Fox News (literally) slips into parody

April 27, 2007

For all the times I’ve accused Fox News of being a parody of real journalism, I never actually expected the network to make the charge literally true.

Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.

This actual story was then spoofed by a parody site called Associated Content, which made up quotes and details, such as the school’s intention to “create an anti-ham ‘response plan.'”

On Tuesday, Fox & Friends reported these parody quotes and details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!”

Well, no, Fox & Friends wasn’t making it up, someone else was making it up. FNC was just passing it along as real news.

As it turns out, this wasn’t just an example of shoddy professionalism from an outlet that has no standards. Apparently, Fox News viewers, knowledgeable bunch that they are, responded to the “news story” by going after the school system.

Following the Fox broadcast, Levesque’s office received dozens of angry phone calls and profanity-laced e-mails, made and sent by people all over the country, who charge the school district overreacted to what they believed from news reports to be a ham sandwich tossed at a Somali student. […]

“Fox has figured out, from the calls we’ve gotten, that they’ve made a big mistake,” Wessler said.

“This is a wake-up call that the level of hate and anger, among a small population, is vibrant,” he added.

Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others reported the information as fact without checking. The national media, Levesque said, sees information posted online and “uses it as gospel.”

When bad things happen to bad journalists.

(heh – this may be the first time a post has left CBR readers speechless)

  • To paraphrase Jon Stewart, if Fox personalities are journalists, professional wrestling is a sport.

    I would call them “dis-info-tainers”

    Falling flat on their faces is part of their act!

  • We should come up with names for Faux News employees as well.

    They could be Foxwits, Foxtards, Foxups … any more?

  • Reading the comments posted at the end of the Sun Journal story is enough to make one sick all over again. Even knowing the truth, the racists and the xenophobes stick to their beliefs. Reminds me of my pal GWB. So “Fox has figured out … that they made a big mistake”? Did they happen to share that with anyone else?

  • Values voters all. If they were not such a distructive force on our society they would deserve pity. Can you imagine yourself as one of Fox News’ angry, hateful, letter writing apostles? Can you imagine yourself as someone sleazy and dishonest enough to be a Fox News “journalist”? Ouch.

  • I went back and reviewed the story CB linked to, the one that showed how many of the false perceptions that supported the war were still being held by various groups, and I tried to find the most recent data on a similar poll. What I found was not encouraging.

    Here it is:
    http://www.pipa.org/templates/fullPage.php?type=release&visit=1&id=99
    (March 15, 2006)

    I hope more polls are done and that the media realizes how badly we need better information. As you can see we still have a serious problem…

    A majority of Republicans (51%, down from 57% in October 2004) still believe that experts mostly agree that al-Qaeda was providing substantial support to Iraq, while only about 1 in 4 Democrats holds that view (27%, up from 23% in October 2004). Yet the number of Democrats who believe that most experts think Iraq was not providing substantial support to al-Qaeda is only 40 percent (down from 45% in 2004), while another 32 percent believe that experts’ views are evenly divided on this question (up from 28% in 2004).

    Yikes.

    “…the number of Democrats who believe that most experts think Iraq was not providing substantial support to al-Qaeda is only 40 percent…”

    Houston, we have a problem!

  • File this away in the bill of particulars for any Dem who needs reasons for skipping a Fox debate or a Fox interview. They are unprofessional and biased, period.

  • “Well, no, Fox & Friends wasn’t making it up, someone else was making it up. “

    Sorta like the way Fox picks up stuff that Drudge makes up.

  • If they’re getting this lazy and desperate, we might as well start feeding them outright lies and misinformation and watch them slobber all over themselves trumpeting it as real news stories.

    They’ve been feeding the public lies and misinformation for so long, it’s no wonder they can’t even recognize it themselves anymore.

  • Re: ‘Jim Strain’ @ #4: I was hoping I wasn’t the only one who noticed how badly the frothing idiots outnumber the level-headed in that comments section.

    It’s so disheartening to hear such nonsense and ignorance expressed with such certainty and finality. Sometimes I just want to thrown up my hands and apologize for being too stupid or too evil to understand why they’re so right and so sure of it.

    Without a doubt, arrogance has this advantage over humility. Humility rarely persuades the arrogant, while arrogance, time and time again, simply beats humility into submission or murders it outright.

    And these people wonder why “their” Jesus had to be killed.

  • If we refer to the Rupe’s band of serfs as Foxwits, that what might we name their audience?

    FoxSheep—truly an oxymoron of knuckledragging proportions.

    Taio, would it be worthy to apply clips from the film-version of “Animal Farm” to your parodies? A couple of pigs in three-piece suits (I’d swear that Napoleon looks just like O’Reilly when he snarled at Geraldo the other night)—and his “audience” could be a smallish band of marching ducks.

    Or should we label them “Dux?”

  • Boy, the comments in that article sure prove that being an ignorant southern hillbilly doesn’t require one to be either actually southern or a hillbilly.

  • I always wondered how the ignorance of these people could be so resistant to change…then I realized that those who have narrow-minded views on religion seem to carry that to all other areas of their lives. If it’s not in their bible or their minister didn’t say it, it just ain’t so. And since Fox has been endorsed by so many on the religious right, if it ain’t on Fox, it ain’t so. Period. If God or Faux News says the sky is green, then come hell or high water – it’s green.

    I’ve long since given up arguing with the dyed-in-the-wool right-wing Fux-watchers around here – it just jacks up my blood pressure.

  • Reporters and journalists have changed so much since Woodward and Bernstein. I don’t really believe a word on any news station since NONE of the reporters seem to care a bit about investigational journalism..rather they seem to enjoy sitting in their offices just repeating what the White House or the Republican party tells them. The Washington Post and the New York Times used to be the absolute truth…that was many years ago and so far I can’t believe any news stations completely. As for FOX-they are so fake news that I refuse to even watch a minute of their crap…it is all distortion or lies….I am so sorry for those who are so intellectually inable to research on their own and believe the crap that FOX tells them.

  • If we refer to the Rupe’s band of serfs as Foxwits, that what might we name their audience?

    FoxSheep—truly an oxymoron of knuckledragging proportions. — Steve, @13

    I prefer “Foxtards”, myself (thanks, kanopsis, @3). It’s a perfect mash-up of “Fox” and “dotard” which, given the age range of the Faux viewers…

  • Next to Hannity, these two dickheads on Fox and Friends (Steve Douchebag Doocey and Brian Kilmeade) are easily the most despicable out of all the nitwits on FNC.

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