Fear Mongering

My gym has tv's set up in front of the treadmill/bike/eliptical section, so people can watch while they sweat. One of the tv's is set to Lifetime, two are set to some sort of sports channels, and one is set (eternally), to Fox. I tune my little radio into the Fox tv, because the others are likely to put me to sleep, and Fox has the bonus of pissing me off so much that I pedal REALLY HARD like I'm kicking Glenn Beck in the head. So it's good for me, in that sense. :)

You know what message I get from Fox?

MUSLIMS ARE SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUN AWAY! FEAR THEM! THEY ALL WANT TO KILL US AND EAT OUR BABIES! Everything they do or say is a plot to get you and crush you and everything you love and send us all back to the stone age!

That's it. That appears to be the entirety of their news contribution. Muslims = bad. All of them. Admittedly, Glenn Beck is more obsessed with socialists and communists than Muslims, but the news programs that I see are all about the Muslim 'problem'.

They do it just to frighten people. Get people scared enough, and worried enough about the 'sekrit' enemies that are lurking just behind every door, and they'll let you get away with anything. Seriously, have we learned nothing from history? The easiest way to marginalize a group is to convince the larger amount of the populace that they can't be trusted. That they have secret agendas and loyalties that run counter to the 'nations'. Then you can start taking away their rights and their freedoms, and no one will say 'boo', because they're all scared of them!

The thing that really brought this to a point was last night when I was watching the Daily Show. It's a 'fake' news show, but not so much. Because the stories that they report on are true. They've been covering this whole mosque thing up in New York, and also covering Fox's coverage. And they played a bit from a Fox show where they were going on about the funding for the community center and mosque, and how 'this man' that was one of the main supporters is tied to this that and the other terror organization/mosque/whatever. They make him out to be this shadowy, evil seeming person. They never mention his name, or show his picture. Well. Turns out, 'this man', is the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Who also, as it so turns out, owns the second largest majority share of News Corp, which owns Fox News. Which explains why they never said his name or showed his picture. Because if they did, people might google him and find out that he's evil, but his money's still good for Fox. Also, News Corp owns a 9% stake in bin Talal's media conglomerate. So the two are in business, and not just superficially.

But Fox won't say that, because it might make people question how bad can this guy be, if you're working for him? And how sad is it that we have to get the facts from a 'news show' on Comedy Central? I like Stewart's suggestion. If we really want to stop funding the 'terror/victory' mosque, stop watching Fox.

All that being said, for the love of God, people, just let them build their freaking community center! Is it going to have a mosque in it? Sure. Wanna know why? Because Muslims have to pray 5 times a day! It's easier to have a mosque in a building where there are going to be a lot of Muslims, each and every day! Christian organizations build chapels or prayer rooms, or what have you into their buildings! The Muslim's have been using this building for a year already.

I'm so fed up with people who just hate. It's like a freaking disease.