
Created with NationBuilder