There’s fascinating news in TV Land — only 1.38 percent of the viewers of Fox News are African-American.
I raise this because so many bloggers, readers and commenters on Bacon’s Rebellion swear by the “Fair and Balanced” news channel.
Fox keeps them in their comfort zone. It is like a down quilt and warm milk on a chilly night. In the morning, they can leer at co-anchor Gretchen Carlson, the Stanford-trained former Miss America who plays classical violin. Dressed in her plain, pastel-colored shifts, her Midwestern wholesomeness competes with her demure sexiness in a way that boils the blood of the average U.S. conservative male.
Not only is Fox reassuring, it is the point of departure for the Right Wing Propaganda Network that Larry Gross has astutely identified. Conservatives, including some on this blog, take their cues from Fox News.
It reminds me of watching “Vremya,” when I was in Moscow back in the 1980s. This government-controlled prime time show always started with a woman anchor, seated far left in a 1960s beehive, saying “Good Evening.” At far right, a male anchor with gigantic Larry King style eyeglasses, then said, “Hello Comrades.” After that, we’d hear about the wonderful crop harvests, the clever but sneaky U.S. initiatives at arms control and the need for “world peace.”
So how come Blacks don’t watch Fox News? News analyst Steve Colbert says it could be that they are afraid to learn the truth about Barack Obama.
That’s not all he says. Colbert has done us a real service by identifying the 1.38 percent of African Americans who do watch Fox News. He has broken them down into four categories: blacks stuck in Jiffy Lube waiting rooms, whites in blackface, people who say “Glenn Beck” three times quickly and former Washington Post correspondent Juan Williams.
My big question is: “How many African Americans read Bacon’s Rebellion?” I have contracted with a big polling group and initial reports are NOT encouraging — only 0.005 percent of the total.
Why? I am not sure. But it could be Jim Bacon’s backing an end to affirmative action, sermons on personal responsibility and lectures on Washington sluts, cocaine heads and deficit spending. Maybe it is Groveton’s shoot-from-the-hip denunciations of liberals and immigrants. Maybe they can’t understand Tril-o-gy, but then, I can’t either. Maybe it’s me — the classic white liberal hitting tired 60’s tunes.
Whatever.
Peter Galuszka
