House Negro

[Orrex]

Against my better judgment, I watched about 40 minutes of CNN's midday coverage yesterday. In terms of journalism, would characterize it as worse than The Today Show or Good Morning America at their worst.

In addition to the vapid soundbyte coverage of a host of non-stories, the banter between the hosts was positively awful, with awkward chuckles and inane eyebrow-waggling for no discernable reason, along with idiotic faux-clever headlines (such as "Lien Times" to describe one puff piece about a $0.01 debt owned by a blind woman somewhere). The most memorable piece during the period that I watched was a story on Gene Simmons. The two commentators were visibly gleeful at the man's sexual history, to the point that one commentator suggested that Mr. Simmons had had something special in mind for the other (both of them female, by the way). There was some discussion of his tongue and whether or not Kira Phillips was the inspiration for Beth.

What the fuck is this about? If you started a 24-hour news network based entirely on, say, Pittsburgh's local news, you could fill the day with more useful information than CNN manages to do. It was so incredibly bad that I was ready to drive to CNN and pull the plug myself.


But then they got to the business with the al-Qaida tape. Nothing was revealed about its content except that the most recent #2 guy referred to Obama as a "house negro." The followup discussion went like this:

IDIOT1: So the tape calls the President-elect a "house negro."
IDIOT2: They called Obama a "house negro?"
IDIOT1: Yes, they called him a "house negro." Don't forget that Malcolm X used the term "house negro" in one of his speeches.
IDIOT2: I remember when he said "house negro." And now Al-Qaida is calling the President-elect a "house negro?"
IDIOT1: That's right. They called him a "house negro." No comment yet from Obama about the term "house negro," but you can bet that he undertands that the term "house negro" is intended as a mocking insult.
IDIOT2: I'm sure he does. "House negro" is very offensive.
IDIOT1: I agree. No one wants to be called a "house negro."

And so on and so on for about five minutes. They were tripping over themselves in their eagerness to say "house negro" as many times as possible, on the off chance that you'd missed it the first two thousand times they said it. I'm surprised that they didn't post an artist's rendition of the President-elect with a blunt and a 40. And they still didn't say anything about whatever else was on the tape. However, one commentator (Kira Phillips, the erstwhile KISS groupie) did say several times that "these guys" in Al-Qaida are "stupid" "idiots." That's some cutting-edge newsifying, Ms. Phillips. Murrow would be proud.

I mean, when an anonymous internet poster calls a talking-head an idiot, that's one thing, but when a would-be journalist can come up with nothing more insightful, then somebody's getting too big a paycheck. And it ain't me.

Holy shit. If you set out to lampoon such a debacle, you couldn't possibly make it any worse than they did while nominally playing it straight.


Of course, that's The Liberal Media for you.

[derby378]

1. Of course, because what al-Qaeda's #2 says about Obama is SO DAMNED IMPORTANT

What was his name again? Achmed, the Dead Terrorist?

Sorry. Been watching Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special. I thought it was cute when he gave Achmed a hug.

But Peanut is still a glorious mess.

[RoyGBiv]

5. SILENCE!

(i kill you)

[derby378]

10. Bwah!

:P

[Clintonista2]

8. Al Qaeda's #2 never lives long anyways

Anyone remember the daily show clip where they focused on how Al Queda's #2 dies like every 3 weeks?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. I'd bet Al Qaeda #3 and #4 pray like crazy

for the health and long life of #2. #2 seems to be a "dead end" job.

Back to the OP, it's interesting that they used the term "House Negro" (or words like that, I didn't see it). Yeah, it's an obvious insult, but probably only to us. I'd guess the term has no cultural context in the mid-east, so few there would "get" the slam. Mr. "#2 du jour" must have some western script writers.

[14thColony]

28. I think that refers to AQ's #3, who tends to not make it too long

Ayman al-Zawahiri has been Osama bin Ladin's second in command for at least 10 years, when he formally merged his Egyptian Islamic Jihad into al-Qaida. Some sources indicate he had 'dual membership' in both groups and was OBL's principal deputy long before then.

The al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) #2 has been whacked a couple of times, but AQI isn't the same group as core AQ.

[Sebastian Doyle]

29. No, this is the "real" (whatever that means) Al Qaeda #2, and he has been for a long time.

Zawahiri has been Osama's BFF for years. You're thinking of the #2 of "Al Qaeda of Iraq", a completely fictional organization which has no real connection to the mostly exaggerated "Al Qaeda".

