The Funny Papers

Marc Murphy, Darrin Bell, RJ Matson, Nick Anderson, Deb Milbrath, Clay Bennett, Kevin Siers, David Horsey, Bill Bramhall, John Cole, Mike Luckovich, Michael de Adder, Matt Wuerker, Chris Britt, Jack Ohman,

You Can't Say "Evolution" In Oklahoma ... At Least Not On A FOX Station

You know, when all these stories broke about this state and that state trying to pass legislation allowing business owners to deny services to The Gays in order to protect their alleged “religious freedom” the pundits said it was happening because The Gays and The Liberals and President Thanks Obama had declared war on religion.

Somehow I missed that memo.

But, is anyone talking about the Religious Folks and their war on intelligence? Their war on any idea that doesn’t magically fit into their little history book?

I thought so.

But, last Sunday night, in Oklahoma, go figure, and on a Fox station, when Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey premiered it became the first time in decades that a science show appeared on a big-time network in prime-time.

And it went well, I guess, until the last ten minutes or so when the show’s host, Neil deGrasse Tyson brought up the theory of evolution. Just before he began describing how humans “stood up and parted ways from” our ancestors, viewers in Oklahoma City were treated to a mid-scene cutaway to their local Fox station’s news promo.

And oddly enough, once Tyson had finished talking about the human transition to “standing on two feet,” the station returned to the show.

That channel, KOKH Fox 25, responded to the curious edit and cutaway via Twitter, saying they “regret” the “operating error:”

Sunday, during @COSMOSonTV, a local news promo was aired over a portion of COSMOS content. This was an operator error & we regret the error.
— KOKH FOX 25 (@OKCFOX) March 12, 2014

An accident that not once during the show was there a cutaway until the idea, the mere mention — and you know it was merely a mention because it was a fifteen second cutaway — of evolution.

A war on religion? Hardly. The war is from the religious against anyone who disagrees with their fantasy books.

Just sayin’. And hoping that when this blog post hits Oklahoma there isn’t another mysterious edit of I Should Be Laughing.

source

Tricia Mackie, Fox "News" Anchor, Non-Apologizes For Homophobic Remark

It's kinda funny, and sad, this social media thing. We all get angry when we find kids saying ignorant things on Facebook and Twitter, and we go ballistic when adults--like yesterday's post, Denise Helms--use their social media outlets to spew ignorance and hate; and death threats.

But I would expect more from a journalist. I can remember when journalists were professional, when they simply told the story, without editorializing, and reported the facts. These days, though, these so-called journalists seem more like petulant school children using Facebook to snark and Twitter to bully.

Case in point: Fox [of course] news anchor from Cincinnati, Tricia Mackie.

Back in October, she posted on Facebook that MSNBC political pundit and commentator, Rachel Maddow, was an “angry young man.”

Isn’t hat hilarious? Rachel's a lesbian, you know, so, of course, she's a man, because Lesbians aren’t real women and Gay men aren't real men., It's funny. Yeah, not so much.

Click to emBIGGERate

And Tricia Mackie, at first, refused to accept that what she said was bigoted, homophobic, and bordered on bullying, not to mention that a professional journalist--even one who works for Fox--should know better than to name-call and belittle anyone in print.

She did walk back the angry young man comment a bit by saying she should have called Maddow “antagonistic,” but then she admitted that she “knew what I was saying.”

And yet she still said it.

But, both GLAAD and Equality Ohio knew that Tricia Mackie was being an idiot, and had a few choice words of their own for the "news"person:

Referring to Maddow as a “man” because she is a gay woman is completely unacceptable for someone in the business of journalism.Cincinnati viewers rely on Mackie and Fox 19 to deliver unbiased and fair reporting about the lives of LGBT people in their community. But this is someone who attempted to insult a gay woman by questioning her gender, then stated very clearly that she did so with complete awareness of her actions.Tricia Mackie undoubtedly tried to insult Maddow because of their political differences, rather than simply because Maddow is gay – but her comments went much further than insulting Maddow’s political leanings, and took issue with Maddow’s gender, revealing an anti-gay (or at least anti-gender-nonconforming?) bias underlying her political beliefs.

And suddenly Tricia Mackie was all apologetic, issuing the following on her channel, Fox 19's Facebook page: 

“I recently posted comments on my personal Facebook page regarding cable news anchor Rachel Maddow which were insensitive and inappropriate. I apologize to Ms. Maddow and any others who may have been offended by my comments, as they do not reflect my firm beliefs in individual and equal rights, and they certainly do not represent the opinions or position of my employer WXIX-TV.”

Nice non-apology, Tricia. You said it, but you don't own it, because owning might get your blond ass canned, even from a Fox channel.

And as for your "personal" Facebook page, even school children know there is no such thing as "personal" anymore, when you start spouting ridiculousness on the internet. And when you open up your personal page to every Tom, Dick and Homophobe, and then denigrate a gay man or women, you lose all credibility.

Your apology should have read:

I was stupid. I was insensitive. I said the wrong thing. I should know better.

But it didn't because you are stupid and insensitive, and you don't know better.

via Queerty

Let My CoCo Go!

We haven't heard much since Conan O'Brien departed The Tonight Show, making room for Leno to drag his chin back to late-night, other than the occasional Twitter, but now comes word that CoCo is ready for the cameras again.

Only NBC won't let him.

Apparently, Fox has officially offered O'Brien a role on its network, though not fore his own TV show. No, they would like him to appear on American Idol; not to replace Simon silly.

He's been asked to take part in American Idol's 'Idol Gives Back' charity special which will air on April 21st. Yet NBC has refused to give O'Brien permission for the guest spot. Part of his severance deal with the network is that Conan may not appear on any other network for several months. But, seriously, NBC, to keep him off a charity show?

Your knickers are in a twist, peacock.

O'Brien and Fox, however, are still in negotiations for his potential return to television as soon as September, when the NBC-mandated National Conan Blackout is finally over. He cannot host his own show until then, but is permitted to guest star on TV in May--after "Idol Gives Back." But, for those unwilling to wait until May, or September, O'Brien will debut his new live show, 'Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on TV' starting April 12th.

But come September, CoCo will be back on TV, and Leno better be ready.