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Rapper Nas Raps on "Race-Baiting" Fox News
Nas by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.com
Rap star Nas served up the rhyme, "Watch what you watchin'/Fox keeps feeding us toxin" on Wednesday, as part of a protest outside Fox News.
Two activist groups, Color of Change and Move On, led the gathering, citing questionable practices by the news outlet, including a reference to presidential candidate Barack Obama as a "halfrican," terming his and his wife's fist bumps as "terrorist fist jabs," and the famous on-screen graphic which labeled Michelle Obama as "Obama's Baby Mama." Placards on display read, "Fox News: Your Source for Racist Smears" and "Fair and Balanced? Fairly Racist."
Said Nas, "Fox's pattern of race-baiting and fear-mongering regularly focuses on black leaders, black institutions and ordinary black people."
A Fox News rep responded by saying the cabler "believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech — including Nas, who has an album [Untitled] to promote."
What's your take? Do Nas and the protesters have a valid point? — Matt Mitovich
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Jul 24, 2008 9:17 AM
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Heck yes the protesters have a valid point. Fox has made way too many "mistakes" and it's sickening. Baby Mama? Terrorist? Really?
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Jul 24, 2008 9:48 AM
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The protesters are 100% correct. Fox is using the kind of racist language I thought had been banished from journalism at least 50 years ago. Then again, Fox News has only sustained the barest pretense of being journalists rather than "hatertainment" since the beginning; I suppose now they've dropped the pretense.
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Jul 24, 2008 10:00 AM
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Not trying to defend Fox news...but didn't Ms. Obama refer to her husband as "my baby daddy" when introducing him at the last Democratic presidential conference? I seem to recall that 4 years ago. So why are they offended that Fox News is playing off of something she said herself?
That being said, Fox News needs to cut the cr*p as far as the racial baiting goes. Let's elect a leader based on what they've done and where they stand and not make race an issue.
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Jul 24, 2008 10:43 AM
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Were these groups protesting the Hillary Clinton campaign? Because they did their share of race-baiting this spring too.
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Jul 24, 2008 11:00 AM
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Yep, they're absolutely right. Fox Noise is a sorry excuse of a "news" organization. It's one thing to give a conservative point of view, it's another thing when it turns into racist and bigoted remarks from blowhards like O'Reilly and Hannity, not to mention their ordinary anchors like the one of "terrorist fist jab" fame.
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Jul 24, 2008 11:02 AM
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they absolutely have a point.
news, in THIS country, is SUPPOSED to come to the public unfiltered and unbiased. Fox News has never mastered either ability.
and i always thought it funny that the same network family that has brought us programming targeted to the lowest common denominator of society is supposed to bring us news. yeah, right.
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Jul 24, 2008 11:19 AM
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Not trying to defend Fox news...but didn't Ms. Obama refer to her husband as "my baby daddy" when introducing him at the last Democratic presidential conference? I seem to recall that 4 years ago. So why are they offended that Fox News is playing off of something she said herself?
When that was reported, another TVGuider (I cannot remember who) noted that we call our spouses things like "Honey" and "Sweetie" too, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the media should use those terms as well. I think there's a line between a term of personal endearment and someone outside the relationship appropriating it.
And who knows, maybe people were offended when she herself used it. I don't know.
Edited to add: If Fox News had a history of truly being fair and balanced and non-douchey, repeating the term that she used may not have been noticed. But it's just one example of a larger trend - Fox News shows no sensitivity whatsoever.
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Jul 24, 2008 12:08 PM
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Yes, Nas had a point and a good one!
Fox News is utter biased crap!
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Jul 24, 2008 12:33 PM
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Yes the protesters have a valid point.. Fox news also started that whole terrorist issue with the scarf that Racheal Ray was wearing in the Dunkin Donuts add not that long ago...
And may I add... Here in Vancouver, every other person wears one and I am pretty sure they are not supporting terrorists... 
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Jul 24, 2008 12:36 PM
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Here is the transcript (filtered through CNN) with Michelle Obama's introduction of Barack:
MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: My baby's daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!
While a fine line, this is different that the term "Baby Daddy" and "Baby Mama". It seems to me, she is saying here is the father of my child. The "Baby Daddy" and "Baby Mama" terms are used by unwed parents to refer to one another. The terms have taken on a demeaning taint because, IMHO, its a knock down the totem pole from husband/wife, fiance or boyfriend/girlfriend. Its basicaly saying that the person that supplied the sperm/egg is no more important than a donor. We have no more relationship beyond that transfer of DNA.
Nas was on Steven Colbert's last night, along with all the petitions. It was an interesting interview. I think Kanye got it wrong. He should have said "Fox hates Black people!" 
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Jul 24, 2008 12:55 PM
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I think most people overlook that the terms were all used by editorials (whose opinions are not always representative of Fox News) rather than the actual news portion of Fox News.
The news portion of Fox News does appear more balanced in coverage than MSNBC or CNN. The editorials, on the other hand, mostly have a lean to the right (some stronger than others). Most people watch the editorials, of course (sometimes more watching Fox News than all of the CNN and MSNBC channels combined), so this is an understandable mistake.
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Jul 24, 2008 1:06 PM
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Yeah, Steven Colbert had a whole set of clips from Fox News suggesting the pattern, and he didn't even include Bill O'Reilly's infamous comments:
O'Reilly: " [I} couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.'"
Lordy.
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Jul 24, 2008 1:08 PM
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honbun, I DID wonder before, when it first happened, if she'd said "baby's daddy" or "baby daddy" but the media attention was never clear on that point (surprise, surprise). Fox News definitely knew what they were saying when they used "baby daddy" and probably could care less what she really said.
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Jul 24, 2008 1:59 PM
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Fox News isn't any more or less biased then every other news channel. They all are biased in some way. A protest from the heavily biased group of Move On and a rapper promoting a CD isn't exactly newsworthy.
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Jul 24, 2008 2:09 PM
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