Won't Someone Please Help this Poor Woman?

[paft.livejournal.com]

As an incurable bleeding-heart, I’m always on the lookout for someone suffering, and that includes people with whom I disagree. The sight of human pain should cause us all to put aside our differences. Megyn Kelly is suffering right here, on national television.

She’s thrown this Fox News Alert about presumably explosive remarks from Attorney General Eric Holder. “About the Boston bombings – which are already – making news,” she says haltingly, either reading from a teleprompter or repeating what’s coming through her earphone. “This is just coming in, we’re trying to turn the tape from you so you can hear it from the man himself,” she adds, rather hopefully.

Alas, the tape just can’t be “turned,” so Kelly is forced to tell us herself what Holder said.

“He promised to hold accountable those responsible for the bombing, but went on to say, ‘Just as we will pursue relentlessly anyone who would target our people or attempt to terrorize our cities, the Justice Department is firmly committed to protecting innocent people against misguided attempts at retaliation.’ And there’s more, let me bring in our panel.” She introduces Julian Epstein and Jay Sekulow, then continues looking down and slowly reading. “He went on – to say –

(Pause as she reads and the horrible realization dawns about the hay she’s expected to weave into righteously outraged gold)

– uh – to talk about – he didn’t mention the fact that these two are Muslim who have been killed or arrested in connection with Boston. But he went on to talk about how in the dozen years since 911 they’ve investigated more than 800 incidents involving threats, assaults, and acts of vandalism and violence targeting Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, South Asians and others who are perceived to be members of these groups. ‘As Americans we must not allow any group to be stigmatized or alienated. We must not tolerate acts of hatred.’ And then he goes on to say, ‘Let us resolve once more to let our fellow citizens, meet fear with reason. This is how we will honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Let us strive to confront ignorance with information. Promote understanding, encourage open dialogue, divert suspicious or prejudiced gazes with outstretched hands.

Uh…

I do have to give the lady credit. She regains her equilibrium pretty quickly, brushes aside the fact that Holder just made a heartfelt, patriotic, and simple plea for tolerance, and starts pushing the idea that the “context” of the remarks makes them somehow inappropriate. By the time Julian Epstein opens his mouth to inject a little sanity into the discussion, she’s on the ball enough to talk over him and feign ignorance about the anti-Muslim backlash in the wake of the bombing.

But really, is it fair to force a human being to go through these motions before millions of viewers? Is it humane? Is Fox News becoming a reality show akin to Chopped, where professional cooks are given bizarre ingredients like Smuckers jam, fish sauce, and rancid calamari and forced – on camera – to turn them into allegedly delicious three course meals? It’s bad enough seeing some thirty-something food professional’s eyes go dead as he runs it all through a blender and dumps it on soba noodles topped with sprigs of cilantro. Can we look forward to seeing Fox Anchorwomen getting tossed the Niemoller Statement without warning, and being forced spin it as an apologia for Nazism?

It’s just not a pleasant thing to watch.

*

Comments

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time taking anything Holder has to say as heartfelt or patriotic considering he still has A LOT to answer for regarding Fast & Furious but that keeps getting swept under the rug. Of course, this is the administration that lives by the slogan, "Never let a good crisis go to waste"...

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Do you have anything to say about his message or are you content with just attacking his character?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I did say something about his message. I don't trust the guy. Period.

[paft.livejournal.com]

In other words, you got nothing.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

That's your opinion and you're welcome to it but it's pretty hypocritical of you to say something like that when the majority of the things you post are puff pieces where you call out the party you oppose without batting an eye at the things that go on within your own crowd.

There. I've said my peace and that's all I'm going to say to you on this subject.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

...where you call out the party you oppose without batting an eye at the things that go on within your own crowd.

I CTLed "F" for "Republican," and I didn't get any returns.

[comeonyouspurs.livejournal.com]

Seriously, what is wrong with any of what Holder is saying in that video?

[paft.livejournal.com]

Where exactly do I mention political parties in the OP?

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

So you've essentially moved from attacking the cited guy to attacking the author of the post, now? Grand slam achievement in trollership!

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

And where does that leave the things you post? In the realm of Fair&Balanced? Please. On the Hyperventilation Scale you rank somewhere near 8.5, and on the Standard Conservative Talking-points, maybe 8.0. That's a pretty good score by any measure, don't you think?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Does something being hypocritical make it necessarily wrong?

[paft.livejournal.com]

???

Have I been a hypocrite? How?

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I must have missed where you commented on his message of tolerance for Muslims.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Never let a good crisis go to waste

Yes, totally unique to this administration - not like 9/11 was used to implement draconian privacy invasions or the unrelated invasion of Iraq.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile the GOP loves it some people invading countries and torturing people in secret CIA prisons and listening on people's phones without a warrant. Go cry the crocodile tears somewhere else.

[merig00.livejournal.com]

At least GOP being honest about it. Democrats are against it only when they are in opposition.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

No, the GOP was not honest about it. They didn't say jack shit about this when they were in power and the supposed party of small government. It's only small government when they're out of power and not able to use the government's power to smash separation of powers to bits. You're welcome to believe those lies are true if you will, but they'll still be lies.