Real Al Qaeda was created by George Bush Sr as a resistance against the Russians in Afghanistan.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq" was created by George Bush Jr as an excuse to continue the Iraq occupation.

See the difference?

[YOY]

2. I can't help but wonder al Quida's hopeful outcomes of that comment.

Methinks they want to stir up emotions to continuing the conflict. The conflict is good for their enrolments...our media is not helping the situation.

[Orrex]

16. In much the same way that Bush hurt America far more than Al-Qaida...

The MSM has collectively done more for boosting Al-Qaida's cred than 100 bin Ladens could ever do.

[L0oniX]

3. More phoney tapes from the El Kabong huh? Who believes this shit anymore? pffft ...smell it!

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. More Republican "bargain basement" tripe. Obama's Administration should

lower the boom on those weenies from a great height.

[Katidid]

4. So now when someone utters racial slurs, like H..N...,

that makes them a terrorist....Right?
:shrug:

[Orrex]

17. It was clear that they were happy to link Malcolm X to Al-Qaida

However nonexistent the actual "connection" might be. Just being able to mention that troublesome Negro by name in the same breath as Al-Qaida had them positively quivering.

[Honeycombe8]

6. Wow. You really captured the nonsense that comes from the "commentators" these days.

I think part of the problem is that they have so much time to fill. They cover so-called news 24 X 7. That's a lot of time to fill. So they have this newest story, and they slot, say, five minutes to banter about it. So they end up repeating the same crap over and over, without saying much of substance.

Sometimes I think I should just watch the 10:00 news, like in the olden days, and leave it at that. They just hit the highlights, because there's no time for anything else.

But I'm addicted. What can I say?

[Joe Chi Minh]

14. What a gem from CNN's lowest form of life.

So that's Al Quaida's latest Republican cheer-leading;
7 and 8 year-old mouthing infantile racist bile, in the hope of fanning the embers of what they'd hoped, evidently in vain, would help their election prospects;
Dopeheads threatening to assassinate Obama;
Racist Dumbos hanginf nooses from trees....

What will they think of next to keep us on the edge of our seats?

Sorry, about the earlier heading, Orrex. Had a senior moment, I expect.

[Orrex]

15. No trouble--you edited before I even say it!

:hi:

I've heard it accurately said that the "news" is only meant as filler between commercials. For a time, I'd hoped that that was just a cynical exaggeration, but more and more it appears to be spot on, sadly.

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. Heck, maybe there is more news content in the ads. After all the infotainment that passes for news

is always fretted right the way through with advertising, i.e. propaganda.

Just as the law permits advertising "puffs", exaggerated claims, by commercial advertisers, so the architects of the law, the politicians, actually mandate geopolitical advertising "puffs" - well, straight out "lies" - by way of our infotainment by way of geopolitical news. Not a tremendous gulf. The sad thing is, the ads tend to be more credible than any geopolitical "news" we get to hear.

[me b zola]

40. IMO, it's not that they have too much time to fill,

...it's how they choose to fill the time.

Can you imagine if in the past eight years if they had actually covered the news? The majority of the country would not have supported the war on Iraq, we as a nation would have demanded heads high on the food chain to roll over Abu Ghraib and other atrocities, high ranking officials would have been imprisoned for crimes against the Constitution, and bush*cheney would have at the very least would have been impeached.

News is good. Propaganda kills.

[nyc 4 Biden]

7. So true..

"If you started a 24-hour news network based entirely on, say, Pittsburgh's local news, you could fill the day with more useful information than CNN manages to do."


This is supposed to be a news channel, give us the damn news! Truly a revolutionary concept these days. I still contend the BEST place to get my news is LBN right here on DU. It's fast, thorough, and a splash of witty commentary to boot!

[Orrex]

18. DU is a more objective news source than any cable channel I've seen

DU, at least, posts links to articles from objective sources. Of course, there's no shortage of opinion-pieces here on DU, but these are visibly separate from actual news articles.

If only the MSM were similarly scrupulous about maintaining that distinction.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

9. K&R Orrex

good job. They did some of this on MSNBC yesterday but it only lasted 10 minutes and then they went on to other crap... Of course they recycle the shit every 30 minutes to an hour.

The weirdness that is the "news" is more like some sideshow tent that moves in the wind.

[leftstreet]

11. What an excellent description

Good job!

[HamdenRice]

19. For the first time I'm convinced this is a CIA forgery

Since when does Al Qaida know about African American political slang, like "house negro"? Can that even be expressed in Arabic? What do they know about plantations terminology or Malcolm X's rhetoric?

