Michelle Obama Is “Obama’s Baby Mama” Fox News Says

If controversy brings viewers, Fox News’ latest will get it some new viewers. But Fox News’ latest headline-making and blog-rage-sparking controversy is now bringing it under fire as an institution that displayed racist inclinations in a headline referring to Democratic Senator Barack Obama’s wife as “Obama’s Baby Mama.”

This comes days after a Fox News anchor set off a mini-firestorm by suggesting that some thought the Obamas’ little fist punch was seen by some as a terrorist signal. But the latest flap is bad news for Fox because the controversial words were literally plastered on the screen for all to see. And although some of the network’s defenders now point to how Michelle Obama referred to herself, she never quite used these words.

Watch it for yourself and note the headline:

And so a firestorm is born. But note the context of what’s going on in journalism and politics.

In the ongoing media polarization Fox News has carved out a niche as the darling for conservatives and Republicans with fact-based journalism coupled with shows that are increasingly like televised conservative talk radio, complete with set assumptions about liberals and Democrats that it’s assumed its audience share. Yet, the setting on many of the network’s newscasts remain neutral: an anchor, graphics and headlines. This headline could have been written by Rush Limbaugh.

Fox News thus begat MSNBC, which has now largely become to liberals and Democrats what Fox News is to conservatives and Republicans.

Journalism is now become to a 21st century form of advocacy journalism more influenced by the style of talk radio and weblogs where many viewers tune in not just to find out what’s going on but to watch news personalities react to events politically as they themselves would. The original ‘advocacy journalism” often focused on issues. The new form focuses on advancing a party’s cause and hurting the other party’s cause.

Fair enough. But in this case, whoever wrote the Fox headline veered into raising a racial stereotype phrase.

To use Fox News values in the following phrase: the way the headline was written bit the network on its white you-know-what.

It has created lot of buzz that will get Fox News in the news and probably attract more and more anti-Obama viewers as time goes on, but it also solidifies Fox News’ increasing status as a network with news values more reflecting the values of Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly than of Chris Wallace.

[UPDATE 4:15 p.m. PST: A Fox News executive has called the characterization of Michelle Obama by his network "poor judgment." Details HERE.]

This Salon item is one of the blog posts that unleashed this latest flap:

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.”

Which unleashed a firestorm likely to further consolidate Fox News’ status as a network that will be avoided by most liberals and Democrats as the political polarization of news continues:

The Left Coaster:

Fox already had to replace talk show host E.D. Hill for calling the Obamas’ fist bump greeting at his nomination victory rally a “terrorist fist jab.” Anyone else have the feeling Fox is going to have a very hard time making it through the next several months? And hopefully the next eight-and-a-half years?

–Michelle Malkin (who was on the segment):

Salon is in high dudgeon over a caption that Fox ran during my segment referring to Michelle Obama as Obama’s “baby mama.”

I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both. But I do know that it was Michelle Obama herself who referred to Barack as her “baby’s daddy” and has used the phrase “baby daddy” to describe Barack while on the stump this year.

–Oliver Willis’ post needs to be read in full. Here’s part of it:

So here’s the thing (because during this campaign I’m apparently learning that we black people have our own secret code and hand signals so this stuff has to be explained like you are speaking to a child at times), using the phrase “baby mama” to describe this woman implies that like too many people in the black community, she is a mother on her own with no man around doing his job.

Except, Barack and Michelle Obama are the exact opposite of this, and that is one of the reason America - especially black America - are so proud of them.

–The Huffington Post’s Erin Vest:

As discussion swirls around ‘fist-bumps’ and so-called ‘news stations’ labeling the next potential First Lady as ‘Obama’s Baby Mama’ let us all be very clear: racism is not ok just because it’s on Fox.

It is not ok because it’s in West Virginia or Kentucky. It’s not ok because it’s part of the culture or the heritage or the geography.

It is certainly not ok as the caption on a major cable news network, regardless of their ‘right’ leanings.

–James Joyner:

Today’s Manufactured Outrage of the Day* is that, on a mid-day Fox News program featuring Megyn Kelly and Michelle Malkin debating the impact of Michelle Obama on the race, the production assistant in charge of writing chyrons dubbed the would-be first Lady “Obama’s Baby Mama.” Apparently, this is a racial slur which suggests that she and Obama aren’t actually married and the children are illegitimate and therefore they should just head on back to Africa. Or something like that.

….Malkin also provides a helpful link to a two-year-old Slate piece with the awkward headline “” that explains that celebrity gossip rags have “seized upon baby-daddy and baby-mama, two useful terms that have long appeared in hip-hop and R&B lyrics, and are slowly stripping them of their emotional fangs.” Apparently, such black luminaries as Tom Cruise and Keven Federline had been referred to as “baby-daddy” even though they were married to the mother of their child.

So, perhaps Fox was secretly signaling that the Obamas are Scientologists?

–The Carpetbagger Report:

Remember the Republicans’ game-plan: when it doubt, go after the candidate’s spouse. Fox News, as an extension of the GOP, is clearly just reading from the party’s script.

–John Aravosis:

I’m sensing a mix of sexism and racism from FOX News on this one - hitting both at once, that might even be a new low for them. This network should be ostracized by every Democrat - no one in the party should be appearing on FOX ever again. And if they do, they should be held accountable for it. And someone should launch a true campaign to take FOX down, once and for all. So far the efforts have been piecemeal and short-lived. Someone with the cash and the staff needs to do something real this time.

–Pam’s House Blend:

It’s high time that Fox News just stop with the pussyfooting around with these games and run the more direct “nigger” on any Chyron running over video of the Obamas.

–Thought Crimes:

Just so we are clear on what Fox is saying about Michele Obama, let’s consult UrbanDictionary.com for a definition of “baby mama”.

READ THE ENTIRE POST AND THE DEFINITION…

–Charleston City Paper:

Now that Hillary Clinton is out of the running, it looks like sexist remarks will now be replaced with overt racist ones….Try and imagine Fox using that tag for any white candidate. Seems ridiculous? Thought so.

--Jack and Jill Politics:

And it’s really true. You can be an Ivy League grad two times over, married with two wonderful children, and some people still can’t see you past the color of your skin to see you as a human being.