Fox News' flag desecration hypocrisy
Expressing outrage that a video showing a "defaced flag" with "graffiti splattered all over it" is a finalist in a Democratic National Committee contest, Fox News and Sean Hannity ignored desecration of the flag by Fox News' own Glenn Beck, with Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin declaring that "the defacing of the flag, of course, is well within the mainstream of far-left propaganda tactics." President Bush also previously defaced a U.S. flag.
Fox News attacks DNC, "far left," and "Obama's campaign arm" for "American flag splattered with graffiti"
Hannity: "They have -- you know, Barack Obama's campaign arm ... they got the American flag splattered with graffiti." On the October 28 edition of his Fox News show, Hannity cited a Politico.com article that reported, "One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama's campaign arm features a mural of an America flag splattered with health care graffiti until it's covered completely by black paint." [Hannity, 10/28/09]
Malkin: "[T]he defacing of the flag, of course, is well within the mainstream of far-left propaganda tactics." After Hannity played the video, Malkin stated:
Well, I've been following this health care reform contest, and I'm not surprised. This video was produced by someone who bills himself as the king of graffiti in Los Angeles. And this is where they turn for their agitprop and their propaganda. It's all about emotion. It's all about tarring and feathering the opponents of a government health care takeover as somehow unpatriotic. And the defacing of the flag, of course, is well within the mainstream of far-left propaganda tactics. [Hannity, 10/28/09 (retrieved from the Nexis database)]
FoxNews.com: "DNC Uses Flag Desecration Video to Raise Funds." A FoxNews.com article headlined "DNC uses flag desecration video to raise funds" quoted conservative radio host Armstrong Williams claiming, "I think that most Americans no matter what their political persuasion is will find this pretty obscene and pretty shocking." The article further reported, "Williams said it was a bad message to send for the DNC to give 'energy and credibility' to an artist desecrating the flag."
Fox Nation: 'Defaced Flag' Is Finalist In DNC Health Care Contest. TheFoxNation.com used the following graphic and headline to link to the Politico.com article:
But Beck, Bush also defaced U.S. flags
Beck wipes stars from U.S. flag onto his studio floor, replaces them with logos of corporations, organizations. On his July 30 Fox News show, Beck stated that the stars on the U.S. flag "used to represent the states" but they now represent the Service Employees International Union, Wal-Mart, General Electric, General Motors, CitiBank, and ACORN, which he said were "the new people that we're really representing in America." After stating that "I think we should replace all of the stars" on the U.S. flag, Beck wiped the stars from the flag onto the floor of his studio and replaced them with the logos of the six organizations he mentioned. He then stated: "We should stop calling it a flag. We should just start calling it the logo of our nation." [Glenn Beck, 7/30/09]
Beck wipes stars from U.S. flag to protest their inattention to "state rights." On his Fox News show, after removing four stars from a U.S. flag -- including a star he said represented Delaware "because Joe Biden pisses me off" -- Beck wiped all the stars from the flag, with many of them falling onto his studio floor. He replaced only the star representing Alaska and said he also would do so for Tennessee, suggesting that only those two states were "serious about state rights and that pesky little thing called the Constitution." [Glenn Beck, 7/23/09]
Bush signed flag at a 2003 rally in Michigan. As Media Matters previously noted, according to an August 26, 2003, "White House Notebook" column by Dana Milbank in The Washington Post (retrieved from the Nexis database), Bush "went on a brief foray into the criminal underworld last month in Livonia, Mich., where he ran afoul of U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (g): 'The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.' The transgression occurred when President Bush, on a July 24 visit to Beaver Aerospace & Defense Inc., accepted a request to sign a well-wisher's U.S. flag."
An August 4, 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial opined of the event (from Nexis):
Conservative radio talk shows are bemoaning the fact that some Americans take exception to Old Glory being used as an autograph pad.
For an administration that embraces the idea of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the desecration of the flag, perhaps signing one with an indelible Sharpie wasn't a terrific idea.
Just imagine the uproar from the chattering classes had President Clinton been captured on Kodachrome doing the same thing.
A photo from the event:
In other words, same old same old.
Isn't it semantics if you make the argument that it couldn't be flown from a flagpole?
By this same argument, it isn't a crime to burn an effigy of a President, representing it as a death threat?
I have read / saw / watched the hatred (not the right word but cannot think of a better one, divisiveness?) he regularly spews all over the place all the time.
Yet, he was on O Reilly tonight, and was very coherent. Not right, but bearable. His basic point was that there would be a successful, viable third party.
When pressed, by Leilly, he lapsed into his prophetic stance, but that is what he appears to be desiring for, after making millions off of his sheep. A Taliban version of Republican party, as if they were not Talibanish enough.
My sympathies to people who believe him because of his ratings. I know, I watched him tonight and helped push his ratings up.
THANK YOU.
njguy93@yahoo.com
The republicans hold the flag sacred while they try to destroy the country it represents. What to do with them?
Liberals get to be outraged by people right in the forefront of the national scene.
Ok, so let's be fair...
Which items are American flags that cannot be "desecrated"?
See links below.
http://www.flagline.com/us-misc.html
http://www.promowebsite.com/usa-items.htm
http://abetteridea.com/usa-items.htm
http://www.uswings.com/uswusflag.asp
I can keep going, but I think you should get the point by now.
What IS an American flag? What IS desecration?
What IS the FIRST AMENDMENT? What is FREEDOM?
I'm sure China bans their flag from desecration. But thank god we live in the free U.S., where flag desecration is a form of FREE SPEECH. You know, "free speech"? It's that thing Fox hides behind all the time?
And why to conservatives think liberals are against the freedoms of this country? Seems to me us liberals are on the side of freedom of speech. Why are conservatives against the freedom of speech?
First of all, no one said you did not have the freedom to desecrate the American flag, obviously you do. I will, however, say it is disrespectful and hurtful to those who honor the flag and for that which it stands. If you have the freedom to desecrate and dishonor the flag, surely I have the freedom to defend it. I would rather be on the side of honor and respect for my country than on the side that feels compelled to show contempt and hatred for it.
Note Beck's flag and Bush's. Having a red stripe under the blue field, the DNC image is NOT an American flag. One would think conservatives would know this.
And you're actually proud of this post, Zachary?
Comparing what the DNC has allowed to what Beck and President Bush have done is almost bizarre. There's no similarity whatsoever.
It's time to open some windows (if there are any) and let in some fresh air at MM.
Yuck.
#