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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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Brad Franklin

Let me explain the difference between Eric Bolling and Jon Stewart. One guy is on a fake news show on Comedy Central. The other is on a real news network where they are supposed to deliver (ahem) real news. Deliver a well-placed joke on one network, and we laugh. Make an ill-timed one on another, and you may find yourself in hot water.

Bolling continued FOX Newsโ€™ association of the word โ€œthugโ€ or โ€œhoodlumโ€ with โ€œblackโ€ recently when he suggested that President Barack Obama was having โ€œhoodlums in the hizzouseโ€ by inviting the controversial president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, to visit.

First off, FOX, the suffix โ€œizzleโ€ shouldnโ€™t be uttered on a serious news show. Second, weโ€™ve stopped using โ€œizzleโ€ or its derivative โ€œizzyโ€ two Snoop Dogg albums ago. Third, you make yourself look utterly foolish and uninformed when you categorize some black people, hip-hop artists or young people in general as โ€œthugs.โ€

Just a few weeks ago, your network made a huge horseโ€™s patootie out of itself when Sean Hannity categorized hip-hop artist Common as a โ€œgangster rapper.โ€ That collective laughter you heard was millions of folks doubled over at your spin. Anyone whoโ€™s a fan of Common or seen any of his movies will tell you that Common is probably the most un-gangster rapper alive. Heโ€™s a good and successful rapper but no โ€œthug.โ€ Birds donโ€™t fly, and squirrels donโ€™t run from this fella, yet FOX News labeled him a โ€œthreat to national security.โ€

Letโ€™s go over this again so we can be clear. All young black kids are not โ€œthugs.โ€ A group of them gathered in a park are not a โ€œgang.โ€ A president doesnโ€™t invite โ€œhoodlumsโ€ to the White House. And unless youโ€™re a comedian, suggesting that the commander-in-chief is โ€œchugging 40sโ€ while tornados ravage the midwest is not appropriate. Nor is it โ€œcoolโ€ or โ€œhip.โ€

Now some folks will say we should throw political correctness to the wind. We should call things as we see them, right? Well, many of us are sick of being categorized because of our skin color, our clothes, the side of town we live on or the kind of music we listen to. This comes sincerely from a guy formerly described as a โ€œthug rapperโ€ who now frequents City Hall to stay involved in the inner workings of this machine called Jackson.

Bolling subsequently apologized for his comments. And, of course, FOX was prepared to โ€œmove onโ€ even though they ran the Common story into the ground and are on day 100, it seems, of Anthony Weiner coverage.

Have we forgotten that both Bush administrations had relationships with influential Saudis and relatives of Osama bin Laden? Rapper Eazy-E visited George H.W. Bush while he was president and made a sizeable donation to the Republican Party shortly after his music was deemed โ€œobsceneโ€ in Florida. Look it up.

Or, is it just more slanted propaganda used to discredit a sitting president?

And thatโ€™s the truth โ€ฆ sho-nuff.

Previous Comments

I’m still trying to figure out why Fox News website’s comment section censors the word “black”. They use the website monitoring software called DISQUs as do numerous other websites on the Internet. Websites enter words at their own discretion to be filtered by the software. Other websites that use DISQUS software don’t flag the word black. You can type the words red, yellow, brown and white on Fox’s site but unless you alter the word black by spacing the letters out etc. your comment gets flagged pronto. If able to pin someone down at Fox to inquire about this bizarre filtering I’m sure they’ll say the word black was mistakenly added to the filter list or some lame excuse like that. I can’t imagine any other legitimate explanation they could give to explain the need to filter the word. I doubt they would reveal the true reason I’m guessing is because they’re racist and censoring the word “black” is some coy little inside joke in their little nerdy world. They also filter the words Muslim, racist, Rupert, Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Hannity and few other people affiliated with Fox. Filtering Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes I do agree with as both are quite obscene and offensive imo. It is pretty unbelievable that two media moguls and their fair and balanced news (ahem) would be all about free speech and all prohibit anyone from referring to them by name when posting comments. Those people are completely nuts! The scariest part is the number of people in this country that believe every word of the propaganda. How can anyone of sound mind no matter their political affiliation not see through such blantant propaganda? It transcends politics, it’s like something out of the Twilight Zone but even more bizarre and scary since it’s real life.


Yes Fox is slanted but what about the other news organizations> MSNBC? Media Matters? Huffington? NBC? Fox is the only major news organization willing to point out the failings of the current administration. You want propoganda? George Soros may not control the writers but he has his hand in just about every major news outlet in the world today and I can assure you they take that into consideration when they are reporting. The fact that Fox is under such fire by the others tells me they’re doing something right. No one else will dare print anything too negative about the dictator in chief but Fox will. And I’m sorry as I can be but Glen Beck aside they seem to do their research before reporting it. I’m sorry that it doesn’t fit the liberal agenda and what they want to hear but unfortunately we don’t have three networks who just report the news now. We have several, Fox included, who report what they want to so it’s pretty unfair to single Fox out as propoganda without mentioning the others. This is an opinion column and you certainly have your right but I do miss the days when we could trust newspapers and nightly news. This paper, just like the rest reports the news you want from your viewpoint. It’s your paper and you again have that right but that doesn’t make it right, Don’t bother responding, I won’t read it. I’m so fed up with news organizations I’m going to start getting my news from the National Enquirer, it’d be just as accurate as any of you.