Murdoch and News Corp Up to Their Old Racist Tricks

Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 4:00 PM on February 23, 2009.

Much has been said and written about the NY Post's racist cartoon that likened President Obama to a slain monkey, and rightly so.  Jack and Jill Politics blogger Baratunde Thurston posted a must-read article about the connection between Blacks and apes, citing Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff's thoughts on how this cognitive association leads to increased racially motivated violence in our society.  (Thurston and Young Turks host Cenk Uygur are holding an ongoing YouTube conversation on the issues of race surrounding this cartoon.)  Open Left's Paul Rosenberg has a good piece breaking down "colorblind racism."  And Earl Ofari Hutchinson took Rupert Murdoch and New York Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan to task for the Post's pathetic attempt at an "apology."

But what hasn't been discussed nearly enough is that this is the same type of racially loaded trash we've seen from News Corp time and time again.  The Post has a long history of publishing racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic cartoons, and that's just from the cartoonist who penned last week's gem.  Then there's Murdoch's other right-wing mouthpiece, Fox News.  It's hard to know where to begin describing the prejudice we've seen from Fox over the last few years, but for a sampler, check out Fox Attacks Obama, Fox Attacks Obama 2, Fox Attacks Michelle Obama, and Fox Attacks Black America.

That last video is really the kicker because it details all the devious ways in which Fox manages to air its bigoted views.  As I've written previously, Fox allows racists guests to go unchallenged, and then they bring on Black guests like Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, whose inflammatory rhetoric legitimizes the network's racial agenda.  It's pretty appalling, and certainly not stopping anytime soon, which is why I wasn't surprised to see the Post's Allan use the cartoon controversy to attack those in the media and public sphere whom he claims have it in for the Post.  Nor was I surprised to see Fox report nothing of this controversy after it happened.

The Post and Fox thrive on airing incendiary material that denigrates Black people.  It happened throughout the election and it will continue to happen unless we call them out on it.  You can start by signing Color of Change's petition demanding the Post issue a real apology.  You can also boycott all Murdoch media.  But perhaps the best way to confront them is to have a national dialogue in which we both point out their bigoted views, and then discuss the underlying issues openly and frankly.

Tagged as: race, racism, fox news, barack obama, news corp

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.