Racially Charged FOX Clip Likens Obama to OJ Simpson and Hurricane Ike

Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 8:42 AM on September 10, 2008.

Last Friday we launched FOX Attacks Obama Just Like Kerry, a video documenting how FOX is recycling the smears it used to sink John Kerry in 2004 in order to malign Barack Obama.  But of course, in the warped world of FOX where Muslim is the new French, words like "Ivy Leaguer," "liberal," and "elitist" are just the tip of the slanderous iceberg. 

Yesterday FOX showed a shot of Obama discussing the economy in Flint, Michigan, but it's impossible to tell what he was actually talking about since FOX jammed him in between screens of the OJ Simpson trial and Hurricane Ike. As MoveOn's Adam Green noted, FOX definitely engaged in race-baiting here.  But it's a racist smear like no other. 

By presenting Obama in this way, FOX achieved the sinister goal of suggesting that Obama is no better than Simpson, and will wreak as much havoc as a natural disaster slamming into America.  After all, the FOX anchor goes from talking about whether jurors can call OJ a murderer to a passing mention of Obama to the number of people Ike has already killed in Cuba—and she does it with a smile. 

This is the kind of clip I want to show every liberal politician who goes on FOX News in the hopes of luring some of the 88% of the network's viewers who supported Bush in 2004, including Obama.  Because by infusing their news with subliminally racist messages like the one in this clip, FOX completely undermines Obama's four-part appearance on The O'Reilly Factor this week.  After all, who can remember Obama's economic populism or any of his platforms when OJ is back in the news?

Tagged as: race, racism, black, fox news, oj simpson, barack obama, african american

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.