In a cringe-inducing attempt to ride on the coattails of popular satirists Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, Fox News commentators managed to simultaneously insult a nation and sully the notion of responsible journalism this week.
On the Red Eye show, host Greg Gutfeld and guests blasted the Canadian military after chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie stated that the army is severely strained by seven years of fighting in Afghanistan and will need a rest to regroup when the mission ends in 2011.
In the Fox segment, which aired shortly after four Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, Gutfeld snidely jokes the Canadian military "wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants."The comment encourages guest Doug Benson to chime in: "I didn't even know that they were in the war." The segment goes on painfully like this for several minutes.
Although such ignorant comments are perhaps best ignored, it's hard to resist conjuring cathartic images of such talking heads being gruesomely disembodied. The comments generated anger across the country and compelled Defence Minister Peter MacKay to demand an apology from the Fox panellists before heading to the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont. to attend the soldiers' homecoming ceremony. Canadians received a half-hearted response from Gutfeld, which was likely written by one of Fox News's lawyers.
"I realize that my words may have been misunderstood," he states. "It was not my intent to disrespect the brave men, women and families of the Canadian military, and for that I apologize."
There is an obvious flaw in Gutfeld's apology: to disrespect and create controversy by peddling a viewpoint was precisely his intention. The clip, which can be viewed on You Tube, disrespects in a number of ways.
It offends me as a Canadian with friends in the military, and as a journalist. Reporting requires public trust, but that trust is extremely vulnerable to the leaky gaskets spewing from what is often seen as a power-hungry media machine.
Attempts at comedy disguised as informative commentary makes responsible journalism tougher to fathom, and in this case, distracts from attempts to mourn.No doubt the bad timing of the comments makes them harder to swallow. The four deaths bring the Canadian death toll to 116 since the first troops were deployed in 2002.
Satirical commentary on current events can be enlightening when backed by an informed host. It's therapeutic to finally laugh at political absurdities after shaking your head and sighing about them all day.
But smart hosts know their limits because they know the issues. And it usually takes an informed audience to understand the humour in the first place.
The scary thing about Fox News, which was miraculously allowed to trademark the slogan "Fair and Balanced," is that many people actually use it to form perspectives on their world. They'd do better to turn to Fox Channel's most intelligent satirist: Homer J. Simpson.
