Pink ribbons and
walk-a-thons don’t eliminate breast cancer. Peace signs don’t end wars.
And
#BringBackOurGirls – a Twitter campaign launched for the nearly 300 Nigerian
schoolgirls stolen by terrorist group Boko Haram – isn’t intended to cause the
leader of Boko Haram to give himself up. All of these symbols, as well as
others, and the campaigns that accompany them, are largely about awareness.
But Fox News says
“phooey” to Twitter efforts to raise worldwide awareness of the kidnapped
Nigerian girls; on Fox News Sunday, in response to Chris Wallace’s query as to
whether the BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign is nothing more than a “feel
good” exercise, commentator
George Will remarked, “It’s an exercise in self-esteem. I do not
know how adults stand there, facing a camera, and say, ‘Bring back our girls.’
Are these barbarians in the wilds of Nigeria supposed to check their Twitter
accounts and say, ‘Uh oh, Michelle Obama is very cross with us, we better
change our behavior’?”
Funny, a search of Fox
News’ site shows no sign at all of chuckles and giggles around the hashtag
campaign #WhatAboutBenghazi,
which conservatives have launched in response to the photo of
Michelle Obama promoting the #BringBackOurGirls awareness
campaign.
And despite its massive following, Fox commentators are undismayed by
the #Benghazi campaign launched by right-wingers, and some of Fox commentators,
in fact, have even attempted to tie the Boko Haram kidnappings to the
right-wing-manufactured Benghazi “scandal.” Tweeted Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham:
“Same Islamist ideology behind #Benghazi attack is behind Nigerian kidnappings.”
Fox stalwarts (as in
Republicans) have used – and overused – #Benghazi, without a peep out of Fox
& Friends, The Five, or any of the other “fair and balanced” Fox News
hosts, commentators or anchors.
- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham: “There is a continuing pattern of deception, delay, and stonewalling. #Benghazi“
- Republican Senator Ted Cruz: “Dude. 2 years ago indeed & STILL no explanation for why four Americans left for dead in #Benghazi without support.”
- Retweet by Fox News’ Brit Hume: “Weeks Most Read: What was Obama really doing during that murderous #Benghazi night? And why the secrecy?”
- Speaker of the House John Boehner: “Meet your majority members for the #SelectCommittee on#Benghazi.”
- The Heritage Foundation: “@TGowdySC: #Benghazi Investigation ‘Transcends Politics’ but Requires Obama’s Cooperation. Will he?”
Evidently, women dying
of breast cancer, and black schoolgirls being kidnapped and sold into slavery,
are of no import to those on Fox News, and such low impact issues are not
worthy of their respect – or, Fox-supported hashtag campaigns.
Benghazi, on the
other hand, is worthy of any number of hashtag campaigns, and nobody on Fox is
showing any level of snark around it at all – unlike #BringBackOurGirls, about
which Fox News recently tweeted, “Rep. Rogers suggests administration needs tougher foreign
policy than #bringbackourgirlshttp://.”
FoxNewsInsider tweeted,
“Bill O’Reilly on #Benghazi: Obama Admin Is ‘Completely Derelict and the Press
Doesn’t Give a Damn’.” Well, no worries – Fox is always there to fill in the
information gaps on what the “press,” and the American public, doesn’t give a
damn about.