Breaking News: Fox News Hates Hip-Hop Posted by Lucas Garrison on 08/28/13 | Filed under Opinion

Anyone in their right mind knows that Fox News is not the place to go for rational, fair, unbiased reporting, but I'm still a little shocked at how Fox’s Juan Williams tied hip-hop in with the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. It’s the same argument you have heard - and we've debated- for years now, but it’s yet another example of someone taking an issue that deserves conversation, and blowing it way out of proportion.

You've got to talk about the fact that this is a horrific dropout rate in the country. Failure of urban schools, Chris. I think that's the civil rights challenge of this generation. And the culture, I was just listening to your interview with Governor Fallin. You think about the culture for a second. You think about people, Jay Z and his latest album, hit album. He's using the N word repeatedly. That kind of, I mean, you think what is going on here? Snoop Dog, it's pornographic. And it invites people to think authentic blackness is you've got to be hip hop, you've got to be hard. Education not valued. To me this is the tragedy of our day.

And in an editorial for the New York Times, Williams added:

Their failure to denounce these lyrics for the damage they do to poor and minority families—words celebrating tattooed thugs and sexually indiscriminate women as icons of "keeping it real"—is a sad reminder of how long it has been since the world heard the sweet music of the March on Washington.

Rather than sit here and defend hip-hop, like we have done a few times recently, I thought it would be more fun to look at Fox News’ long, tumultuous relationship with hip-hop. This is far from the first time Fox has had an issue with hip-hop, and vice-versa.

When you think of “gangsta” rappers, who comes to mind? Chief Keef, 50, or maybe Dre; but what about Common? Yeah that’s right…Common. The talking heads at Fox were outraged that Common, a “vile” rapper, was invited to appear at a White House poetry slam. Now, inviting a gansgsta rapper to the White House wouldn’t be appropriate or a “good idea, but anybody who knows anything about hip-hop knows that Common is far from “vile” gangsta rapper. In fact he is one of the more intelligent emcees and is a great representative for hip-hop, but leave it to Fox News to misrepresent, stereotype and jump to conclusions based on no real knowledge of the situation. We all know its ridiculous, but I think Jon Stewart summed up the argument best when he went on Bill O'Reilly to defend Common, who was labeled by Bill as a defender of cop killers.



Bill O'Reilly’s Common debacle wasn’t his first (and won’t be his last) run in with hip-hop. In June of 2011, O'Reilly had Lupe Fiasco on to discuss the emcee calling Obama a “terrorist”. Both of these people are not ones I would put in the rational, level-headed category, but all things considered, both were surprisingly tame. Granted, their view points differed greatly, but there were no fireworks. What did bother me, more than anything else (including Lupe) is how condescending O'Reilly was.

He kicked of the segment - which seems oddly edited if you ask me - by saying, “We're used to irresponsible statements from rappers, but that's really over-the-top” and talking down to Lupe when he said, “What you just said is fallacious, that means it's wrong” as if Lupe had no idea what fallacious could mean; what a dick. While Bill might have been a jerk, this was still one of the more standard segments.



I saved the best for last here; this is everything you would expect it to be when Cam’ron and Dame Dash get on Fox News. O'Reilly invited them on to defend hip-hop against a school principal who claims rap music is hurting the youth. God love him, Dame Dash does his best to keep things civil and serious (except for when he holds up the Roc sign), but Cam’ron steals the show. The best part is when Cam gets under the skin of Bill and his guest, and instead of responding intelligently or making an argument, he trolls them by singing the now uber-famous “you maaad". It's not the best representation of hip-hop to a non hip-hop audience, but holy crap is it funny. I won’t lie, seeing Cam troll the ultimate troll was pretty satisfying.



Fox News, and all huge media outlets for that matter, is sensationalist, biased, and narrow minded so it doesn’t come as any surprise they have had a long-standing tumultuous relationship with hip-hop. Still, every time a guy like Jason Whitlock or Juan Williams brings up hip-hop as the root of all evil, I can’t help but be a little angry. Hip-hop isn’t perfect, by any means, but to make it the root of all evil always sticks in my craw. Before they judge hip-hop as spreading misogyny, racism, homophobia, and violence, Fox might want to take a look in the mirror.

See Also:  Fox News Tricked Me Into Caring About This Lil Wayne Flag “Stomping” Thing
See Also:  An Open Letter to Jason Whitlock: Hip-Hop Is Not to Blame