Prometheus 6

Hip Hop Artist Nas to Join Protest of FOX Race-Baiting and Obama Smears

ColorOfChange.org & MoveOn.org Members To Deliver Over 600,000 petition signatures to FOX headquarters in Manhattan

Hip hop star Nas will join members of ColorOfChange.org & MoveOn.org on Wednesday to deliver 620,127 petition signatures demanding that FOX end its pattern of racist attacks against Black Americans including presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. The group will make the delivery at 2:00pm on Wednesday, July 23rd at FOX in Manhattan.

Over the last several weeks, FOX has had a string of incidents that many believe are a veiled attempt to prey on racism and intolerance and cast the Obamas as "outsiders": an on-screen graphic referred to Mrs. Obama as "Obama's baby mama," a pundit "confused" Obama with Osama and then joked they should both be assassinated, and an anchor called a loving fist bump between Barack and Michelle a "terrorist fist jab." In February, Bill O'Reilly talked about calling a "lynching party" to deal with Michelle. 

The signatures were gathered online over the last  month by ColorOfChange.org – a 450,000-member grassroots organization that focuses on issues of importance to the Black community. MoveOn.org and the Brave New Foundation also gathered signatures for the petition. In 2007, the groups led a successful campaign to stop the Congressional Black Caucus Institute from hosting a presidential debate on FOX.  The debate was cancelled after major presidential candidates declined to attend.  

"FOX poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news," said Nas. He caught ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org's attention with a new song called Sly Fox, which has lyrics like, "Watch what you watchin', FOX keeps feeding us toxins, Stop sleeping, Start thinking" and "I pledge allegiance to the fair and balanced truth/Not the biased truth/Not the liar's truth/But the highest truth." Nas's new album called [Untitled] was released last week.

"When FOX talks about lynching the woman who may soon be our First Lady and then refers to this wife and mother as a 'baby mama,' they are maligning not only the Obamas, but Black women and Black people across this country," said James Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org.  "We have over 600,000 signatures – more than half a million people – saying that we won't stand for FOX's racism and hate-mongering."

The email that ColorOfChange.org sent to its members, launching this petition, can be found here:

http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/message.html

Substantiation:

"Fox News Jokes About Killing Obama," YouTube video posted May 25, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYpkvcmog0 

"Fox News' E.D. Hill teased discussion of Obama dap: 'A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab?'" Media Matters, June 6, 20080
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806060007?f=h_clips

"Fox News in trouble again over Obama smear: 'baby mama,'" Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2008
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/baby-mama.html 

"Bill O'Reilly: 'I Don't Want To Go On A Lynching Party Against Michelle Obama Unless There's Evidence,'" Huffington Post, February 20, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/20/bill-oreilly-i-dont-w_n_87616.html 

Video Compilation: "Fox Attacks: Obama," Brave New Films at FoxAttacks.com, February 2007
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/573-fox-attacks-obama 

Video Compilation: "Fox Attacks: Black America," Brave New Films at FoxAttacks.com, June 2007
http://foxattacks.com/blog/572-fox-attacks-black-america 

Video Compilation: "Fox Attacks: Obama, Part 2," Brave New Films at FoxAttacks.com, March 2008
http://foxattacks.com/blog/32376-fox-attacks-obama-part-2 

An overview: Fox News and its problem with African-Americans
http://colorofchange.org/fox/summary.html