Fox TV Accused of Stereotyping American Muslims

[baldguy]

NO SHIT!

snip

Citing a public opinion survey conducted by Cornell University last year, Ahmed said television influences viewers' perceptions of Muslims.

"There aren't any positive or even neutral portrayals of Muslims on TV; whenever Muslims or Arabs are portrayed it is always in a stereotypical way," she said.

"When average Americans don't have any personal interaction with Muslims, whether it be at work or at school, they base their perception of Islam and Muslims from what they see on TV," she added. "We did bring that to Fox's attention."

more
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=2&u=/nm/20050113/en_nm/media_muslims_dc

[Starlight]

1. My Turkish BF was furious about this.

Apparently there was something about Turks being terrorists. :eyes:

Now he finally understands why I hate Fox. ;)

[Mitt Chovick]

23. I love 24

I have never seen it before this season. So far with 4 episodes in, it has more action than most shows have in a year.

I understand some people have their panties in a bunch because the terrorists are (gasp) Middle Eastern. So what. They aren't saying all Muslims are terrorists. That would be offensive and ridiculous. They are saying that these particular individuals are terrorists.

And the incompentance and back biting by the Counter Terrorism Unit's leaders is particularly scary....reminds me of BushCo.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Good for them. FoxNews also redefined the look of a liberal by putting

on severe looking lefties. No offense to the lefties, but they were a very small percentage of the leftie movement, yet, you wouldn't know it judging by how often they appeared on Fox.

[sakabatou]

3. Like i said on another thread

Fox is not objective. All they care about is the "shock and awe" factor, not the facts.

[MisterP]

8. or weenies like colmes (miniscule lettering deliberate)

[Voltaire99]

11. Really?

Which "severe looking lefties" do you mean, in fact?

Not that I bother with Fox, but the few times I've glanced the only "lefties" in sight were the inchworm named Colmes and the bizarre neutered thingee known as Kondracke.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. I'm referring to the Barbara Olsen years.

They would put on Gothic, butch hair cut groomed Liberals on, and they would have far extreme views that wouldn't even carry the support of most Democrats, then put them up against clean shaven, neat hair cut conservatives. The contrast was stark.

[Voltaire99]

19. Ah, I see now.

These actually sound like people in whose views I'd be interested. To judge from the Democratic Party's decline into wishy-washy irrelevance, perhaps it should have been paying attention...

[tavalon]

12. One of the ways

that I undercut that awful company whenever I discuss them in writing is to either change their name to Faux or place the term "News" in quotations to show that it is not really that at all. When I'm speaking to anyone about Faux "News" I always do the hash marks in the air when I say the "News" portion.

Some one once said to me that they gathered that I didn't like Faux "News" and I told them that I just didn't appreciate their lack of truth in advertising. They are something but they aren't a news channel and allowing them that title gives them legitimacy that they have neither earned nor deserved.

I consider it part of the necessary reframing of the discourse.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. But that's the whole point

Making the American public hate Muslims is in fauxsnooz's mission statement.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Yep, it's right up there

with making the American public hate all of us loony liberals.

As a matter of fact, that is all that FAUX does is spew hatred and fear of anyone and anything that is not like them.

The sad part is that the majority of their audience consider themselves to be good christians. They forget that Jesus is all about love.

[Erika]

5. Faux/Bushco News is NOT a News Channel

It is an extension of the far right wingers who adore Bush. They use vitriolic speech to incite emotional right wingers.

I don't think any democrat should appear on Faux.

[renaissanceguy]

6. Exactly. And we should all stop watching Faux News.

Why give them any popularity? Screw them! Let's focus on developing and supporting progressive radio/television stations.
http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.16472020

[HarveyBrooks]

14. I put a block...

on Faux on my TV's just so I don't accidentally stumble on it & think it's real news.

[inslee08]

7. This refers to regular Fox, no?

It doesn't refer to Fox News? So, I do believe that it is referring mostly to '24,' and other similar shows (even though last season, the terrorist was Mexican).

[TankLV]

9. Duhhhh! And this is surprising, because why, exactly?

[aikido15]

10. I watched part of that episode....

...and turned it off, it was in poor taste considering all the other propaganda about Muslims...and yes, it was racial profiling.

[roenyc]

13. I love 24 and was surprised by the story line but

its a TV show and last year it used Russians and the year before i think it was some middle east people. perhaps they should just use a Tim Mcvey type. tee hee i dont care i would still watch. but if you ask me this was a typical FOX move.

here is the REAL problem. There is no integration on most TV shows.

Shows like ER are perhaps the only ones that have multi racial people in it but no Muslims in any roles.

I live in NY so for me its like i walk down the block and there is all kinds of people. "Friends" was such a joke cause there were only pure white people in it. no one in that show looked like they came from here.

anyway TV needs to be integrated. Why cant we have a show with that woman and her son and a father, stick them on Staten Island where i live and put that kid on the school buss where the Italian kids will call him osama. because they are taught by their parents who watch FOX that all Muslims are terrorist.

