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Fox & Friends: It's More Difficult to Insult Their Intelligence Than You Might Think!
Update Below
Recently, Think Progress noted that Fox News' program "Fox & Friends" had repeatedly broadcast information from a news parody (a la The Onion) as if it were real news.
It seems that, in response to a real news story in which Muslim Somali middle school kids were taunted with a ham steak, Fox was eager to report on some "librul" politcal correctin' gone mad. What better way to do so than to locate a parody of such a report and broadcast it repeatedly as fact.
Of course, the geniuses at Fox in their excitement missed the disclaimer on the parody, that said in bold, block letters "THIS IS A PARODY". They also missed the wording next to the picture of the frightening ham sandwich to the effect that such sandwiches were known predators of Muslims.
Or maybe they didn't and simply didn't realize that it was a parody. Or something. It's worth noting that the context of the original story included the recent suicide of a man (suspected to be a conservative Fox viewer) who had gained notoriety by rolling a pig's head through the parking lot of a local Somali mosque. That doesn't work quite as well for parody, though.
In any event, it looks like the parody is now down, which is a shame, because it was fairly humorous to anyone with half a brain...
Predictably, the brain trust that makes up the bulk of the Fox audience inundated the school district with hateful, profanity laced diatribes conveyed in various media, decrying the "ham sandwich" incident. "Dagnabit, them thar kidzer jess tryin' tuh eat thur lunch!!" related one caller.
As John Adams was famously misquoted by the Republican Party's knight in shining armor, Ronald "Evil Empire" Reagan: "Facts are stupid things."
Indeed.
UPDATE: Associated Content has posted a clarification, which gives some background on the controversy. As I suspected the boldfaced "THIS IS A PARODY" language was added after the controversy hit. While the clarification states that the original article is still on the site, I haven't been able to locate it. As mentioned, though, it was pretty clear--if you bothered to read it--that it was a parody. If you couldn't garner that much from reading the article and related materials, your higher mental faculties might need a tune-up.