# Fox News refers to Michelle Obama as "Obama's Baby Mama" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698 "2008-06-12T15:53:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/81 "2008-06-13T05:07:44Z")
Wait, I use the fist bump all the time. Am I a terrorist? Does anyone still take Fox News seriously? I suppose some people do. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/82 "2008-06-13T12:15:03Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] “Well, yeah, I mean, “word pup”. Mmmm, “up”. “Word up”. Ever since the Snizzle in Chief was elected, we don’t have take English no mo , mo fo. Oh, and can you sign that permission slip for my nine?..” [/QUOTE] “Only if you get of your ass and bring daddy his mo fo iced tea.” ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/83 "2008-06-13T13:12:21Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] Wait, I use the fist bump all the time. Am I a terrorist? [/QUOTE] Possibly. You’ll need to report to Gitmo for an undetermined amount of time until it’s been determined. If your case is looked at some time in the next six years, we can have all sorts of retards declare that “the system works!”. [QUOTE=Larry Borgia] Does anyone still take Fox News seriously? I suppose some people do. Damn. [/QUOTE] Many millions do. Think of everyone you’ve ever met and everyone you’ve ever seen on TV. More than that. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/84 "2008-06-13T16:01:09Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] This is probably because the women you knew are not hoodrats. [/QUOTE] Heh. I had to google to find out the definition of that one. How does it compare to chickenhead, since that’s the latest my slang gets. They were women with children in a homeless shelter so it was a rough crowd. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/85 "2008-06-13T16:13:11Z")
The difference is intent I guess. There’s a difference between having children intending to stay with the father, and it doesn’t work out and having children knowing full well, he’s **not** going to stay around and you repeat that pattern over and over and think that, that’s the way to live your life. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/86 "2008-06-13T16:28:18Z")
[John Scalzi had a good rant about this.](http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=870) I agree with him. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/87 "2008-06-13T16:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Wasn’t there a flap about this earlier in the campaign, by the way? I think Michelle was alleged to have referred to Barack as her baby daddy - and unless memory serves, no proof of _that_ ever turned up either. The pattern that emerges from rumors like this is really disgusting. [/QUOTE] Well, at least BHO is [fighting back now.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=471684) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/88 "2008-06-13T16:50:36Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Well, at least BHO is [fighting back now.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=471684) [/QUOTE] Yeah, I read about that yesterday and I think it’s a very smart move- he’s usually good about being on the offensive rather than defensive, and he’s aware that as a mysterious dark man, there are a lot of stupid rumors out there about him that collectively pose a problem. Fighting them is a much better response than ignoring them. Hmm. No wonder this guy’s the Doper candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/89 "2008-06-13T16:53:18Z")
Regarding the fightthesmears site, though, I wonder if it will really be very effective at convincing anyone who wants to believe the worst. It seems to me like they’ll just dismiss it as coming from Obama’s own website, therefore it’s all lies. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/90 "2008-06-13T17:16:56Z")
There’s nothing to be done about people who want to believe he’s a closet jihadist. But there are some people who really don’t know what the deal is, and for those people, as well as the news outlets who’ll cover any stupid rumor if enough people blog about it, it’s good that Obama is making sure the other side doesn’t have unfettered access to the microphone. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/91 "2008-06-13T17:31:02Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Regarding the fightthesmears site, though, I wonder if it will really be very effective at convincing anyone who wants to believe the worst. It seems to me like they’ll just dismiss it as coming from Obama’s own website, therefore it’s all lies. [/QUOTE] Nice to see him launching his own Snopes, but I think they’d do better to state the facts and skip the editorializing (e.g., referring to Roger Stone as a “proven GOP sleazemeister”). I’m a bit turned off by the "Colbert Report"esque red-white-and-blue motif, too, but that’s my own personal aversion… ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/92 "2008-06-13T18:37:34Z")
I must take a moment to ask you all to think of me this weekend, for I will be spending hours, and hours and HOURS, in a home where Fox is THE news show. The only news show, and it’s on 24/7. It’s all fox, all day, in this place. I’ll be spending some 19 hours there this weekend. And it’s a very loud television, too. Maybe if I stop by on Monday, you all could help me scrub off some of the stupid? Hmm? karol ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/93 "2008-06-13T18:41:10Z")
19 hours? We may have to just write you off. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/94 "2008-06-13T19:03:54Z")
[QUOTE=bodypoet] I must take a moment to ask you all to think of me this weekend, for I will be spending hours, and hours and HOURS, in a home where Fox is THE news show. The only news show, and it’s on 24/7. It’s all fox, all day, in this place. I’ll be spending some 19 hours there this weekend. And it’s a very loud television, too. Maybe if I stop by on Monday, you all could help me scrub off some of the stupid? Hmm? karol [/QUOTE] That’s how it is for me when I vist my inlaws, only it goes on for 2 or 3 days. My mother-in-law always has Fox on, 24/7. My father-in-law sits out in the garage, listening to right wing radio all day. After hearing a couple of hours Limbaugh and Medved, Fox seems like Air America. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/95 "2008-06-13T19:20:29Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] If you mean “nigger”, it’s hard to see Coulter crossing that line when she’s so good at using weasley code words. [/QUOTE] Obama the “Canadian”? ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/96 "2008-06-13T20:30:02Z")
