Cable news coverage of the Maya Angelou funeral

[HomerJS]

A fan or not, this woman in the world of literature was a BFD. I happened to catch some of the coverage yesterday.

I also noticed of the big three cable news networks CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, Fox was the only one that did not cover it.

I'm curious as to why Fox refused. Instead they stuck to bashing Obama over Bergdhal and how airlines are going to crack down on troublemakers.

Any theories?

 

[cubby1223]

obviously because they are racist.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Not quite.

 

[IronWing]

The service was shorter than the time it would take them to explain to their viewers who Maya Angelou was.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Not quite.

What does But 4 with racists mean? Or am I'm misreading that

 

[Chaotic42]

What does But 4 with racists mean? Or am I'm misreading that

It says '#1'.

I can't say I disagree with Fox on this, especially given that it was available on two other channels. I have respect for the woman, but no desire to watch her funeral.

 

[Greenman]

Pretty much everyone knows she died, and it's not like there was going to be some amazing revelation at the funeral, so why cover it if they had something they considered more interesting to run?

The never ending racism claims that get tossed into pretty much every thread here have convinced me that it's nothing more than a filler statement. You might as well be saying "do you even lift bro".

 

[Double Trouble]

I can't say I disagree with Fox on this, especially given that it was available on two other channels. I have respect for the woman, but no desire to watch her funeral.

Exactly, she was apparently a good writer/poet, but I really don't care about that and am not interested in watching her funeral or coverage of it. There was plenty of coverage on other channels. Either way, I wasn't watching any of those news entertainment channels, I was watching sports.

 

[senseamp]

Because it's not Bergahlzi

 

[dali71]

Because they knew that their viewers had no desire to watch people honoring an anti-semitic, Castro loving, Republican hating former prostitute?

 

[Thebobo]

Because they knew that their viewers had no desire to watch people honoring an anti-semitic, Castro loving, Republican hating former prostitute?

Or you could just say dont like black people and that would cover it all.

 

[Rakehellion]

Not quite.

Yeah, it's probably that most Fox News watchers have never heard of her.

 

[Greenman]

Because they knew that their viewers had no desire to watch people honoring an anti-semitic, Castro loving, Republican hating former prostitute?

That's more than I ever knew about her. Is there any truth in any of it?

 

[dali71]

Or you could just say dont like black people and that would cover it all.

And you would be wrong. It's pea-brained people like you who feel compelled to play the race card when someone dares to disrespect one of your leftist idols.

 

[Newell Steamer]

In order for Fox to cover the funeral; Obama would have had to be there, dry humping her corpse, while smoking crack and screaming profanities over how much he hates white people and is out to murder each and every one of us.

 

[Greenman]

In order for Fox to cover the funeral; Obama would have had to be there, dry humping her corpse, while smoking crack and screaming profanities over how much he hates white people and is out to murder each and every one of us.

I thought he did that at Nixon's funeral?

 

[Genx87]

In order for Fox to cover the funeral; Obama would have had to be there, dry humping her corpse, while smoking crack and screaming profanities over how much he hates white people and is out to murder each and every one of us.

You are projecting again.

 

[skimple]

That's more than I ever knew about her. Is there any truth in any of it?

Not sure if trolling, or trying to be funny, but like most talking points - some exaggeration of the facts:

I personally have no love for her work. Danial Flynn had a pretty accurate quote about her:

"an author more revered than read"

I think there is some stretching going on with these claims.

* The anti-Semitic claim comes from her speaking at some engagement with Louis Farrakahn. Farrakahn is no friend of the Jewish community, and Angelou got labeled as anti-Semitic by way of association. I don't think there is any record of her ever saying anything anti-derogatory against Jews. In fact, I believe that she has claimed that she is a Jew, which her supporters say is "poetic truth", because it is in fact, not true at all.

* She actually was a "supporter" of Castro, but only to the extent that a lot of civil rights leftists were adamantly opposed to anything about the Capitalistic Establishment. I don't think she ever actually did anything to "support" Castro other than sympathize with "the workers".

* "Republican-hating" - hmm. I don't know that there is any hateful commentary that she made which is any different from the standard left-leaning segment of the population.

She was a liberal, heavily vested in the the story of racial inequality. But I don't see anything more hateful than you see from any political commentator on either side of the party today.

 

[nageov3t]

did you literally watch all of Fox News' coverage for that hour or did you simply happen to tune into a portion where they were covering something else?

 

[Greenman]

Not sure if trolling, or trying to be funny, but like most talking points - some exaggeration of the facts:

I personally have no love for her work. Danial Flynn had a pretty accurate quote about her:

"an author more revered than read"

I think there is some stretching going on with these claims.

* The anti-Semitic claim comes from her speaking at some engagement with Louis Farrakahn. Farrakahn is no friend of the Jewish community, and Angelou got labeled as anti-Semitic by way of association. I don't think there is any record of her ever saying anything anti-derogatory against Jews. In fact, I believe that she has claimed that she is a Jew, which her supporters say is "poetic truth", because it is in fact, not true at all.

* She actually was a "supporter" of Castro, but only to the extent that a lot of civil rights leftists were adamantly opposed to anything about the Capitalistic Establishment. I don't think she ever actually did anything to "support" Castro other than sympathize with "the workers".

* "Republican-hating" - hmm. I don't know that there is any hateful commentary that she made which is any different from the standard left-leaning segment of the population.

She was a liberal, heavily vested in the the story of racial inequality. But I don't see anything more hateful than you see from any political commentator on either side of the party today.

Thanks for the info. I thought the story might have been just a tad inflated.

 

[BUnit1701]

did you literally watch all of Fox News' coverage for that hour or did you simply happen to tune into a portion where they were covering something else?

Well if they weren't running wall to wall coverage like the other guys, then the only possible reason is because she is black. Don't you know anything about Faux News? /sarc

 

[Drako]

... this woman in the world of literature was a BFD.

She was a BFD? :biggrin: Really?

I would question why the other 3 networks aired more than a couple of minutes of her funeral.

 

[HomerJS]

did you literally watch all of Fox News' coverage for that hour or did you simply happen to tune into a portion where they were covering something else?

I was watching CNN, they cut to the funeral because Bill Clinton spoke. I wondered if Fox will cover and checked and sure enough they didn't. MSNBC covered so I wondered how the Fox staff discussion went because I'm sure they made a conscious decision not to cover it.

 

[cabri]

I was watching CNN, they cut to the funeral because Bill Clinton spoke. I wondered if Fox will cover and checked and sure enough they didn't. MSNBC covered so I wondered how the Fox staff discussion went because I'm sure they made a conscious decision not to cover it.

Maybe Fox does not consider Clinton speaking at the funeral worth covering.

Trying to play the racist card as justification belittles any gains that blacks have made in the destruction of racism. Also, all you are doing then is encouraging it for another generation.

 

[Ronstang]

I'm sorry someone died but I neither knew who this woman was nor do I really care so why would I want to watch her funeral?? I don't watch Fox News anyway.