TV news loves to fuck with your head. At a time when rumors spread like an STD at a swingers party, the line between fact and fiction blurs with mere repetition. It is just too easy to convince people of ridiculous bullshit. For example, Iraq’s relationship to 9/11 as grounds for invasion. Years later, the people who ate up that trash in 2003 are still convinced that the terrorists who hijacked the planes were from Iraq. With information being spun and distorted, and lies coming from all angles, how can we as voters make an informed decision?
It’s hard enough as it is to tell the difference between the two democratic candidates without the media spinning quotes, taking things out of context, and generally messing with us. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have healthcare plans that are almost exactly the same, and according to both candidates, come November, either one of them would make a great Commander in Chief—much better than a senile quack or an evangelical homophobe. Clinton’s recent ads in Ohio and Texas, however, imply that she does not think Obama will be ready to answer the White House phone when it rings at 3 a.m. and a crucial decision must be made. In response to these attacks, Obama has repeatedly criticized Clinton for voting to allow Bush to invade Iraq. Aside from the presidential hopefuls themselves, very few voices in the media are focusing on those essential differences. When swing states and hanging chads decide elections, something extremely petty and irrelevant can easily tip the scales to favor one candidate over the other. Unfortunately, the media’s coverage of the sensational over the substantial only makes things worse.
Recently, a photo of Barack Obama in a turban made its rounds in the press, feeding white America’s irrational fear of brown people, and implying that the Illinois senator is himself Muslim. Ooh, so scary! It’s Indiana Jones all over again! The picture, taken in his father’s native Kenya during a five-country tour of Africa, shows Obama in Somali tribal clothing, which looks like a white apron, crossed in the front, complete with a matching white turban. It’s really not a scandalous picture in theory. There are plenty of photos of Hillary wearing similar traditional garb while traveling to various countries. For example, during her husband’s presidency, she was photographed wearing a hijab. The difference, however, is Hillary Clinton’s reputation was not jeopardized by those photos—nobody accused Hillary of being a Muslim terrorist.
Why is this photo all over the news? Well, people love gossip. People love rumors about pregnant starlets and washed-up actors’ amateur porn tapes. In short, too many people do not like to think very hard. They want to watch American Idol instead of a presidential debate. Many of these same people have noticed that Obama rhymes with Osama, and his middle name is Hussein, and then defied all reason and logic by concluding that Barack Hussein Obama is a radical Muslim terrorist plotting to destroy America. The turban photo, of course, did not help dispel these idiotic rumors.
In fact, Obama has been the target of more than one such smear campaign. About a month ago, Insight falsely reported on its website that when he was a child, Obama attended a “madrassa,” a radical religious school that teaches fundamentalist Islam. The article was cited not just on the web, but was referenced by the New York Post and repeated by Fox News. A week later, CNN’s Senior International Correspondent John Vause went to Jakarta, Indonesia to do some real reporting and found out that the school, named Basuki, is not even religious. Basuki is actually a public school, according to one of Obama’s old classmates, and welcomes everyone from Christians to Buddhists. Apparently, all it takes is one overly enthusiastic idiot to spread a rumor. You tell two friends, then they tell two friends, and eventually Fox News reports it as a fact. No wonder Obama refuses to do interviews with them—they’d probably Photoshop an AK-47 in his hand and a little speech bubble over his head that says, “Death to the infidels!”
Of course, CNN has its own problems with stressing assumptions over facts. In a video posted on their website last Friday, titled “White men become key swing vote,” Brian Todd reported that Clinton has the female vote in the bag, and the same goes for Obama with the black vote. He stressed that John Edwards’ resignation from the primaries left white males with no one to represent them but republicans…because people totally just pick whoever looks the most like them, right? Thanks, CNN, for clearing that up for everyone, you racist ass-hats.
If we the people are going to choose the right person, we have to look at the stuff that matters, even if the media is focusing on everything else. No, Obama’s middle name does not make him a terrorist—just like wearing a chador did not make Laura Bush an Iranian woman. So, why do news anchors perpetuate the muckraking? Frankly, they do it because it scares people. Photos of Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush wearing traditional Muslim garments do not have the same effect because those women are white. Enough, already. We need to stop trying to find a terrorist in an upright citizen, and start focusing on the stuff that matters, like candidates’ voting records, debates, and speeches. Reporters should take responsibility and do real investigative work instead of circulating rumors to get higher ratings from the idiots who thrive on that kind of bullshit.
Too often, talking heads on major news networks act like gossip columnists and bury the facts in dirt and sludge. Many of these news anchors prefer to flap their yaps about irrelevant garbage, trying to scare people, while feeding their racism and blind hate. People look to the news as a source of information. When half of the so-called news is clearly biased, and the other half reports on Britney Spears and baby bumps, it’s your job to dig through the trash and find what really matters. After all, somebody’s gotta do it, and it’s sure as hell not going to be Bill O’Reilly.
