Faux Noise - still jackasses of the highest degree

[Sionnach Glic]

Fox News show raises ire by mocking Canadian Forces
Last Updated: Monday, March 23, 2009 | 10:42 AM ET
CBC News

The intentionally inflammatory Fox News show Red Eye, with Greg Gutfield, has sparked outrage with a segment mocking the Canadian Forces within days of the latest Canadian deaths in Afghanistan.

The extreme late-night cultural commentary show - broadcast on Fox at 3 a.m. ET during the week - is hosted by Gutfield, a former Maxim and Stuff magazine editor, who moderates a round table of panelists who deliver off-the-cuff musings and crack jokes about a wide range of topics from the worlds of news, entertainment and sports. Commentators have included comedians, Fox News anchors, actors and Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis.

In a five-minute Red Eye segment broadcast last week, Gutfield mocked the Canadian Forces, noting Gen. Andrew Leslie's recent comment that the military may need a year to recover after Canada's mission in Afghanistan ends in 2011.

"Meaning, the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white Capri pants," Gutfield said.

"I didn't even know they were in the war," panellist and comedian Doug Benson added. "I thought that's where you go if you don't want to fight. Go chill in Canada."

The panellists continued by joking about invading Canada and poking fun at the RCMP.

On Friday, military officials announced that four more Canadian soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in two separate roadside bomb blasts outside Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan.

The Red Eye segment has sparked outrage from a range of Canadians, including thousands of comments on YouTube and Facebook.

"Our soldiers are dying for them and they have the audacity and the ignorance to say something like that, it is insulting. It's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard," Sam Warren told CBC after watching the segment.

The clip has also drawn criticism from Conservative author, columnist and commentator David Frum.

"The clip in question is a sequence of goofs about the feebleness, uselessness and absurdity of the Canadian armed forces. Why would I call that dumb? Here's why," Frum says on his New Majority.com blog before listing the Canadian soldiers, aid workers and a diplomat who have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

"Sorry I disrespected your show, Red Eye fans, but you disrespected the dead," Frum adds.
The Department of National Defence declined comment.

[Mark]

[Teaos]

Count down to Kendall rage...

[Schrodinger's Hat]

I've gotta say, I'm not as pissed off about this as I was at first. The more I think about it, the less this bugs me.

Gutfeld's a jackass, without a doubt, and the things he said about our soldiers were definitely offensive. At the same time, though, I've watched the YouTube clip of the segment and... well, he's not exactly Edward R. Murrow, is he? Show of hands, how many of us had heard of Greg Gutfeld or his show before this happened? There's a reason this guy's show once got poorer ratings than a re-run of Larry King Live. He's a hack. A smug, self-important hack who made some idiot comments about things he knows nothing about. I doubt he'd know a Canadian soldier if one walked up to him on the street and smacked him in the mouth... which, admittedly, is more of a possibility now than it was before.

Besides... the last time an American underestimated the Canadian fighting man, we lit the White House on fire.

[Lazar]

Besides... the last time an American underestimated the Canadian fighting man, we lit the White House on fire.

I think that was more Britain than Canada though.

[Monroe]

he Red Eye segment has sparked outrage from a range of Canadians, including thousands of comments on YouTube and Facebook.

Oh no not Youtube and Facebook! Its really gone off the deep end! That's some serious shit now.

"Our soldiers are dying for them and they have the audacity and the ignorance to say something like that, it is insulting. It's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard," Sam Warren told CBC after watching the segment.

I think Canadians were killed on 9-11 too. Those soldiers are dying for their citizens also.


Not to marginalize the sacrifice that Canadian troops are doing but a year to recover does seem a bit much.

[Mikey]

I don't think it's a bit much - a Canadian soldier's death in Afghanistan is as much a death as an American's. To say that they're dying "for us" is out-of-bounds, though.

Absolutely correct in decrying Gutfeld's comments as ignorance and jack-assery of the first degree.

[Aaron]

Not to marginalize the sacrifice that Canadian troops are doing but a year to recover does seem a bit much.

Well, how can I put this? The military (the Army really) has been run ragged from the operational tempo since 9/11. The Army has at most 20,000 personnel scattered in three combat brigades, cross off one of the three because 5 Brigade (the French one) has only deployed 2-3 times and you've got guys on their 5th-6th tour. Equipment is wearing out at a rapid pace and senior NCO's are leaving at a furious pace due to burn out. One cannot expect a military to sustain a pace such as this without a break, in fact I recall seeing an article suggesting that the US take a similar one after Iraq ends.

Count down to Kendall rage...

*shrug* It's Fox, I rank them just slightly above Al-Jezeera in validity.

[Mikey]

*shrug* It's Fox, I rank them just slightly above Al-Jezeera in validity.

Above? Really?

[Aaron]

Above? Really?

Only cause they don't advocate the destruction of the West by HE, just economics.

[Monroe]

Not to marginalize the sacrifice that Canadian troops are doing but a year to recover does seem a bit much.

Well, how can I put this? The military (the Army really) has been run ragged from the operational tempo since 9/11. The Army has at most 20,000 personnel scattered in three combat brigades, cross off one of the three because 5 Brigade (the French one) has only deployed 2-3 times and you've got guys on their 5th-6th tour. Equipment is wearing out at a rapid pace and senior NCO's are leaving at a furious pace due to burn out. One cannot expect a military to sustain a pace such as this without a break, in fact I recall seeing an article suggesting that the US take a similar one after Iraq ends.

Count down to Kendall rage...

*shrug* It's Fox, I rank them just slightly above Al-Jezeera in validity.

I stand corrected then. 20,000 troops isn't a lot to be performing that kind of duty.