Fox Derangement Syndrome

It appears that the hatred of all things Fox extends beyond just demeaning and dismissing their cable news channel.

This weekend the Fox NFL show broadcast live from Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan and at least one writer over at the dead tree news managed to find fault with it.

What is very apparent is the writer never walked in the boots in a military member. He never stayed up all night watching a Super Bowl in some foreign land, decked out in 40 pounds of grunt junk with weapons at the ready, prepared to respond to any threat. He never spent more then an overnight away from America or his mom, looking for anything to remind him of home.

This show by the Fox NFL crew was important because it brought home to them. Howie, Jimmie, Terry and the rest of the crew didn't just fly in and do a show and leave. They spent the entire week there visiting the service members and giving them a memory they will keep the rest of their life. They created a connection back to the "real" world.

The writer even tried his hand at being a joke writer for the late great Bob Hope, and I can now tell why he got a day job at the New York Times.

He tried to belittle the show but in doing so he exhibits his ignorance of what a role sports plays in a male dominated and geographically diverse crowd like we have in the military. Whether it is baseball, football, or NASCAR, sports allow a way for the kid from Arizona to harass the street smart guy from New York, it gives the country boy from Wisconsin something to hold his head high for when his beloved Packers win. They allow to a service member to root for the home team, even when they suck. Ask me, I had to suffer through all the failed Atlanta sports teams of the 80's and 90's.

All I can surmise is that the writer was so afflicted with Fox Derangement Syndrome that he just can see nothing they do as good and wishes to promote his own self importance by belittling others. Well, he failed at this too. Either that or he has a real loathing of football, maybe going back to a time in his childhood when he didn't make the team or the quarterback stole his girlfriend.

H/T to Blackfive for the story.