One of Fox News’ top brass has stepped in and essentially condemned and apologized for the networking characterizing Democratic presumptive Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s wife Michelle Obama as “Obama’s Baby Mama.”
The swiftness of the response shows that at the network’s top levels, at least, there are limits and corporate standards. The Politico reports:
“A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment,” Fox’s Senior Vice President of Programming Bill Shine said in a statement to Politico.
In addition to being insulting, the phrase “baby mama” is also inaccurate. The Urban Dictionary defines “baby mama” as”the mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are not currently involved.”
Although Shine doesn’t name anyone responsible, the show’s producer is Jessica Herzberg. A Fox staffer said that others internally were bothered by describing the potential first lady and very accomplished women — as the senator’s “baby mama.”
Unfortunately for the network, this comes just days after Fox’s E.D. Hill addressed her use of the phrase “terrorist fist jab” on-air in reference to the famous Michelle-Barack fist bump (or pound) made just before his celebratory speech in St. Paul.
See our earlier report and roundup on the controversy here.
There is an irony in all of this: Fox News’ owner Rupert Murdoch recently indicated he’s fascinated with Obama and would like to meet him.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.