Fox Is At It Again: George Bush Is On ‘American Idol'
by Rev. Reynard N. Blake, Jr.
"Fox News provides Bush with the right support; it makes
President Bush's reality (his policies) the truth."
I'll admit it; I've watched The Fox Network's most popular
television show,
American
Idol. It is one of my guilty
pleasures. Simply, "Idol" is an annual American
televised singing competition designed to "discover the best young singer in
the country, through a series of nationwide auditions. The outcomes of the
latter stages of this competition is wholly determined by public voting. The format features three judges who
critique the contestants' performances in order to facilitate the voting. These
are: record producer and bass player
Randy Jackson;
former pop star
Paula Abdul;
and UK
producer
and manager
Simon Cowell.
I guess you're wondering why I'm writing about such a show
and how I link it to my dear president, George W. Bush. My wife, Karen Kelly-Blake, alerted me to a
very interesting New
York Times article on the efforts of Howard Stern, an extremely popular
radio talk show host, to undermine Idol by "supporting Sanjaya Malakar, the
off-key, lyric-fumbling, elaborately coiffed teenager who is perhaps the most
talked-about "Idol" contestant ever."
Be patient with me getting to the point of this
commentary.
As we have done countless times, Karen and I discuss the
sociopolitical, cultural, and racial aspects of any phenomenon. Karen argued that America's voting patterns
(in this case, many of the voters are young people) revealed a lot about itself
in terms of what it tends to worship - image.
Furthermore, she highlighted the racial/cultural aspects of Mr.
Malakar's presence on the show this late in the competition. Karen, using her anthropological lens (somebody
hook this sister up with a job; she's getting her Ph.D. in Anthropology from
Michigan State University in a minute!) noted Malakar was getting significant
support and attention from the East Indian communities in the U.S. and India as
a means of group recognition and pride.
"However," she added "sometimes people tie themselves to the wrong
horse." Well said.
Hang on, I'm getting there!
"Malakar was getting significant support and attention
from the East Indian communities in the U.S. and India."
My wife's observations stimulated my thinking. I started to play a game of word
association. "Hmmm...a Fox
channel...worshipping image...public voting...race...unjustly supporting someone with
limited talent...providing a forum for someone mediocre, at best...someone
off-key...someone that fumbles words...what could it beeeeeee...EUREEKA! IT'S FOX NEWS, THE PRESIDENT, AND
AMERICA!!" I was quite proud of my
thinking! I knew I could do it! See what over one hundred thousand dollars of
school loan debt can do for someone!
Of course, George Bush is not on Idol and the issues that
face America and the rest of the world are grave. However, the Fox News Channel versus Fox's Idol and the Idol
voting public versus the American voting public have some eerie
similarities.
Like Fox's television channels, Fox News deals in
entertainment. Both bend truth and
reality. Fox channel claims Idol is a
reality-based show, featuring the hopes and dreams of people that want to
win. Contestants believe that the best
will win, that if they work hard and get the right amount of support they will
be successful. Fox channels give those
contestants a forum. Unfortunately, Mr.
Malakar has gotten a forum. Better
contestants have lost that forum. And
so it is with Fox News and George Bush.
Fox News provides Bush with the right support; it makes President Bush's
reality (his policies) the truth. Bush
believes his policies are right. Tax
breaks for the ultra-rich are right.
Using lies to invade a sovereign nation are right. Policies that take away American freedoms
and privacy in order to make America "safe" are right. Better analyses or ideas on how America's
challenges can be addressed have been lost or, sadly, been repressed. Fox News ties its fate to George Bush. If Bush is right, then Fox News is
right. Truth becomes a casualty.
"If Bush is
right, then Fox News is right."
The Idol voting public is fickle; it values style over
substance. The best people or ideas
don't win. This mimics the electoral
voting public; it is fickle. It
appreciates style over substance. Empty
terms such as "Bring ‘em on" or testicle-grabbing international foreign policy
is sexy and is desired. A majority of
American public wants to believe "The War on Terror" can be "won." It re-elected Bush. Bush says the war can be won, especially if
more troops are sent to Iraq. Bush's
belief that any war can achieve peace is the hallmark of his style. A majority of the American public accepts
his style. It supports his policies. Opinion polls indicate that a majority of
the American voting public does not support his policies. This is a lie because if America truly did
not support his policies it would impeach him and remove him and most of his
administration NOW! The American voting
public is exactly like the Idol voters; both enjoy poor performance or mock
good performance. Bush is Malakar and
Malakar is Bush.
Rev. Blake is a Baptist
minister and writer from East Lansing, Michigan. He can be reached at reynardblakejr@yahoo.com.
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