This week, Fox News’ E.D. Hill was forced to apologize for her on-air assessment that a fist-bump between Barack and Michelle Obama might have been a “terrorist fist jab.” A few weeks ago, Fox News’ Liz Trotta suggested on the air that someone should “knock off” the Democratic presidential candidate.
I’m thinking it might be time for yet another apology from the least-reliable name in television “news.” The estimable Alex Koppelman has the story:
During a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as “Obama’s baby mama.”
I checked, and sure enough, as you can see below, our e-mailer was right. In fact, that description was displayed on screen several times during the segment, which featured anchor Megyn Kelly and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, an FNC contributor.
Sure enough, here it is. (I’d recommend watching with the sound turned down; the offensive part was on the chyron, which reads: “Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama’s Baby Mama!”)
Now, it seems to me there are two possibilities here. Either Fox News doesn’t know what a “baby mama” is, in which case this was unintentional racism driven by ignorance, or Fox News does know what a “baby mama” is, in which case this was deliberate racism driven by malice.
As Salon’s Joan Walsh noted:
Where do you even start when criticizing Fox’s slur? Do you try to explain that “baby mama” is slang for the unmarried mother of a man’s child, and not his wife, or even a girlfriend? Are they racist, or just clueless? Isn’t there racism even in their cluelessness, if somebody didn’t know what “baby mama” means, but used it anyway? Even at Fox, won’t somebody have to apologize? Am I wasting my time even thinking about that?
Even on a day when Maureen Dowd found time to “worry” about the coming attack on Michelle Obama, while at the same time passing along an ugly rumor about her (that would never have otherwise found its way into the New York Times), this was shocking.
So here’s the thing (because during this campaign I’m apparently learning that we black people have our own secret code and hand signals so this stuff has to be explained like you are speaking to a child at times), using the phrase “baby mama” to describe this woman implies that like too many people in the black community, she is a mother on her own with no man around doing his job.
Except, Barack and Michelle Obama are the exact opposite of this, and that is one of the reason America — especially black America — are so proud of them.
But Fox News is the network that tears down those who do not toe the line, and if that means they should resort to jive to describe a black woman as a “baby mama” despite the strength of her family and her own personal success, so be it.
Remember the Republicans’ game-plan: when it doubt, go after the candidate’s spouse. Fox News, as an extension of the GOP, is clearly just reading from the party’s script.