Is Fox News Trying To Fire Up Racial Controversy With White Step Team?

The highly skilled ladies of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority from the University of Arkansas opened a lot of eyes with its outstanding performance in the Sprite Step Off National Finals on Feb. 20 in Atlanta.

The competition was comprised of 80 teams from fraternities and sororities at 40 institutions  hungry for that top prize of $100,000 in scholarships. In all, there was $1.5 million in scholarship monies available for the participants in this event that was sponsored by Coca-Cola.

The controversy is racial. You see, Zeta Tau Alpha is an all-white sorority that performed lights out in what is traditionally a competition popular among black fraternities and sororities.  Initially, Zeta Tau Alpha was the winner of the competition while the second-place honors went to Indiana University’s Alpha Kappa Alpha. The crowd was audibly upset and booed as rapper and host Ludacris made the announcement. Later, apparently, there was a “scoring discrepancy” announced and first-place honors were shared by the two aforementioned sororities. Maybe there was  “scoring discrepancy” and maybe there wasn’t. It does sound a bit odd, but step show performers involved in the controversy hardly seem bothered by the whole thing.

In fact, at least one of the ladies (from Zeta Tau Alpha) indicated she was fine with the result and happy to get some of that scholarship money.

But, what really interests me in this story is the role Fox News, and anchor Megyn Kelly, played in it. Megyn Kelly, in a clip I found at News Hounds, seemed determined to extract a controversy in this situation by implying the “scoring effort” was some kind of affirmative-action-political-correctness adjustment designed to appease some black people who might have been upset with the original result (Zeta’s outright win).

One gets the feeling, that as the conversation played out, Kelly expected something from her guest (Alexandra Kosmitis) that she did not get by the time everything was said and done.

I also found it interesting that Kelly (fair and balanced in the Fox News tradition of “hard news”) declared Zeta Tau Alpha the “winners” during the segment.

Is a step show competition really hard news?

By the way, from what I watched of their performance, that team’s performance was strong.

Give them their props … they stepped their asses off (regardless of who you think won the event).

Indiana Daily Student:
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=74134

News Hounds:
http://www.newshounds.us/2010/03/08/fox_news_baselessly_uses_sorority_step_competition_to_gratuitously_race_bait.php#more

The Root:
http://www.theroot.com/views/can-we-least-keep-stepping-ourselves

News Hounds Continues To Be Watchdog For Biased, Hateful Fox Nation

Fox Nation, the Fox venture into blogging, has been particularly hostile toward President Barack Obama and has been about as far from fair and balanced as possible. But, like Fox News, Fox Nation has a habit of lying about being fair and balanced when they clearly are not.

Here is part of the News Hounds piece:

The latest example of blatant anti-Obama hate mongering on Fox Nation (Fox News’ website that boastsabout its tolerance and love for civil discourse) is its latest top headline that encourages parents to “sound off” about Obama’s upcoming address to school children. You’d think that conservatives who care about family values and education would be pleased that Obama plans to speak to our country’s young students about staying in school and the importance of education. But when you’re dedicated 24/7 to undermining every thing the opposing Party’s president does, you’ll grab anything and not just oppose it but turn it into incendiary rabble rousing. Predictably, the Fox Nation article offers one side, the anti-Obama side, only. Its one quote is inflammatory suggesting Obama’s address is about “socialism” and “indoctrination.”

Same language from Fox Nation trying to demonize the president from people who have no interest in trying to bring people together.

News Hounds Makes A Great Point About More Bill O’Reilly Hypocrisy

Conservative Fox News (I know, it’s kind of redundant) commentator Bill O’Reilly viciously smeared the assassinated Dr. George Tiller so often over the years you nearly need a calculator to keep track of the attacks. News Hounds makes a good point: Now that Dr. Tiller has been murdered by an anti-abortion nut, Bill O’Reilly is crying that there is too much coverage of the man’s death. 

Here is an excerpt of the News Hounds blog:

On last night’s (6/10/09) O’Reilly Factor­, in the Factor Follow-up, Bill O’Reilly’s leap in logic once again vaulted over the cliff. He whined about the media blitz on the Dr. George Tiller murder, as compared, in his view, with the weak coverage of the murder of Private William Long at the hands of the “American Muslim assassin” (uh, alleged assassinmight work here). Although, as many of you know, O’Reilly was recently, well, forced to publicly apologizeto CNN for misstating the facts surrounding CNN’s coverage of Long, O’Reilly struck out at CNN again, complaining about its three hours worth of Tiller coverage, and half hour given to Long. Given O’Reilly’s track record, though, I think I won’t take those numbers as gospel.

News Hounds:
http://www.newshounds.us/2009/06/11/after_years_of_smears_on_dr_tillers_life_oreilly_complains_theres_too_much_media_coverage_of_his_death.php