Whenever I watch Fox News (which is rarely), I’m always amazed at how willfully ignorant the hosts on their shows are. I say willfully ignorant, because I find it hard to believe anyone can truly be that vacuous.
If you need a perfect example of this, it occurred earlier this morning on the Fox News show “Fox and Friends.” The subject, as you might expect in light of what is happening in Baltimore, was the looting and rioting taking place. Co-host Brian Kilmeade asserted that children in the inner city have the same opportunities enjoyed by his children.
Yes, he actually said that. But Dr. Phil McGraw pointed out that young people in Baltimore have legitimate grievances:
?They understand that there has been a breakdown of the system, they understand that there is an abuse of power here, they understand that there has been a miscarriage of justice and they are angrily upset and protesting. There’s all kinds of people out there.?
Kilmeade then decided to take the typical right wing position of saying that people need to stop engaging in what he called “uprisings.” And to that he added this steaming pile of feces:
?This is like the fourth major inner city uprising, and we keep saying where’s the character, where are the parents, where’s the opportunity, where are the role models? How long are we going to keep saying, ?Where are they and what can be done to change this?? Because those kids have the same potential as your kids and our kids.?
Dr. Phil proceeded to put Kilmeade in his place by noting:
?I’m not sure that’s true. They may have the same potential, but I’m not sure they have the same opportunities because the fact is the school system is not necessarily the same, the resources are not necessarily the same, the leadership that they have from the parents because of the generational pass-throughs are not the same. There’s no question that they have a steep hill and a tough row to hoe.?
Perhaps Brian Kilmeade needs to imagine how he would feel if he saw a family member or close friend abused and killed by the police. Would he be urging calm, or would he feel powerless and angry when it happened time and time again?
Don’t misunderstand me: Violence is never the answer to any problem. Never! But the people in the streets of Baltimore did not just decide to protest for no reason. They feel that the deck is stacked against them, and they legitimately believe that the police have little or no regard for their problems and their complaints.
Until law enforcement across this country get back to their original mandate–to protect, to serve–what is happening in Baltimore will happen again in another city.
Watch Dr. Phil Give A Lesson To Fox News
