Shortly after Barack Obama delivered his address at the Arizona memorial service on Wednesday night, the cable-news pundits weighed in.
It was“remarkable and extremely effective,” one noted. “{The President} behaved,” another said, “with considerable dignity and grace.”
These plaudits were not exceptional on their own— Mr. Obama rarely gives a speech in which his oratorical skills are not saluted — but they were unusual because of where they occurred: Fox News Channel, where the panelists tend to range from conservative to stridently conservative.
On Thursday, the approving reviews kept coming. Morning show hosts played a clip of Mr. Obama’s closing remarks and one called it “an incredible moment.”
A Republican panelist said,“It was a brilliant speech and I commend him for it.” Bill O’Reilly, scourge of liberals everywhere, declared off the top of his show, “Most Americans recognize that President Obama gave an excellent speech last night.”
Even Glenn Beck called it a“tremendous speech,” although it is probably an indication of how little interest he had in praising the President that, after paying him a brief compliment, he changed the subject to what became an hour-long treatise on the propaganda techniques of the late Edward Bernays. (It’s possible thatthe lecture, which included props like bacon and cigarettes, eventually wound its way back to the Obama administration, but I bailed out at about the 45-minute mark.)
Had Fox News Channel gone soft? Or was all this cheerleading just a blip?
In the flurry of finger-pointing that began after the multiple homicides in Tuscon last weekend, Fox News was often singled out for criticism. It had raised the level of vitriol in political debate, critics charged. It had created a toxic atmosphere in which violence was ever more likely. As one Canadian columnist put it:“What Fox News has sown is now being reaped.”
These arguments have been derailed by the revelations the accused gunman was not likely to have been influenced by the news media: he didn’t consume it, friends said. But to watch Fox News this week was to see a network quite plainly aware of how it had become part of the story.
Canadians who have never tuned in to Fox News Channel could be forgiven for believing it solely broadcasts rank conservative partisanship: that’s certainly what its critics always say.
But for most of the on-air day, it’s much like the other news networks. There are serious stories about the news, but the anchors intersperse lighter fare. Thus, the item on Thursday about “extreme couponing,” featuring women who are devoted to saving money on household items. (“Most people think you can use only one couponper item. Not true,” one noted, sagely.)
There are interviews with politicians stumping for or against certain legislation, there are the video clips of weather disasters (floods, mudslides and volcanoes on Thursday alone) and there are uncomfortable segues between hard and soft news items.
Martha MacCallum, one of the hosts of America’s Newsroom, discussed how NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s sister had been charged this week in a meth bust. “In 1996 she was charged with unlawful use of a weapon in connection with a drive-by shooting. So, a lot of trouble going on there,” she said.
Co-host Bill Hemmer then introduced a clip of an eight-year-old girl singing the national anthem at a hockey game. Her microphone cut out, and the crowd joined in to finish the song.“Cute stuff,” Mr. Hemmer said.
But amid the banality would come moments of defiance from Fox News staff.
Mr. Hemmer was wrapping up an interview with a guest about Mr. Obama’s speech when he noted the part where the President said political discourse was not to blame for the tragedy.
“Wasn’t it just yesterday that the {Los Angeles} Times was blaming the right for this?,” Mr. Hemmer said.
“We don’t know if the guy owned a radio. Did he own a TV? Did he watch cable news? His friends say he didn’t pay attention!”
The guest nodded, and was thanked for coming on.
It was a theme that continued throughout the day. Megyn Kelly, host of America Live, said,“As soon as the news broke of the Arizona shootings, we started hearing voices, particularly on the left, blaming political rhetoric for helping contribute to this incident.” Then she played a clip of Mr. Obama saying no one can know what lurked in the mind of a gunman.
Neil Cavuto, host of Your World, aired video from the funeral of Christian Taylor-Green, the nine-year-old shooting victim. After a moment of quiet, he said the sad scene in Tuscon“shows how cheap the politics were that started immediately after. We don’t even allow ourselves the chance to mourn.”
He then mentioned Mr. Obama’s statements about rhetoric. “I thought the President was so eloquent,” he said. “The time for politics could have waited.”
Roger Ailes, Fox News’ president, said this week he had ordered his employees to “tone it down,” so perhaps the on-air personalities were doing just that. Or perhaps they aren’t the reflexive staunch conservatives critics make them out to be. Whatever the case, by Thursday night the discussion was again on familiar Fox ground.
Mr. O’Reilly asked his guest, conservative author Bernie Goldberg, about Mr. Obama’s call for civility.
Mr. Goldberg was skeptical it could be achieved.“You and I worked with these liberal elites,” he said, before continuing with a statement that was rather ironic considering it was in response to a question about civility.
“They not only think they’re smarter than those hicks and hayseeds who live between Manhattan and Malibu, they think they’re better, they think they’re more decent. The snobbery, the disgusting snobbery, is in their DNA.”
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
National Post
sstinson@nationalpost.com
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