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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2014)
Opinion The Race War is On at Fox News “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. I n 2013, race still mattered – especially at Fox News. According to MediaMatters, the watchdog group, last year was a banner period for race-baiting at Fox. “Viewers who spent 2013 absorbed in Fox News might be under the impression that an all- out race war has erupted across the nation this year, thanks to the net- work’s coverage of everything from voter fraud to Santa Claus echoing one common theme: white folks are being victimized in Obama’s America,” an analysis of coverage on the network conclud- ed. The review showed that Fox, the nation’s top-rated cable network with 1.76 million daily viewers, routinely exploited racial fears to boost its ratings. “Fox became obsessed with black crime rates in the summer of 2013, when Floridian George Zimmerman went on trial for the 2012 murder of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin, whom Zimmerman shot and killed while he was walking home from a con- venience store. Zimmerman, iden- tified as white Hispanic, alleged that he shot Martin in self-defense, and was not subsequently arrested or charged with any crime until a significant public outcry made the story national news,” MediaMat- ters noted. “Fox immediately began run- ning defense for Zimmerman in what became a red meat story for the network – an opportunity to justify right-wing gun culture and stand your ground laws, stoke fears about the dangers of black youth, and paint white-on-black crime as exceedingly rare and usu- Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2014 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Page 4 The Portland Skanner January 8, 2014 T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry ally justified while black crime is exploding.” When Fox wasn’t fear monger- ing about Black crime, the report stated, it was supporting voter ID laws that suppress the African- American vote. “2013 marked a unique year with regard to free and fair elec- tions in the United States. In June, lican-controlled state legislatures to continue pushing through voter ID laws, a movement purporting to fight voter fraud that in fact dis- enfranchises Democratic voting blocs, particularly minorities, by imposing stringent prerequisites to vote that many older and minority voters cannot easily meet. Previously, such measures – in states with a history of disen- franchising minorities – required approval from the Justice Depart- ment before being implemented.” The report noted that the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance provi- sion had been invoked more than 700 times between 1982 and 2006 to prevent racially discriminatory voting proposals to go into effect. “Perhaps the one story that best At Fox News 2013 was a banner year for race-baiting the conservative bloc of the U.S. Supreme Court disregarded histo- ry, legal precedent, and congres- sional intent in a 5-4 Shelby County decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). Weeks later, thousands of Ameri- cans gathered with civil rights leaders in the nation’s capital to commemorate the 50th anniver- sary of the March on Washington – a 1963 march that featured Mar- tin Luther King, Jr’s “I have a dream” speech and helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and aforementioned VRA,” the analy- sis recounted. “The summer’s Shelby County decision paved the way for Repub- encapsulates the way Fox News goes out of its way to paint a dis- torted image of the crossroads of race and crime in America, it’s the network’s coverage of the so- called ‘knockout game,’” the report explained. “Fox described the knockout game as a violent and spreading trend primarily involving black youths assaulting unsuspecting and primarily white victims on the street for recreation. The network has run numerous segments on the alleged craze, and Fox’s Greta Van Susteren has ded- icated a recurring segment to the phenomenon. In fact, as the report states, “A New York Times piece on the knockout game cited police offi- cials in several cities where attacks have been reported who concluded that the game ‘amounted to little more than an urban myth, and that the attacks in question might be nothing more than the sort of ran- dom assaults that have always occurred.’” Fox even played the race card with Santa Claus. “Fox capped a year decorated with race-baiting overtones and racial dog whistles with a compa- rably absurd ornament for the top of their tree: New Fox megastar Megyn Kelly’s unabashed declara- tion (“for the kids at home”) that Santa Claus is white,” MediaMat- ters recounted. “’Santa just is white,’” Kelly told viewers in response to a Slate column by Aisha Harris, an African-American who noted that depictions of a Caucasian Santa Claus can have an alienating effect on minority children. Conserva- tive media rushed to agree with Kelly’s assertion, most notably Fox race-baiter-in-chief Bill O’Reilly, who concurred that ‘Miss Kelly is correct. Santa was a white person.’” The report stated, “Sadly, the Santa story illustrated how harm- ful race-baiting media coverage can be. Amidst the back and forth over the race of Old St. Nick, a teacher at Cleveland High School in New Mexico reportedly told a black student that he should not be dressed up as Santa because he was the wrong skin color…” George E. Curry, former editor- in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Associa- tion News Service.
