If there’s one thing that has always fried my ass, it is something or someone that is so hypocritical it’s just obvious and disgusting. This is how I feel every time I come across the Fox Network.
On Sunday night, I sat in front of the television excited to watch some animated cynicism. I’ve been a fan of The Simpsons forever, I really like The Family Guy, and this new American Dad show, from the one episode I have seen, looks like a scream. I may be 32 years old, but I loves me some cartoons!
After enjoying the evening of bumbling idiot fathers and husbands, along with a serious and thorough trashing of the ideal behind the American family unit, I sat back thinking about the fact that these shows came from the same entity that produces some of the most ultra-Right Wing radio and news programming on our airwaves. In fact, Fox was the station solely responsible for turning the image of the American father from a noble and wise character that stood strong and took care of his family into Homer Simpson. Fathers in the U.S. are now seen as boobs who are simple-minded at best and try to get away with doing the least amount possible when it comes to the care and raising of their families. Funny, you wouldn’t expect this from the same network that constantly decries the need for a return to “traditional family values” on their news stations.
I remember watching a few episodes of Married…with Children with my mother. She would roll her eyes and chuckle here and there, but after minimal initial viewing lost interest. Mom said she didn’t think it was right to show such a dysfunctional family during the primetime viewing hour, and encouraged me to watch re-runs of The Cosby Show. Although I continued to enjoy the weekly antics of Peggy, Al, Kelly, and Bud, there was something a bit unsettling about the whole changing tide, especially when the contradictory view was vocalized by Rush Limbaugh.
As I learned more about media manipulation, I figured that the Fox Network is doing one of two things: either there is little to no communication between their news departments and their entertainment company, or they are creating a “problem” through entertainment programming that the news department must “fix.” By using their sitcoms to drag American entertainment into the toilet and exploiting the lack of moral values, they are able to go after their more liberal political opponents in their news. They can champion Right Wingers (i.e. the uber-Republicans who give them tax breaks) and make them look like they alone hold the mighty “moral values” sword. If you look at it that way, Fox uses their arrogant hypocrisy to their advantage in a Machiavellian way.
Either Rupert Murdock is an evil genius, or his right hand doesn’t know what the left is jerking. Frankly, the only thing I care about is the fact that there are so many mindless fucks in this country who actually believe that the bullshit that Fox News is shoveling is indeed real news. A few years ago, one of Fox’s own reporters lost her appeal after winning a wrongful termination lawsuit in the state of Florida, and the gist of what came out of that procedure was that it was not illegal for Fox to make up news. Since that winning appeal, they decided to run with it, and have been doing a stellar job of fabricating the news!
With media programming, I’ve always been very much a one-way-or-the-other type of grrl. You are either a neo-con news outlet with your lips sewn right on the ass of the Republican, corporate, evangelical contingent, or you’re an entertainment medium that doesn't take itself too seriously and tries to appeal to degenerate idiots with Homer Simpson ideology who like beer, boobs, and an occasional fart joke. I don’t like it when one entity decides to play both sides of the fence, especially when it eventually translates into legislation. Remember, prior to the Fox Network programming, we didn’t have the television ratings system.
Come this Sunday, I will probably watch The Simpsons, as I have for over a dozen years. I will most likely catch The Family Guy and American Dad, but at least while I’m enjoying the denigration of traditional family values, I’m aware that, much like in Star Wars, there is a dark side waiting to exploit the innocent viewers who long to laugh at the shortcomings of animated characters for the benefit of their own amusement. Unfortunately, that dark side is only a few stations up the satellite frequency and is hosted by that prick, Sean Hannity.
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