John Gibson's Truly Tasteless Joke (and Why You Really Shouldn't Care)

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but John Gibson said something shockingly stupid the other day.

By now, most of the free world -- even the sane among us who usually respond to Gibson's name the way Inspector Dreyfus used to react when someone mentioned "Clouseau" in the old Pink Panther movies -- knows that the Fox News talking head opened his radio show earlier this week by mercilessly making fun of the death of Heath Ledger. The concussion had just hit Ledger's fans and the moviegoing public, the details were still sketchy, the body wasn't even cold, and there was Gibson -- in all his hangdog, chick-repellant glory -- guffawing it up in a hearty show of ingratiation with the Git-R-Done crowd.

Gibson played the Brokeback Mountain theme, made a couple of rude comments mocking Ledger, painting him as just another drugged-up Hollywood freak -- ostensibly re-confirming the deeply ingrained prejudices of his audience -- and then went on about his way, spouting his usual brand of daily nonsense across the airwaves.

Whether or not Gibson got the laughs he intended who knows; if you're reading this, there's a pretty good chance you don't count yourself among his loyal fan base. Make no mistake though, whether the result of some seriously misplaced masochism, a perceived obligation to act as watchdog, or maybe just because he or she enjoys quixotically pointing out the obvious, somebody who wasn't real big on Gibson was listening the other day and ratted him out to the rest of us.

That of course led to the avalanche of indignation that's been sliding down and piling up on top of him for the past few days, forcing him to finally offer an obligatory and thoroughly half-assed apology.

As expected though, those who never much liked Gibson or his ridiculous opinions in the first place are smelling blood in the water; an Imusian call for his head on a platter is gaining strength and volume, which means that in the end it'll be, literally, a lot of sound and fury signifying -- or at least accomplishing -- nothing. Screaming for Gibson to be punished will only make it that much sweeter in the end, when the impudent schoolyard bully gets to laugh at the inefficacy of his victims and persecutors. Trust me, Gibson isn't going anywhere; whining, stomping your feet or expecting him to play by the rules of decent society won't do anything but embolden him and allow his audience to go on believing that it's the universal victim of a bunch of wusses who can't take a joke.

But there's something else to consider here.

Why do you give a damn what John Gibson has to say about anything?

So he insulted Heath Ledger, and did it in front of an audience full of clowns who think that kind of thing is funny.

So what?

It would be easy to make a rational argument about the need for sensitivity in the wake of someone's death -- to maybe turn it around and ask what the Gibsons, O'Reillys and Hannitys of the world would've thought had someone taken to the airwaves immediately following the death of their demigod Ronald Reagan and said something like, oh I don't know, "Well, I guess it really is Bedtime for Bonzo!" But honestly, why bother? At the risk of sounding like my father, unless you're actually planning to physically beat the living hell out of him, ignoring the aforementioned bully seems to be the best way to deal with his kind.

Reacting angrily to the views of John Gibson only validates those views. In reality, Gibson, like most of his Fox News ilk, is little more than a Vaudevillian buffoon -- and probably not worthy of any reasonable person's time one way or the other.

Besides, it is, in fact, just one man's opinion. Given that Gibson et al have giddily proclaimed and perpetuated outright lies in the past -- Barack Obama's madrassa education anyone? -- an admittedly juvenile and tasteless joke in the wake of a celebrity death seems to me to be the last thing you should fire any of their asses for.

Comments

[Pugsley]

Part 6

Yonkers woman convicted of killing her [female] lover
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../512060311/1018
Again! Homosexual teacher gets no jail for teen assault
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=48402
Homosexual Activists Assault Police Officer
http://www.washblade.com/2005/12-16/news/p...e/pibs-1216.cfm
The tragic story of Jesse Dirkhising
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=29026
Alleged Sex Assault of Boy [by men] Shakes Dubai
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjmUCEC...Q-4QkgD8SL2HAO1
Lesbian asks court to ban gay adoptions
http://www.onelocalnews.com/chandlernews-d...d=8796&source=2
Lesbian accuses innocent stranger of rape to win back lover
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770
Divorce Rate in Same-Sex Partnerships In Sweden
http://www.narth.com/docs/sweden.html
Homosexuals Practicing Hate Speech Against Straights:
http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_...0d74dfe08770f3b
Airman pleads not guilty to drugging, raping 4 men
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/...Rapes20-ON.html
Police arrest suspect in male rapes
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...pes.8e24e2.html
Man charged in male on male rape
http://uk.gay.com/headlines/11018
Ten Year Old Jeffrey Curley Raped by Two Homosexuals
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/43631.html

