Fox News hosts compete in nativist Olympics
SAN DIEGO -- Talk about a race to the bottom. There is a kind of xenophobia Olympics going on at Fox News.
Primetime hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham appear to be locked in a fierce competition over who can say the ugliest thing about immigrants. These two media figures -- who can seem like a cross between demagogues and circus clowns -- keep trying to outdo one another. Every slight is worse than the one before.
Carlson seemed like a shoo-in thanks to his condescending attacks on any immigrant foolish enough to go on his show. A favorite pinata is Cesar Vargas, a Mexican immigrant and lawyer, who tends to get under Carlson's skin.
Maybe it's because the young man is self-made. Unlike Carlson, he didn't grow up in La Jolla, California, with a father who was a well-known television executive and a stepmom who was the heiress to a frozen food fortune. Unlike Carlson, he didn't start off on third base by going to a fancy prep school in Rhode Island and an expensive private college.
During one segment, Carlson questioned Vargas' intelligence and credentials. He said this: "I know you say you're a lawyer. ... I don't want to check your bar license." And this: "I'm not allowing you to teach American history on my show because you'd fail the course." Finally, since Vargas aims to become a U.S. citizen -- an honor bestowed on Carlson at birth with no effort on his part -- the host capped it off with: "I'm an American and you're not" and "I don't think you should become a citizen."
Vargas was stunned. It's like I always say: Mexicans are too nice. I would have liked to see Carlson try that garbage on an Irish immigrant in Boston at the dawn of the 20th century. A brawl would have broken out.
More recently, Carlson erupted when arguing with Vargas over whether the undocumented should have the right to vote. Vargas thinks they should.
"As a nation, we have matured from only free, land-owner, white people [having the right to vote] -- to now women and African-Americans," Vargas said.
At that, the host shot back: "Don't hit me with the race crap. As a citizen of a country controlled by conquistadors, don't lecture me about this stuff." Then he told Vargas to be grateful that "we're not reporting you or having you, like, taken out by force."
Guess they don't teach manners -- or civics -- in prep school. Vargas has the right to stay in the United States because he has a green card.
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