We should be outraged by Fox and its apologists

The Washington Post reports:

"Newly released recordings of Tucker Carlson - the third set made public in as many days - feature the prominent Fox News host joking about having sex with a teenage beauty pageant contestant. In the tapes, Carlson also makes a series of sexist, misogynist and cruel remarks about the young woman, who was a contestant in a 2007 Miss Teen USA competition. . . . The unearthed audio is the latest in a series of tumultuous revelations that began Sunday, when Media Matters released audio of Carlson degrading women and flippantly discussing child rape in old radio interviews. On Monday, the group published more audio, this time revealing racist and homophobic remarks he made on the same radio program, which he apparently called in to for an hour every week."

Carlson labels critics a “mob” and refuses to apologize for or even disown comments which include calling Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys” and women “primitive.”

This comes in the wake of Fox News management issuing a slap on the wrist, but leaving on the air, Jeanine Pirro after her grotesque and un-American accusation regarding Rep. Ilan Omar, D-Minn. "Think about it: Omar wears a hijab," Pirro said. "Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?"

While a Muslim producer on Bret Baier's news show admonished Pirro, we've yet to hear denunciations let alone calls from for these figures to be taken off the air ,from the "straight news" anchors who complained about Fox's ostracism from Democratic debates.

Now that we have established that overt, ugly racism and misogyny is not a career-ender at Fox News, and in fact are the main feature, not the bug of these shows, I think we can understand why the Democratic Party doesn't want this outfit moderating its debates. The Fox News organization is now inextricably tied to hateful, racist, hurtful speech, not to mention complete toadyism to Trump and lack of journalistic standards. It doesn't get an invitation to join "polite company."

Advertisers have begun to flee from both Pirro's and Carlson's shows. Fox News for now keeps them on the air, keeps promoting their shows.

The Republicans who defend Trump, remain silent and in fact champion Fox News and don't bother to express regret for the Majority House Leader's anti-Semitic allusions -- but have the temerity to accuse others of being insufficiently vigilant regarding racism -- are morally corrupt to their core. They prove Democrats' point: One party however imperfectly polices its own and condemns hate; the other uses it directly and indirectly to stir up its base. Without xenophobia, Trump idolatry and Islamaphobia Fox hosts would have nothing to talk about.

Fox and its apologists tell us critics of its hosts' racism and misogyny are part of a insincere outrage industry. This is akin to the excuse that Trump's is merely being "politically incorrect" when he expresses racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and Islamophobic views. It's of a piece with rightwing defenders saying he's a great president -- and his tweets are just "words."

This is a version of blaming the victim, accusing those hurt by hateful speech of being aggressors and, and turning hate-mongers into victims. Indeed, that is pretty much the game plan for Republicans these days. Truth-tellers are enemies of the people; those caught lying are "real Americans." There are some "very fine" Neo-Nazis; Democrats hate Jews. Trump is a persecuted victim; prosecutors are harassing him.

Far from insincere, the reaction to Trump, Fox and the rest of the rightwing propaganda machine is an expression of righteous indignation, a vial part of maintaining a just and decent society. We should be angered by hate-mongers, liars, power abusers and others who defile the American creed ("All men are created equal . . . ). Moral numbness and indifference brought us Trump in the first place.

Finally, I would observe that the Republican Party and its rightwing news machine attempt to downplay women's righteous anger, as seen in the #MeToo movement and protests over Judge Kavanaugh, was a substantial factor in women's march out of the GOP, which in turn helped shift the suburbs to Democrats and delivered a historic thrashing to Republicans.

You see, the more the Fox-Trump industrial hate complex spews venom and denigrates its critics, the higher the level of righteous indignation -- call it outrage, if you like -- among all those who feel themselves or are able to empathize with those who feel the sting of bigotry. In this climate, anti-Trump vote don’t lose their determination to throw the haters out. It’s the fuel for the Democratic Resistance and the poison that is killing the GOP. It almost makes leaving Pirro and Carlson on air worth it.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.