Janeane Garofalo speaks out about FOX NEWS

In the new issue of Numb Magazine, Janeane Garofalo speaks candidly about President Bush, Fox News and the voice of Hollywood.

(PRWEB) February 10, 2004 -- interview snippet //
Janeane Garofalo: Its not news, but unfortunately some people are under the impression it is, and then, some people know that it isnt, but it feeds their need, so they are quite willing to take homeland propaganda as news and then use it as fuel to feed their misperceptions and anger management problems. Its dangerous and destructive. Unexamined patriotism in the wrong hands is like a loaded gun. Its incredibly dangerous and a form of narcissism that gets people into trouble. Fox feeds narcissism in a strange way.

Jewel Blackfeather Welter: When Ive seen pieces those sources have done, Ive been really disgusted because they want to show whats ugly.

Janeane: I can attest that thats a fact. They do that, but they dont see that they embarrass themselves. They do it with zero self-awareness. What they do is reveal themselves as hacks.

Jewel: Because of what they choose to focus on.

Janeane: Right, but also that they even are wasting your time with it on an alleged news network.

Jewel: Alleged is a good word.

Janeane: It is an alleged news network. Its the official network of homeland security, and it is not news. It is a version of events that occur and then, its editorialized to the Right. So, its hard to write something funny about something that you think is degrading culture. The essays (in my book), there are things that are not funny. Yet, in this case, I want the book to be somewhat humorous because it can be more enjoyable to read about different cultures if youre laughing. At the same time, when you see something like Fox News that you feel is actually preventing us, as a culture, from moving forward, that's what feels so unjust.

It degrades culture because then, youll see a poll, Sixty percent of Americans think that George Bush is doing a great job." Why is that? Because theyre misinformed. Its not because hes doing a great job. Its because theyre getting spin. Most people dont know whats going on. They may think hes doing a good job, and what that means is A.) theyre not paying attention or B.) they only get their news from corporate establishment news sources, which means they have no idea.

Jewel: Their reactions are endemic of forced ignorance, where its like what I call the Ostrich Syndrome: they want to have their heads in the sand and think the Presidents a great guy because acknowledging hes not means a bleaker reality.

Janeane: Its a psychological need that leads to what youre talking about, willful ignorance, a placing of ones head in the sand because you cant emotionally handle the idea of being so poorly led as a country by a President (President Bush), who is clearly one of the worst presidents historically weve ever had. Theres nothing wrong in saying that. If you do your homework and educate yourself about American domestic and foreign policy through the years, youll see that President Bush is probably one of the worst in the last two hundred-some-odd years of this country. Other people know it, too. Thats why he has such a protective PR team that Karl Rove manages. If Bush was truly as popular and competent as people say, he wouldnt need all the money and PR, including whole networks and newspapers, owned by Rupert Murdock that pretend that hes a good guy. If he was a good guy . . .

copyright 2004 Numb Magazine
[interview snippet from the new issue of Numb Magazine]