ROX vs. FOX Continued
Posted by Matt Poundstone
A short side note in Jason’s last column urged people who might own Fox News hats to do like his father and take a marker to the FOX logo, turning the ‘F’ to an ‘R’ and spelling out ‘Rox News’ in support of our World Series-bound Rockies.
This suggestion is sound advice for free-media loving Americans and baseball fans alike. But it also begs the question: Who out there would actually wear a Fox News hat?
For inquiring minds that want to know, here’s what a quick Internet search revealed.
First of all, the phrase “Fox News hat” yields few instructive results on Google. The same thing goes for “sporting” and “wearing a/his/her Fox News hat.” It doesn’t help a Google search when the word ‘hat’ appears frequently in the blogosphere vernacular.
But overall, the web reveals some limited utility in wearing a Fox hat, ranging from the provocative to the absurd.
If, for example, you are trying to annoy Hollywood anti-war activists like Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, walk up to them with a microphone and a Fox News cap and ask whether they want America to succeed in Iraq. The hat turns out to be the cherry that gets extra press for a guerrilla interview.
If you’re an outspoken member of the alleged liberal media elite, the cap can also be hip and ironic. At the memorial for journalist Molly Ivins, a slide show featured a photo of her in a Fox News hat. The sight drew roaring laughter from the audience.
Finally, from the Random Celebrity Sighting files: a man in a Fox News hat appears at a paintball adventure with none other than William “James Tiberius Kirk” Shatner. The man in the photo is listed as Col. David Hunt, who is (you guessed it) a Fox News contributor.
So, if you’re in the mood to agitate the left or engage in simulated combat with a TV celeb, a Fox News cap might be for you.
For the rest of us, there will always be the ‘Rox News’ alternative—or the often wise example of Molly Ivins to treat the whole enterprise as a joke.