Photo: Courtesy of salon.com
Fox News has possibly revealed itself to be sexist, racist, and out of touch, all at the same time! The network has come under fire for referring to Michelle Obama as a “baby mama” during a segment in which anchor Megyn Kelly interviewed conservative pundit Michelle Malkin. The two were discussing a conservative group’s planned anti-Obama documentary when a caption popped up on the screen reading: “Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!”
First of all, a network shouldn’t be allowed to have the word “News” in its title if it goes around saying things like “Obama’s Baby Mama!” This isn’t E!, guys. You’d never see Ryan Seacrest headlining a story about Lindsay Lohan’s Sapphic relationship with Samantha Ronson with “Lindsay’s Alliance With Member of the Female Persuasion Called Into Question, Pending Investigation.” These news networks need to stay on their side of the playground. But this is another blog post for another time.
The lamest part is that the network didn’t even use the slang correctly! The Obamas were married before their children were born, and a baby mama is supposed to be someone who is the mother of your baby but not your spouse. (This is beginning to remind us of the time we tried to explain to our mother what it means to “get your swerve on.”)
Malkin points out that Michelle once referred to Obama as her “baby’s daddy” when he won his Senate seat, but the “she can say it, why can’t I say it?” excuse never really holds water, does it? There is a lot of slang out there which suddenly becomes inappropriate when co-opted by another group.
So was it a calculated move intended to demean Michelle Obama or just an ignorant and unfortunate use of rhyming? Fox News issued this statement today from Bill Shine, senior vice-president of programming for Fox News Channel: “A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment.”
It will be interesting to see how the Obama camp responds to this because Michelle can’t really get offended without potentially alienating the baby-mama contingent (a fairly large group considering almost 40 percent of all American children are born out of wedlock). “What’s wrong with being a ‘baby mama’?” they could ask. “What are you trying to imply?” And one would be wise not to mess with the baby mamas. They spend a lot of time disciplining children and can be most fierce. —Noelle Hancock
