Just Saying: The Great War, Radio Free O'Reilly and Murdochs' Housekeeping

JUST SAYING

BY RAUL HERNANDEZ

Notebookventura@gmail.com

PBS’s The Great War is a three-part series about World War I, and the documentary rivals Ken Burns Civil War in extraordinary storytelling.

I enjoyed watching The Great War, which first aired two weeks ago, this weekend.

It is rich with historical content and powerful images, using a beautiful tapestry of unpublished diaries, memoirs and letters that give voice to those who lived in a complex American epoch.

These were the nurses, journalists, aviators, families, politicians, soldiers, known as “doughboys,” along with black, Native American and Latino soldiers.

Some very interesting facts surfaced: Those who joined the military spoke 54 languages, not including English; there were more than 500,000 German who were required to register as illegal immigrants, and for the most part, all First Amendment rights were abolished and simply criticizing the United States’ war effort could land a person in jail or prison.

I was aware that Latinos, many Mexican-Americans,, and Puerto Ricans, joined the military or were drafted.

But I recently learned that the most decorated World War I veteran from Texas was from El Paso, Texas where I grew up. Marcelino Serna was a Mexican immigrant, according to Vinetage News.

If you love history, especially American history, this PBS documentary tells a magnificent story about how the U.S. got into the war, the oppressive crackdowns of civil liberties in America along with the heroism, sacrifice, and brutality of a war that claimed 15 million lives.

Radio Free O’Reilly

Radio Free O’Reilly with Bill O’Reilly broadcasting from inside a bunker will fill the airwaves on Monday with his “No Spin”

News,” telling his zombies how the Evil Empire brought him down through a left-wing conspiracy concocted by the media because he was bringing the truth to the “people” and light to a sinful and dark world.

Fox has already taken off O’Reilly’s name from “The Factor” — So far, two notable sexual predators have been given the boot at Fox, O’Reilly and its former CEO Roger Ailes.

But both got millions of dollars by Fox on their way out the door to soothe hurting feels and message fragile egos. O’Reilly got $25 million while Ailes was given $40 million.

O’Reilly and Ailes have been using Fox studios for years to feed their sexual perversions, bully others, and flaunt their arrogance.

O’Reilly probably believed he was invincible because his multi-million-moron army would dump Fox, and its ratings would take a dive.

He was wrong. Fox finally decided that O’Reilly’s liability outweighed his popularity after dozens of advertisers decided to pull the plug on the “O’Reilly Factor.” It wasn’t because Murdoch and his boys clung to any moral or ethical principles.

Still, the problems of sexism and racism haven’t gone away. New allegations are surfacing from more women against O’Reilly and Ailes. Also blacks in Fox’s accounting department are alleging that they were forced to arm wrestle each other for the amusement of white managers.

This is one example of this mean streak in the Fox network culture that promotes white superiority by denigrating, belittling and stereotyping minorities.

Murdoch and his boys, however, insist that they are trying to scrub the network’s disturbing culture, launching an internal investigation and learning from past transgressions.

It’s more like a rude awakening followed by a come-to-Jesus moment when dozens of advertisers with millions of dollars in ad money dumped O’Reilly. The advertiser exits sent a very strong but subtle message that if Fox continues to create an on-air, fact-free alternative reality where it’s open season on women and there are plenty of scapegoats more advertisers might bid Fox farewell and not return.

Once the smoke clears, however, I see Fox’s latest management largesse to clean up its act as a publicity stunt or more like hanging an air freshener inside a Kansas outhouse in the middle of summer to improve the quality of the air.

Wishful thinking at best.

But seriously, you don’t straighten the fence by whitewashing it.

(See Exhibit A Below)