Monday, May 03, 2010

A new Fox News niche

Familiar with the Fox News "Democrat", I hadn't realized that Fox also has a resident Fox News "atheist" who has a similar function: to act as if reasonable atheists agree with fundamentalist Christian nationalists that liberals worship evolution as a religion and in fact promote evolution as part of a conspiracy to destroy Christianity.

That resident would the previously mentioned SE Cupp, someone who I generally ignored since she's the usual attractive Fox conservative lacking any obvious intellectual merit who casually tosses off extremist sounding remarks; she came on my radar with her new hate-mongering book demonizing both atheists and "liberals."

Here's an example of some of the rhetoric from her new book:

- The debate over the legitimacy of evolution isn't really about a battle between fact and fiction. It's about Christianity, and the liberal media's attempt to eradicate it from all corners of society.

- This revolution [led by the Obama administration], already in full throttle around the country is being waged against you and me and every other American, and its goal is simple: to overthrow God, and silence Christian America for good.”
I once again marvel at the normalization of extremism in American politics. The Daily Howler sums up Cupp's credentials

Who the heck is S. E. Cupp? She’s a young, extremely fresh-faced star pundit on Fox, so positioned because a pair of glasses have let her attain the catchable sexy librarian look. Can we talk? Among its various approaches, Fox News spills over with hot young women who are dragged out each night to offer analysis. Some of these women are perfectly bright; in some cases, this ain’t required. Beyond that, Cupp comes from a particular stall in the growing Fox stable of pundits—she plays a slightly off-center conservative, letting Fox present the world with the illusion of diversity. (A string of well-known “Fox Democrats” helps Fox complete this deception.) Most specifically, Cupp can be cast as an off-center conservative because she says that she’s an atheist. This makes her a vastly more shaggable version of “Fox feminist” Tammy Bruce.

Given her looks, her look and her off-center pose, the fact that Cupp is cosmically banal hasn’t retarded her rise at Fox. And that, of course, is where the culture of stupidification comes in! Because Cupp once found a pair of hot glasses—she wouldn’t have made it with her pre-glasses look—things have actually reached the point where the Washington Post feels it must review her utterly banal new book.

1 comment:

Norwegian Shooter said...

I also have been intrigued by the hot "Fox atheist" SE Cupp (I think the initials name branding and fortunate last name is just as important as the glasses for her fame). The atheist angle is how I first noticed her too. And as we've established, she's easy on the eyes. Easy enough to get me to watch her on BookTV.

Most of the show, I was switching back and forth between she's incredibly daft and amazingly shrewd (because it's a put on). She's right on the edge. More interesting parts were her Christian-but-accepting-of-anything mother and the questions she gets from females at the end. Oh, and the Clare Booth Luce whatever is actually supported by young women.