Some of you may be interested to know that various homosexual journals and magazines support NAMBLA or pedophilia in general, as they allow pedophiles to publish their articles in their magazines.
http://bibleprobe.com/homosexuality.htm

Someone else pasted a link to Media Matters, which is a highly biased liberal site. If you want the truth about the media, visit this site instead:
http://www.newsbusters.org/

[Pugsley]

Part 5

BTW, homosexuals are not victims. At times, some of them are the ones who discriminate, kill, and harass other people (including other homosexuals).
Here are a few examples:

Minneapolis"s lesbian fire chief accused of harassment:
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ci=108...s&sc3=&id=15126
Navy Chaplain Faces Court Martial for Gay Sexual Assaults:
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=new...s&sc3=&id=53360
Judge: No prison time for 'gay' rapist teacher
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=48397
French Teen Subject to Gay Rape, Then Threatened With Jail Time in Dubai
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=new...s&sc3=&id=24075
Justice Served In Jesse Dirkhising Murder Case
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.p...iticallycorrect

[writechic]

Look,Chez. You can't discourage good people to respond with apathy when someone is so blatantly offensive as Gibson.

Examine yourself. You're not apathetic enough to say nothing.

Good people are wired to care about decency.

[gettysburg]

Don't the morons at FOX know that gay people vote? I'm not gay, but why any gay person would want to be affiliated with the GOP is beyond me. I also keep wondering why these tough guys don't take shots at their beloved VEEP, who has a gay daughter who is raising a child with another women? And why doesn't that VEEP and his wife make a call condemning this crap? Honestly, I don't think there's anyone with any guts or decency in the whole crowd.

[DemandTruth]

I agree with you for the most part. But the unfortunate thing is it's NOT just one man's opinion. For like Hannity and O'Falafeloofah and Rush, what these sycophants say immediately becomes the opinion of their masses of dedicated listeners. I know, because I work with these people. They are in many other ways funny, intelligent, hard working people. I consider that they are misguided, but more likely the truth is that they are brainwashed by this foul propaganda.

It's all well and good to say "just ignore them", and that's fine, but they'll never go away. And when you lose a loved one or a friend to a cult, you know how hard it would be to deprogram them and bring them back to any sort of rationality.

If people just listened and then shut off the TV or the radio and formed their OWN opinions on the matter, that would be one thing. But they don't. They hear, they obey. And that is destroying America, IMHO.

[lanshark]

Do you want to know why I care? Because John Gibson has a huge megaphone in the form of a radio show and a gig at FOX news from which to spout his hatred.

That means he has a large audience. That means someone advertises on his radio show and during his FOX appearances. And you better believe I'll let those advertisers know who and what is supporting Gibson's ugly, homophobic rants. And when it comes to the radio waves, We the People are the owners of those air waves. That means we can have some say what gets spouted over our publically owned air waves.

Here are some other Gibson "Lowlights" from Media Matters:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801240009?f=s_search

From Think Progress:
Don"t let Gibson "get away" with his "callous and harsh" remarks. Contact Fox News and John Gibson. Or give his radio show a call at 1-866-868-6861.

*GLAAD has started a petition asking Fox News "why they continue to provide a platform for John Gibson"s cruel and tasteless comments."
http://www.glaad.org/action/calls_detail.php?id=4189

*Perez Hilton identifies a list of Fox News" current advertisers:
http://skinthefox.com/sponsors_001.htm

*

[OttoMann]

He SHOULD be fired for being an embarrassment to the network. That's what a normal person would expect a normal network to do. The problem is, FOX doesn't consider him to be an embarrassment. Nor does his audience....

[Patroklos]

I couldn't disagree more, Chez. I'm not sure you get it. When this kind of hatred is peddled to the masses, I know what it's boiled down to in the minds of the masses: the death of a faggot is good for a laugh. By allowing this kind of hatred to be spread over the airwaves, we're encouraging the future killers of the next Matthew Sheppard.

As far as the idea that no amount of protest will lead to Gibson's termination, we will never know if we never try. Should all protest be abandoned because the failure of some protests might embolden the evil?

[jfor]

Someday someone will get a PHD studying the stupidity, criminality, hatefulness and retardation of the Foxnews punditry. The title of this future dissertation could be
Hume, Hannity and O'reilly how lies destroy a country, or the hypnotic effect of good hair.