"Fried Fridays: FOX rocks!....uh...."

OK, OK, ya got me. Throwin' in a bit of sarcasm. Guilty as charged.

FOX as in the national FOX Network. Bill O'Reilly. Mike Huckabee. Glenn Beck. Greta Van Susteren. Sean Hannity. Big showbiz names, lots of coverage, and proof that so called 'popularity' does not a great person make. Unless, of course, FOX represents your 'truth' and your 'reality', then you've got yourself one helluva baseball card collection.

I bet you want to know how I really feel...

"Fox News Channel" is a bit of a misnomer, in that 'news' thoroughly tainted with a particular political ideology is not news in the slightest. "Opinionated Journalism", yes. Edward R. Murrow style of journalism in its truest sense: unequivocally NO.

But to each his or her own. Not my cup of tea; as I always say, you choose the trough and choose to drink however much of the water you want.

Gee willikers, I left off the newest and biggest name to come on board, and why they're getting this week's award: Sarah Palin.....

DATELINE: ANYWHERE, U.S.A. (pretty much)

Welcome, former governor of Alaska. Is moose jerky as good as they say it is?

But seriously folks, Mrs. Palin is the latest and rather 'largest' name to join the FOX line-up in "talk shows". I'll assume you already knew that. How and why she got there is not the purpose of this week's "Fried Fridays" award.

Nothing like a 'premiere', eh? She made her hosting debut just last night, though I didn't watch the program. "Real American Stories", it's called. American, yes. Stories, yes. Real, uh....not according to artists LL Cool J. Or Toby Keith, for that matter. Hold that thought.

FOX has been in hot water in older news stories, rightfully charged with misrepresenting the 'truth' in particular situations. One glaring misrepresentation arose when they reported on a Washington rally and used footage of demonstrators from a totally different gathering months prior, when crowds were apparently more impressive. FOX blamed it on poor editing by producers. Yeah, right. And that is but one fish in their odorous barrel. But let's get back to Palin...

New show. BIG host draw. Conservative drooling running rampant. "Real American Stories". I'm seeing a flag waving in the prairie breeze, hands across chests, pride coming out of every person's pores. I'll buy that. Baseball, apple pie and, uh...Toyota?

I wanted to plug in the 0:20 ad for the show, but, gee, the button wouldn't work to give me an embedded code. I'll post the page link HERE if you want to try and see it for yourself, assuming it's still available.

The crux of my post is with the LL Cool J segment. You see, LL Cool J was to be an integral part of these American stories. The show supposedly chronicles "those who have overcome adversity and more." Fair enough. LL Cool J has done just that.

So why the fuss from the J-Meister?

Hopefully you can see the trailed/ad for yourself. He's a big part, LL Cool J. As conservative blogger's have posted, it (basically) shows goodness toward race relations, something that has and continues to be an issue in the FOX ideological camp. But there is one itty bitty problem.

LL Cool J's interview had NOTHING to do with the Palin show. His interview was 're-purposed' from a 2008 interview with someone else. LL Cool J was quoted as saying:

"FOX lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else and are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palin's show. WOW."

Good for him. Not at all a new 'thing' for FOX to do. But they did it anyway. To give them fair ground, I print their quoted response to the above quote, per requests from other media outlets:

"Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith's interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career."

Oh, and Elaine Schock got quite a 'shock' when she was contacted this past Tuesday about Toby Keith's appearance on the same show. Because she's Keith's publicist, for cryin' out loud, you would think she would have been aware of (or at the very least notified about) his upcoming segment on the show...as the old saying goes, that's what you get for thinking. It wasn't until a journalist contacted her for her opinion was she aware of the FOX press release detailing Keith's appearance. Toby had no idea he was going to be on the show. Publicist Elaine knew nothing. Apparently HIS segment was also 're-purposed' from a totally unrelated interview in Las Vegas in 2009. It had zilch to do with Palin and the show.

WOW is right. And so are other words and phrases that I'll leave out.

Take a duck. Give it a mohawk. Paint it Coral and Turquoise. Add ostrich feathers. Give it feet extensions. Call it a QuiggleBonk.

Strip the crap away, and it's still a duck.

FOX management willfully chooses to live in a QuiggleBonk world. They must think they are the quintessential Spin Doctors for their agenda, which is anything but true 'news'. And there are millions of people willing to disregard 'news manipulation' because it fits their personal agenda.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I just want people to truly 'think' for themselves and simply be aware when truth is greatly manipulated. That's all. Then if someone still wants to hang a stuffed QuiggleBonk from their rearview mirror, more power to 'em.