[Sunrazor raises a tentative hand from deep in white-person land] Um, excuse me? We, um, well, we’re what I guess you could call, like, “totally clueless” about some things. The only black people we ever see are a few students at the local junior college, and, um, one of the things we’ve heard them say is “baby mama” and “baby daddy” in reference to the person who has given birth to or fathered one’s child. There never seemed to be any derogatory meaning in the terms. We had no idea until just this week that there was any denigration involved. We’ve used the terms among ourselves to refer to our spouses, completely unaware of its negative connotations. I know that I’ll now be expected to rescind my membership in the Barely Hip Old Farts Club and probably on the SDMB. Because other than being a bit put-off by the use of cultural slang in an otherwise formal news setting, I frankly wasn’t offended by the Fox News use of “baby mama.” Well, at least not any more than I’m otherwise always offended by Fox’s very existence. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/97 "2008-06-13T20:31:25Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] At best, it’s an uninformed attempt to be hip and I would have to wonder why a putative newscaster (or producer) would choose to go for a hip idiom in describing someone who is a potential First Lady of the United States. [/quote] I explained this earlier, but I wanted to revisit this issue a bit. > [@](#): > > At it’s very worst, the person knew what they were saying and, despite everyone having facts to the contrary, meant to imply that Michelle’s children had been borne of a casual liaison that brings up every “lack of family values” “slatternly, welfare-statist” and “look at why they’re still stuck in poverty needing affirmative action” meme regarding black people there is. I think it’s already clear that we can’t know what the exact intent was. > [@](#): > > It is also inflammatory, rabble-rousing and smacks of just plain smugness in knowing people are wiling to buy into any implication they can muster. The fact that they (Fox) don’t have the brain cells to think it through that deeply but nonetheless know the value of buzzwords doesn’t make it any the less deliberate and, therefore, malicious. I don’t really follow your reasoning here and I don’t think I want to waste this much time on Fox. The fact that I’m still thinking about this is a testament to the issue you’ve raised. I’ll finish by saying this much: they never would have used that term to describe a white woman and/or the wife of a black candidate. I think we can agree on that. E! would have, yes, but Fox News wouldn’t done it because it wouldn’t have made sense. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/98 "2008-06-13T21:04:14Z")
I was going to leave this alone too, especially at your last, reasoned response. I’d also like to add that, although you acknowledged a better word than “malicious” could have been used by you, I’d like to say I only reached for that word because it was already on the table. I also try but I can’t watch more than a few minutes of Fox without getting sick to my stomach. [QUOTE=Marley23] I think it’s already clear that we can’t know what the exact intent was. [/QUOTE] You’re right, we can’t know what the exact intent was but the use of of such a “down-market” phrase by a putative news organization (we know the merits of that one) does imply that they meant “something” and it definitely wasn’t anything good. I also agree with the post stating that raising the spectre of a country turned to AAVE post-Obama-election is not implausible either. I also failed to add in my original post that those memes were not the only ones that could be evoked by the use of such a phrase, nor would they necessarily all be raised in the minds of everyone, nor, if raised, be so clearly spelled out. I do think, however, that something racial, or at least cultural, was being proffered and the chum that buzz-phrase represented for the mind-sharks ready to receive it can’t have been positive. [QUOTE=Marley23] I don’t really follow your reasoning here and I don’t think I want to waste this much time on Fox. The fact that I’m still thinking about this is a testament to the issue you’ve raised. I’ll finish by saying this much: they never would have used that term to describe a white woman and/or the wife of a black candidate. I think we can agree on that. E! would have, yes, but Fox News wouldn’t done it because it wouldn’t have made sense. [/QUOTE] Yes, we definitely can agree on the statement you just made.\* As far as the last paragraph of my original post, I’m glad you’re thinking about it. I can own up to be just little bit hyperbolic but that’s owing to the fact that Fox is known to be less than a news station, more than a little partisan and I can’t believe they don’t often mean to arouse the base emotions of the plebian hordes at every turn they can. Please continue to think deeply in this way because, while taking the middle road can be good, sometimes a spade is really a spade. At least Fox might put it that way. - But they did use it to describe the wife of a black candidate. For all the scholarly and intellectual discussions here at the SDMB about what Obama represents racially, we know that history, many, if not most, Americans, and especially most Fox viewers only see him as black. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/99 "2008-06-13T22:22:53Z")
That was a misfired neuron at the end there. It should have been “they never would have used that term to describe a white woman and/or the wife of a white candidate.” ---
**Author:** ![ManiacMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@ManiacMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ManiacMan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698/100 "2008-06-13T22:38:52Z")
Much to do about nothing… :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-refers-to-michelle-obama-as-obamas-baby-mama/452698.md?page=6)