{"id":14354,"date":"2008-01-25T10:35:54","date_gmt":"2008-01-25T15:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14354.html"},"modified":"2008-01-25T10:35:54","modified_gmt":"2008-01-25T15:35:54","slug":"fox-news-john-gibson-backs-down-over-ledger-mockery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/fox-news-john-gibson-backs-down-over-ledger-mockery\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox News’ John Gibson backs down over Ledger mockery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once in a while, even a wacky Fox News personality finds it necessary to walk his comments back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On his Fox News show [yesterday], John Gibson apologized for his recent comments mocking the death of actor Heath Ledger. “I’m sorry that some took my comments as anti-gay and insensitive,” said Gibson. “Once again, to anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry.” […]<\/p>\n

Gibson said the same apology on his radio show [Thursday] evening, though before mentioning that his comments were “anti-gay and insensitive,” he added the words “some gay groups.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Media Matters has a full transcript<\/a>, and Gibson must have taken quite a bit of heat over this one, because he almost sounds sincere. “I’m aware that Ledger has a family and many fans who were grief-stricken by his sudden death. As I speak, a crowd is gathering at the funeral home where Ledger’s funeral services will be held. Those who knew him say he was a good actor and a loving dad. And what happened to him was terrible, but was evidently an accident.”<\/p>\n

If you’re just joining us, in his first show after Ledger’s death, Gibson apparently saw the actor’s passing as a chance to have some fun<\/a>. The right-wing personality called Ledger a “weirdo” with a “serious drug problem,” while repeatedly mocking Ledger for having portrayed a gay man in “Brokeback Mountain.”<\/p>\n

In response to criticism, Gibson told his audience<\/a> on Wednesday that he mocked Ledger’s death because “there’s no point in passing up a good joke.” He then made up some bogus details about Ledger’s death, and said he couldn’t be a “closet homosexual” because he’s “still breathing.”<\/p>\n

That was Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon, Gibson was “sorry.” I’m curious: why do you suppose Gibson backed down?
\n
\nI suppose the natural response would suggest that Gibson felt bad about his callous remarks and wanted to express genuine contrition. Given Gibson’s record<\/a>, that’s probably the easiest explanation to reject out of hand — it’s just not realistic.<\/p>\n

So, what was different this time?<\/p>\n

* GLAAD started a petition<\/a> asking Fox News \u201cwhy they continue to provide a platform for John Gibson\u2019s cruel and tasteless comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

* ThinkProgress published contact information<\/a>, and encouraged readers to pressure Fox News and Gibson.<\/p>\n

* MSNBC\u2019s Mika Brzezinski was flabbergasted that Gibson may face no repercussions for his comments, at one point saying<\/a>,\u201cI don\u2019t know how you stay on the air after doing something like that, quite frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it possible that Fox News actually responded to public pressure on this? And if so, doesn’t this offer a roadmap on how to respond to the next Fox News scandal?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once in a while, even a wacky Fox News personality finds it necessary to walk his comments back. On his Fox News show [yesterday], John Gibson apologized for his recent comments mocking the death of actor Heath Ledger. “I’m sorry that some took my comments as anti-gay and insensitive,” said Gibson. “Once again, to anyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}