That script was written by an American.

[cali]

22. Since Adam Gadahn is their cultural advisor and Zawahri is hardly

some uneducated rube.

if you're not familiar with Gadahn, Wiki has a bare bones entry about him.

[HamdenRice]

26. I don't think that's the point

Even if Gadahn, who I've seen on tv, did not exist, AQ could google "African American" and "insults" to figure out what to say. The issue isn't really that they could not come up with this insult.

The point is, it makes no sense as an AQ message, which I did not explain in my post.

Who is AQ's target audience? It is the Arab and Muslim "street." To its target audience, who have no cultural memory of American south plantation slavery, nor of the rhetoric of Malcolm X, "house Negro" has no meaning. That's a uniquely American, and more specifically, African American, insult. So, whoever made this video was targeting it at an African American audience -- ostensibly to erode support for Obama (not likely) or to increase hatred for AQ for insulting the first African American president (hmmmm).

It makes no sense as a signal to the Arab street. And as a signal to African Americans, it is counter productive.

It's only impact would be to make a target audience of African Americans hate AQ.

And who would want to do that?

[political_Dem]

38. That's fascinating. I hadn't thought of it from that angle.

I tend to think that because American culture is mainly viewed from a "white", privileged lens, that people overseas tend to view African-Americans the way the dominant culture does. After all, American propaganda overseas (by the VOA and other aspects of the MSM), mainly projects one way to view America and that is through the "culture of whiteness".

Otherwise, I think what you're saying as spot on.

[Sebastian Doyle]

30. Adam "Gadahn" is as much Al Qaeda as I am

His real name is Pearlman, for fucks sake. I don't know how strict Al Qaeda's hiring restrictions are, but being Sunni fundamentalist wackjobs, I would assume that they don't recruit Jewish kids as a rule.

[Orrex]

33. That's just what they want you to think

I have it on good authority that Al-Qaida is run by Hilda and Bernard Goldberg.

[Sebastian Doyle]

34. Now if you had said Lucianne and Jonah Goldberg, I wouldn't doubt it for a second

Bernard's a bit of an asshat, but not compared to those two.

[Schema Thing]

20. meh, cable pundits are the original porch monkeys ;)

[Waiting For Everyman]

21. I say it's a bad coverup.

Because AQ using that term didn't come from their intense knowledge of Malcolm X at all, as the bobbleheads are pretending, but from one of our own in their organization - one of our lovely racist southern RWers I mean, of the Dumbya merc league probably.

I think they blew it in using that term in this tape, and this is the lackeys sheepishly shoveling the shit overtop it, to distract attention from it.

[cali]

23. Two Words: Adam Gadahn.

I think people insisting that this couldn't come from AQ, don't know very much about AQ at all.

[FrenchieCat]

24. The kicker is that these folks get paid big money for this.

That's the sad fact.

Can't wait for Media and Election reform under an Obama Administration!

I can't stand any of them.
But if we are honest, we understand that
It is the producers' fault....not so much these anchors/newsreaders.

I'll just be glad when Barack Obama restores the FCC, and when
there is a serious look by a new FCC on how the media news operates,
and the manner in which the real business of news reporting has died,
and left us with clowns in a circus.

[Cha]

25. We should quit calling them the "liberal media" ..I don't

care if it's in parenthesis or not. They're are the fucking idiot media and we need reform.

[NatBurner]

31. the recap has me dying

hilarious summation-

*golf claps*

[Orrex]

32. I only wish that my summation were farther from the truth

If anything, they said the magic phrase even more often than I indicated. I recall that one of the participants definitely said it three separate times in less than 20 seconds.

Truly remarkable.

[ddeclue]

35. Is Al Qaeda trash talking Obama...

trying to get him to lose his cool and do something rash and blow his good will around the world?


That's my take.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

36. If Barack Obama is a "house Negro"

I demand, not request, my place as Imperator of Rome, as the rightful successor of Gaius Julius Caesar.

[BlooInBloo]

37. It's common for white folks to get hardons at any opportunity to say that shit...

in a way that is plausibly (to other white folks, naturally) acceptable.

[omega minimo]

39. And your OP title did exactly what you're criticizing

[Orrex]

41. That's the funniest thing I've read all day

You flatter me by suggesting that a rant by an anonymous poster on a Liberalish website has the reach or impact of the comments made by well-paid commentators on a 24-hour news channel.

I wish that I had that kind of relevance or impact.

:eyes: