UPDATE: Why Does Fox News Side with Abusers like Ray Rice?
by Spocko
Today’s Ray Rice story is still developing, but one thing it illustrates is the role outsiders can play in demanding justice and then expecting change from an institution that failed to act–or failed to act with sufficient seriousness about a problem.
Digby and Perlstein wrote today about what happened when we failed to hold individuals accountable for malfeasance. When institutions protect individuals, by explaining away their actions, it prevents change from happening.
The other thing it is illustrating is how great it is to have a group of people like Fox News or the RW media on your side, even if only temporarily.
Last week I wrote this piece, CEO Abuses Puppy. Why RW Media Supports Abusers Instead of Victims. I wondered how the RW media would act when they were told to be on the abusers’ side.
Well today we saw just a peek of what that might look like on Fox and Friends. Now they aren’t totally on the side of Rice, but they are able to get in some victim blaming and pass on some protective advice to their abusing buddies.
“We should also point out, after that video — and now you know what happened in there — she still married him,” host Steve Doocy explained. “They are currently married.”
“Rihanna went back to Chris Brown right after [he assaulted her],” co-host Brian Kilmeade noted. “A lot of people thought that was a terrible message.”
“I think the message is take the stairs,” he added, as co-host Anna Kooiman giggled.
“The message is, when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera,” Doocy concluded.
Kilmeade says to avoid the situation whereas Doocy, the really brains of the outfit, says to avoid the cameras. The person who might be the most righteously upset, Anna Kooiman, first defends football in general (avoiding addressing NFL’s policies) and then giggles at a lame joke.
The message isn’t “don’t do something nasty,” but “don’t get caught doing nasty things on video.”
I’ve read that Rice has now been fired and supposedly some changes will happen at the NFL. Enough people were outraged, and let them know it, that the NFL’s weak measures were deemed not enough. The firing is important, but it is the promised changes that we hope will have a lasting impact, we need to keep an eye on.
Will there be any changes at Fox and Friends for their victim blaming? Nope, of course not. Because their institution is doing exactly what it was designed to do, protect the abusers in their club, instead of the victims.
Fox and Friends aired before Rice had been drummed out of their club, so they didn’t have to defend him full throatily. If they had, they might have started talking about how, “He’s the real victim here” because of concussion damage from football. But they got the word from on high, the real client is the NFL.
They will be defending the NFL in the future, and whatever actions they were forced to take to get the rabble to simmer down.
Fox knows that the real clients are the members of the club who pay their bills. The $9 billion dollars a year in revenue, non-profit club calling themselves the NFL.
UPDATE from Raven’s Press conference.
I just watched the Raven’s Press conference. I don’t want to bag on the reporters, they are probably used to asking athletes questions and getting answers like, “We came to play,” but when talking to the coach about this issue, they could have pressed harder, this is hard news.
Reporter: Why didn’t you have access to the tape before today?
Raven’s Coach: I have no answer to that.
(Short Educational video link for the purpose of media criticism)
And that was it. No follow ups. A few “How do you feel?” questions that the coach batted way. Okay then.
No follow up like, “Well can we talk to someone who DOES have the answer?”
So to follow up on my theme, in my “CEO kicks dog” post, Knowing who controls and uses a powerful video like is a big fraking deal, Who sees the video and when they see it can be a huge power play story. Politicians get this.
I understand that the sports reporters are used to being deferential to the coach, but will else anyone dig into this? I’m guess we won’t know anything more until Rice’s lawyers file the “wrongful termination” suit and everyone will lawyer up and the case will be sealed.
I want something besides spectacle to come from this. I want people to think about what they want when they see this kind of video. Do you want some changes in the NFL around domestic violence? Do you want to get them to admit it’s not just about cutting loose a “bad apple” and an “isolated case?” but a systemic, and institutional problem? That could be one of the outcomes from this kind of evidence. Is that blackmail? Or is it leverage?