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THE PLANK MAY 1, 2008

Fox History Channel

BY AUTHOR INFO NEEDED

 

Fox News did a joking mockup of what the Lincoln-Douglas debates might look like today that evidently was more of a joke than intended. Evidently the folks at Fox imagine that Lincoln's opponent in the 1858 race for U.S. Senate was not Stephen A. Douglas, but rather abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. As hilzoy at Obsidian Wings notes:

Legally, for a political party to run Frederick Douglass for federal
office would have been on a par, not with running a citizen of another
country, but with running a shovel or a cow: a piece of property whose
nature precluded its being a citizen, let alone a Senator. The most
Douglass might have aspired to, in 1858, was to be granted such rights
in something like the way Caligula made his horse a Consul. 

On the plus side, at least the folks at Fox realized that Lincoln wasn't running against Kirk Douglas. 

--Christopher Orr

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22 comments

... or a not so subtle hint/subliminal message that the White Republican should win over the African American candidate ...

But then, that would assume Fox News knows something about 1) history, and 2) subtlety.

OK - they're just ignorant.  Man ... too much.

- icarusr

May 1, 2008 at 3:00pm

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Obsidian Wings is (are?) wrong, I think -- free blacks were citizens before the Civil War, even if this wasn't always recognized or respected in practice. Surprisingly, though, if they met the property qualifications they could even vote in Tennessee and North Carolina (not to mention various northern states). As a freeman, Frederick Douglass I think would have been viewed as a citizen, though admittedly not a likely candidate for U.S. Senate in 1858.

That said, it's still a funny and telling mistake on the part of Fox.

- JSmith125

May 1, 2008 at 3:09pm

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I hope tomorrow they follow up with footage of the classic debate between beloved character actor George Kennedy and long-time Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon.

- adaglas

May 1, 2008 at 3:11pm

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An honest mistake. Like Stephen Colbert, the good people at Fox News just don't *see* race.

- WoodyBombay

May 1, 2008 at 3:13pm

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As with the White House emails issue, it raises the question: Sinister, or incompetent?

To which I reply, with some glee, "Both, of course." Sinister and incompetent are never mutually exclusive. In fact, carefully nurtured incompetence is often the highest form of sinister.

- rhubarbs

May 1, 2008 at 3:30pm

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with adaglas' post, we're off and running:

Donna Douglas (Elly May Clampett) vs. Abbey Lincoln (jazz singer)

Olympia Dukakis (actress) vs. Reggie Bush (Saints RB)

Shawn Corey Carter (i.e., Jay-Z) vs. John Henninger Reagan (postmaster general of the Confederate States of America)

Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author) vs. Blind Lemon Jefferson (Texas-born bluesman)

- williamyard

May 1, 2008 at 3:33pm

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"In fact, carefully nurtured incompetence is often the highest form of sinister."

I believe this is the motto of KAOS from Get Smart.

- adaglas

May 1, 2008 at 3:37pm

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Man, remember when George Clinton debated the rock band Bush?  That was heavy, dude.

- ratnerstar

May 1, 2008 at 3:46pm

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A post on wonkette says that the pictured individual is in fact Stephen Douglas.  FOX news graphic artists are just in the habit of darkening up the image of whoever debates the Republican.

- stgla

May 1, 2008 at 3:53pm

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Don't forget the contentious election of 1824, pitting future 1960s/70s icons Cassius Clay, Reggie Jackson, and Don Adams.

- adaglas

May 1, 2008 at 3:56pm

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Man, remember 1976?  Wonder Woman Lynda Carter vs. the automobile?  Man, everyone thought Ford screwed up on the Poles and Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, but wow a talking car!  Won my vote anyway.

- Crock1701

May 1, 2008 at 4:57pm

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Also, fun fact!  Olympia Dukakis is actually Mike Dukakis' cousin!

- Crock1701

May 1, 2008 at 4:59pm

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Crock,

Not only that, Mike is Olympia's cousin, too!  I thought that kind of stuff was illegal.

Typical Democrats. Sodomites, every one of 'em.

- williamyard

May 1, 2008 at 5:09pm

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1928 was contentious, as well, with Animal House's Hoover going up against Anna Nicole Smith.

- WoodyBombay

May 1, 2008 at 5:11pm

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Or in 1992, when Hillary Clinton was going up against George W. Bush?

Something seems less funny about that one.

- boneill

May 1, 2008 at 5:24pm

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Everyone remembers the famous headline when education pioneer John Dewey was reported to have beaten Truman Capote.

- adaglas

May 1, 2008 at 5:30pm

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I just realized I have shattered the all-time record for Most "Get Smart" references in a single Plank thread, at 2.

- adaglas

May 1, 2008 at 5:48pm

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Maybe this proves that Fox is a lot more "progressive" than TNR.

Or, more likely what it proves what has been pretty apparent over the past thirty years, is that the educational system in this country has declined markedly and truly sucks.  Particularly in the teaching of history.  Oh, and English.  Oh, and math.

This we can lay to the takeover of the system by Boomers who thought that such primitive notions as having to memorize historical dates was cruel and unusual punishment.

- ChanRobt

May 1, 2008 at 6:20pm

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And, for what it's worth, a black man or woman was valued more than a cow or a spade.  For apportionment purposes in the House, a non-free person was counted as 3/5th of a person.

- ChanRobt

May 1, 2008 at 6:25pm

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Chan, I don't disagree about the results of the educational system (though probably do about the reasons), but for that theory to explain this Fox mistake, everyone involved in vetting the on-air graphics would have to be a college intern. Don't you suppose they've got a producer or two who's over 25? Even the anchors involved in the segment -- the ones who failed to point out that we weren't actually looking at Stephen Douglas -- were 30-plus, I think.

- JSmith125

May 1, 2008 at 7:05pm

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WilliamYard: Olympia Dukakis is a man?  JEEZ.

Me, I prefer the LaToya Jackson, Bryan Adams run of '28.

- icarusr

May 1, 2008 at 7:33pm

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What are you talking about?  Hillary "George" Clinton lost the 1872 Presidential race to the father of our country, Isaiah Washington.

- stgla

May 1, 2008 at 8:13pm

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