Fox News Calls Michelle "Obama's Baby Mama"... FOX: Producer Used Poor Judgment

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Since Salon's Alex Koppelman caught Fox News characterizing Michelle Obama as "Obama's Baby Mama," there's been an uproar over use of such an offensive term.

"A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment," said Fox's Senior Vice President of Programming Bill Shine, in a statement to Politico.

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ORIGINAL REPORT:

As if implicating her as one half of a "terrorist fist jab" wasn't enough, Fox News has gone on to label Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama."

Salon's Alex Koppelman writes:

An alert reader wrote in just a little while ago to let us know about something he'd spotted on Fox News Wednesday afternoon. During a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as "Obama's baby mama."

I checked, and sure enough, as you can see below, our e-mailer was right. In fact, that description was displayed on screen several times during the segment, which featured anchor Megyn Kelly and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, an FNC contributor.

Koppelman has the video here, and you can see the stills below.

To be fair, Michelle Obama referred to Barack as her "baby's daddy" on the night he won his Senate seat in 2004.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/f...o_n_106655.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

There's also unsubstantiated rumours flying around some secret tape showing Obama's wife using the phrase "whitey" at a church service.

Strangely - Fox has reported this as speculation without any proof of such a tape being forthcoming. That's doesn't seem like good journalism to me... Yet apparently its ok to publish smear stories without doing any fact-checking.

[Marc and Olga 0]

There's also unsubstantiated rumours flying around some secret tape showing Obama's wife using the phrase "whitey" at a church service.

Strangely - Fox has reported this as speculation without any proof of such a tape being forthcoming. That's doesn't seem like good journalism to me... Yet apparently its ok to publish smear stories without doing any fact-checking.

That seems to be journalism these days...

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

hmmm, "baby mama" seems some sort of attempt to ghettoize the Obamas.

Which begs the question of what portrayal Fox News is even working with here: are the Obamas supposed to be some ghetto family with questionable family values or a bunch of latte-drinking Ivy-educated elitists out of touch with "the common man"? I can't figure it out!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

hmmm, "baby mama" seems some sort of attempt to ghettoize the Obamas.

Which begs the question of what portrayal Fox News is even working with here: are the Obamas supposed to be some ghetto family with questionable family values or a bunch of latte-drinking Ivy-educated elitists out of touch with "the common man"? I can't figure it out!

Yeah, yeah thats it!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

hmmm, "baby mama" seems some sort of attempt to ghettoize the Obamas.

Which begs the question of what portrayal Fox News is even working with here: are the Obamas supposed to be some ghetto family with questionable family values or a bunch of latte-drinking Ivy-educated elitists out of touch with "the common man"? I can't figure it out!

I don't how relevant this may be, but I remember reading recently that marketing agents have begun to use a different approach to brand recognition and association - they let different demographics define the brand so that to one group, the brand is associated it with one thing, while a different demographic defines it differently, but both give a positive emotional connection to the product. It wouldn't surprise me that the same tactics can be applied to politics as well. So to a certain demographic, the Obama's are regarded as elitists - out of touch with hard working Americans, while another demographic (probably a more dubious one) identifies the Obama's as too ghetto. All they need are trigger points - a poorly worded statement or something as benign as a husband and wife doing a fist tap.

Emotional appeal is a powerful tool - marketing agents know exactly what they're doing.

Edited June 13, 2008 by Jabberwocky

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

if it's on fox news and it's negative about obama, burn down the station!

[Jenn! 918]

Ugh, I'm so sick of all this sh!t from BOTH sides. It's such a turn off.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Ugh, I'm so sick of all this sh!t from BOTH sides. It's such a turn off.

Only 5 more months to go!

[Marc and Olga 0]

maybe it was a reference to this?

/shrug

[one...two...tree 2,762]

maybe it was a reference to this?

/shrug

I had to ask one of my colleagues just what it means. According to him, it's a description that a man would use to identify his relationship with the mother of his children...."She's my baby's mama," to state that he has no emotional or physical connection to her beyond the child.

Fox News deciding to use this as a text overlay reminds me of the time when McDonald's used the term, "I'd hit that," on their billboards for food. The producer either had no idea the meaning of baby's mama or they were using a slang term deliberately as a reference to the Obama's being black.

[Jenn! 918]

Baby Daddy really implies that you're not married (and never were) to the father of the baby. It's just not applicable in any way to the Obamas, whether she said it, or the media used it to refer to her.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

ah just what we need, some baby mama drama.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Baby Daddy really implies that you're not married (and never were) to the father of the baby. It's just not applicable in any way to the Obamas, whether she said it, or the media used it to refer to her.

People though do take terms that might have originally meant one thing and deliberately use it as a form of sarcasm. I would venture to say that when Michelle said it, she wasn't dissing her relationship to her husband. Slang works that way.

[Jenn! 918]

Baby Daddy really implies that you're not married (and never were) to the father of the baby. It's just not applicable in any way to the Obamas, whether she said it, or the media used it to refer to her.

People though do take terms that might have originally meant one thing and deliberately use it as a form of sarcasm. I would venture to say that when Michelle said it, she wasn't dissing her relationship to her husband. Slang works that way.

I'm sure she wasn't dissing her relationship. But as a first lady prospect, one would think that she would have more foresight into the ramifications of using that phrase. I understand that her use was sarcastic, but that sarcasm was either an implied diss against people who *do* use that phrase, or else it was a clever way of asserting that they were different than the typical demographic that would use that phrase. In either case, it shouldn't be surprising that it was turned against them.