A collection of opinionated commentaries on culture, politics and religion compiled predominantly from an American viewpoint but tempered by a global vision. My Armwood Opinion Youtube Channel @ YouTube I have a Jazz Blog @ Jazz
and a Technology Blog @ Technology. I have a Human Rights Blog @ Law
Those are but three of the juicy revelations in Gabriel Sherman's must-read New York magazine cover story this week about CNN and MSNBC, appropriately titled, "Chasing Fox."
The cable news business is notoriously competitive, as Sherman captures in his feud-heavy, 6,000-word-plus article. Below, just a sampling of some of the feuds unveiled in the piece -- read the full article at NYMag.com for more.
Rachel Maddow vs. Bill O'Reilly
After O'Reilly called Maddow an "NBC News loon," Maddow said she wanted to respond by wearing a loon suit. "Sorry, you really hurt my feelings," she said referencing O'Reilly. "I am a loon. I'm on the Canadian dollar bill. It's awful...but you, however, are also a race-baiting f**k."
Image by Fairfax County Public Library via FlickrThese are the words that Juan Williams uttered which got him into trouble. These are the words which caused NPR to fire him.
"I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country.But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
What is wrong with this? Here is the problem; "if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims". This is an incredibly bigoted remark. This is America. We are allowed to express our religion in the way we dress. We supposedly do not judge people by their religious beliefs. This is not France which has outlawed the Muslim burka. Catholic priests and nuns wear distinctive, religious garb, Hassidic Jews wear black coats and hats. This is America. If you see something wrong with someone identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims by their dress and you do not see a problem with believers of other faiths identifying themselves first and formost as a Catholic, or a Jew or a Buddhist you are a bigot and your values are contrary to American values. Don't feel bad if you don't get it. A lot of people don't get it. MSNBC's Hardball Host Chris Matthews, who can be often inexplicably obtuse when it comes to issues of ethnicity, gender and race does not get it. Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post did not get it either in his discussion with Chris Matthews on Hardball. Thank goodness however NPR got it. Rachel Maddow, the incredibly bright MSNBC host of the Rachel Maddow Show gets it. Fox News got it. That's why they gave Juan Williams a two million dollar new contract the day after his bigoted statement. Bigotry sells, especially in hard economic times like we are now experiencing. Fox News sells hate, anger and bigotry, not news. It's time for America to understand that our country is multi-cultural. People who claim Islam as their religion do evil things like 9/11. That does make all Muslims evil. People who claim Christianity as their religion do evil things like committing mass murder and genocide in Bosnia during the 1990s. That does not make all Christians evil. It time for us all to wake up and smell the coffee. People do both good and evil. It not a "religion" thing. It's a "people" thing.
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI was deeply offended by insensitive and historically fallacious remarks made by Chris Matthews during his October 11, 2010 Hardball show. Mr. Matthews, while rightfully challenging Eric Cantor's Nazi reenactment as offensive but in contrast he defended confederate reenactments as just part of a love for tradition and history. I would hope that Mr. Matthews at least knew African American history on a cursory level. The history of slavery, segregation, discrimination, embodied in the confederate tradition, cost at a minimum between 4 and 15 million lives just in the middle passage between Africa and America. Once on American shores Africans were subjected to the most barbaric chattel slave system in world history. Slavery lasted for over 250 years. Legal segregation and de-facto segregation and discrimination only began to be dismantled around forty years ago. Chris Matthews dismissal of the horrific barbarism of the confederacy is shameful. Confederates and their ancestors and accomplices murdered at a minimum in the neighborhood of 20 million people, over a period of over 300 years. Confederates are America's Nazis.
I have been a fan of Hardball for years. I usually agree with Mr. Matthews's positions but I have found that he occasionally is insensitive to women and African Americans. Chris Matthews needs to understand that for African Americans there is no difference between July 3, 1776 and July 5, 1776. Our ancestors were still held in brutal slavery by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson et al after July 4, 1776. America did not become a true democracy until after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965.
Please do not dismiss the evil of the confederacy and its accomplices. The slave trade and its legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination is America's original sin. To African Americans the confederate flag represents the same level of evil as does the Nazi flag. This flag and the confederate tradition represents murder, rape and slavery. This is the history of our country. Americans have fought and died from this countries colonial days to the present to make America the democracy it is today. We still have more room to improve.
Please do not belittle the legacy of these patriots struggle to make America live up to those most famous lines in the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". This dream was only won by African Americans after years and generations of struggle John H. Armwood
Chris Matthews's comments are in this video clip.
