A SYTYCB entry: Yet Another Thing Fox News Did Badly

A SYTYCB entry.

Up front: I know I shouldn’t have been watching Fox News.

But for whatever reason, “Good Day, New York” came on when I turned on the television the other morning and as I went through my daily routine, I didn’t bother to change it.

But what started as just a couple of glances at the screen turned into full attention as I watched something happen which I feel shouldn’t have, and which got no attention but which I feel should have. And this something was that GDNY Anchorman Dave Price told the new female anchorwoman* that she is “on the verge of crazy.” The context was basically none. He had taken a couple of digs at her leading up to this, and she had valiantly kept smiling and laughing at herself and refused to acknowledge these aggressive advances. Then he told her she was “on the verge of crazy,” point blank. The comment was so inappropriate and unprompted that the weather guy, Mike Woods, actually addressed the issue by asking Price what his fellow anchor had done to him to deserve such a comment. The issue was brushed over and the weather was reported, only to have the issue returned to by Price later on when the anchors brought on their special guests (two female Judo Olympics medalists – Fox’s attempt at appearing female friendly?) and Price instructed the anchorwoman to give them “crazy eyes,” because he’s sure she’s good at doing that (this is what he literally said).

Though by no means exlusively, we females know how “crazy” works. It is a policing mechanism, intended to keep us in line by illegitimating our point of view should we step out. If someone is called “crazy,” everyone doubts them. And for someone who wants to cast doubt over another person  – because, perhaps, she is not paying enough attention to that someone or saying something to embarrass that someone in some way  – “crazy” works. We see it all the time in social situations, and yes, it is often (as in this case) blatantly sexist, biased, and untrue.

And while it is never OK to call someone else “crazy” (because it invalidates them and also because “crazy” isn’t really a term we should be throwing around in the first place), it’s super-not OK to call a fellow news anchor “crazy” on live TV. First off, it is unprofessional, in general. You can get in trouble for calling someone names in the officeplace. But also this is the news, for crying out loud. Not the most extremely serious part of the news, for sure, but still it’s not like Fox has room to be casting even more doubt on itself as a source in any way.

The fact that this showed up literally nowhere – it wasn’t like the Gretchen Carlson or the Rosanna Scotto incidents, to name a couple, which were all up on the web within a day of their respective occurrences – is mildly disappointing at best. We (presumably and hopefully) don’t like Fox News, but we’ve gotta stick up for women when we see them being mistreated. And, importantly, we’ve gotta know how to recognize what mistreatment is. Dave Price calling his co-anchor “crazy”? For the record: Mistreatment. Let’s call it like it is now and hope that Fox News – and we in our everyday lives – don’t deem ignorance like that acceptable in the future.

*WHAT is her name and why is it nowhere online?? It’s seriously nowhere…

Watch (s0me of it) here.