It it time that we start to show the rest of the country what real life is. That there are good people just trying to raise their kids. and how much their kids are hurt by this prejudice. show the diversity of this country. show that on that school buss their is a majority of ethnic white kids but their are Muslims and Asian and blacks and racially mixed kids, oh and I forgot Poland

Show what America is. stop putting all those black shows on UPN and integrate them into the mainstream. wake the fuck up America. cant we see what the media is doing?

We had more diversity in the 70's this is just ridiculous and shouldn't be. if TV didn't bow down to the white people in this country we wouldn't have this damn problem. its time they took a look at themselves.

[cascadiance]

20. More of my concerns of 24 this year...

... center around how the show is moving a bit to the right in its sympathies.

I lived in Turkey for 5 years of my life as a kid back in the late 60's through early 70's, and I'm concerned that they don't make all of the Turks unsympathetic like they have the couple here initially. I've had many good Turkish friends and know many of them to be decent and civilized people. I'm concerned a little about the plot so far, but 24 has a habit of twisting and changing plotlines quite a bit through the season, so perhaps the Turkish kid will turn out to be the ultimate good guy in the end too, even though his parents are pretty evil.

Hollywood in general hasn't been kind to the Turks. Even good movies like Midnight Express show an unflattering view of that country. One of these days I hope someone does a picture equivalent in scope to Ghandi about the life of Attaturk that would really bring a balanced view of recent Turkish history to Americans.

Back to my concern... I think that this season has shown things like Secretary of Defense Heller in more sympathetic light, even though his posture seems to mirror many of the cabinet officials of this administration. And his rebellious and anti-war son is drawn up as an idiot in the beginning, which in a way paints that more of a stereotypical viewpoint of the anti-war movement than I was seeing against Muslims. It will be interesting to see how the plot unfolds on who exposed Hellar's whereabouts to see if this series is truely moving towards the right. The second season I thought was pretty significantly anti-Bush in its subplots, etc. with the coup-like elements of the government facing the more sympathetic president at that time. We don't know the new president in this series well enough to be sympathetic or not to him.

We'll have to see more as the season unfolds. I hope Fox isn't trying to wield it's right wing influence over it's TV show producers more now. Shows like 24 and X-Files have been decent shows in the past without them poking their nose in the plots too much.

[roenyc]

21. do you remember when that guy was running for

president last year? he was mighty shifty. and his campaign signs were almost exactly like Kerry's. and his mane is Kelly i think. it was weird almost to close for comfort. and they made him the bad guy and the current president the compassionate one who had to kill his own people to save his country.

so i have to say FOX plays politics with 24 more then i would like. but i cant be influenced i see it for what it is and laugh at it.

The young boy know as terrorboy in my head will turn out to save dad - who is a creepy secret arty of state.

and when the hell did Keefer get a new girl friend. wasn't he dating the middle east girl last we looked?? there are many people missing and i dont remember everyone blowing up or perhaps they did. Spawn - Keefer's daughter is missing! no great loss trust me on that one.

but um story line - where is she and the baby and boyfriend? i didn't see episode 1 so i must have missed the re-cap?

Look i still think what TV needs is a sitcom that is real. if its going to be about a New York City family then i can not be all one color. its just not like that in the city. and then what happens is people become comfortable with people of other faiths and colors.

unless of course you have a group degrading that other group like the neo-cons do to the Muslims and the gays. then all the silly will and graces and all the positive Muslims and black and racially mixed comedies in the world will not help.

in the words of big brother
ignorance is strength.

[rainbow4321]

17. Fox to show PSAs on American Muslims

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUSLIM_SPOTS?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT



NEW YORK (AP) -- In response to the portrayal of Muslims on Fox's "24," the network is offering its stations two public service announcements that show Muslims in a positive light.

The PSAs were produced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, with whom Fox representatives met Wednesday. The 30- and 60-second spots showcase a diverse group of individuals, who in turn share personal descriptions and identify themselves as American Muslims.

Each PSA ends with the statement: "Muslims are part of the fabric of this great country and are working to build a better America."

Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Washington-based CAIR, voiced hope that Fox stations would slot the PSAs adjacent to "24," now airing every Monday, to "offer competing images of American Muslims

[burrowowl]

18. NOOOOOO!

FOX stereotyping, propagandizing, influencing viewer perceptions ....!!!!!
I'm shocked!
FOX may be the worse, but they are not the only ones in the MSM.

[grace0418]

22. Fox?!?!? Are you sure?!?!?!

[knitter4democracy]

24. At least we have "Lost" over on ABC

The Iraqi character, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is hot! That, and he's one of the most important people on the island with an interesting, complex background. I mostly watch the show to see what he's up to every week.