...says a lot about what's wrong with modern "news". This, from the people who brought you the "terrorist fist jab" comment (for the record, it's called a "dap"). Glib, offensive, distortive, completely beside the point, and racist. As a woman, I think it's ridiculous. As a person of moderate intelligence, I think it's insulting (did they think my attention wouldn't be caught if they had simply headlined it "Obama tells press: 'Lay off my wife'"?). As someone who cares about race in America, I think we ought to be more pissed off, and more worried, about stunts like this one. Here's why I am pissed off:
1. As a society we are allowing news outlets to treat us like idiots who will only respond to the most base, inflammatory, or ridiculous headlines and stories. And over time, if we let them, these very stories will fill the airwaves and newspapers and internet sites, and will crowd out anything with complexity and fine-grained subtleties and respectfulness, and slowly, slowly, we will become dumber and less able to see or care about that complexity - a self-fulfilling cycle.
2. This is racist, racist, racist, in that nasty 21st century way that winks at you and says, "We're not racist, it's just a cultural reference, don't be so sensitive!" And when you point out that it's racist, it says "We weren't being racits - you must be racist for thinking it's racist". This has no place on television, where we and our children can see it, and where our neighbors around the world can see it and shake their heads at our "race problem". It has no place in our conversations about who will lead our country, nor about the spouses of the contenders for that job. It should be condemned and it should make us feel disgusted. I do not subscribe to rampant political correctness. This is not that. I draw a line at insidious, faux-playful racism that does nothing but reinforce ugly stereotypes under the guise of humor and catchy headlines.
Not that they give a damn, but you can email them to complain at americasnewsroom@foxnews.com.
