Last Friday sure was a tough one for the unflappably sunny, democrat-bashing folks at FOX & Friends. In my previous post, I talked about Chris Wallace’s unexpected critique of his F&F comrades, taking them to task for their unfair, dishonest attempt to create more racial division and animosity following Barack Obama’s courageous speech that attempted to explain then bridge America’s sad history of prejudice. But before Wallace’s appearance, things got so heated between the F&F co-hosts that Brian Kilmeade (the dark-haired one) got so pissed off with fellow hosts Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson that he couldn’t even look at them. Kilmeade said:

You know for a fact that he doesn’t want to diminish white people, and if you don’t believe him, he’s half white! And he’s trying to say my [Obama’s] grandma grew up probably maybe in the 30s and there was a different view of whites, and this reverened [Wright] was growing up during the 60s where there was white-only bathrooms and water fountains…and that’s what he was trying to say in the speech!

Kilmeade was referring to the topic that apparently was the only thing FOX thought was worth talking about that morning: Obama saying in an interview that his grandmother was a “typical white person” in regards to her ingrained prejudices against black people. Even Kilmeade knew that Obama wasn’t attacking all white people (especially since Obama is half white), and Obama’s campaign clarified that Obama was talking about generational differences, which everyone agrees exists. But Kilmeade's co-hosts kept hammering away at it until Kilmeade couldn’t take it anymore — though it might have been Doocy’s dig about sports guys (Kilmeade has covered a lot of sports) that put him over the edge.

So what the hell is going on at FOX? In my opinion, I think there’s some soul searching going on amongst some at FOX about their relentlessly racist, divisive, and dishonest strategy to take down Obama by playing to their audience’s ugliest prejudices. This country is way overdue for racial unity, and Obama’s speech is the most gutsy attempt I’ve ever seen by any politician to speak frankly about the resentment and bitterness felt by both the black and white sides of the racial divide. So what would you do if you saw Obama’s speech repeatedly, cynically and dishonestly used to exacerbate racism? Hopefully you’d do what Brian Kilmeade did — walk away and refuse to be a part of it. Hopefully more at FOX, as well as other networks, will do the same.

Kudos to you, Kilmeade.


h/t Crooks & Liars


PS    FOX ATTACKS! Obama 2 has passed 520,000 views. Let’s hope truth is contagious…