Inconsistent taboos on Fox News

[Jonathan Lighter]

A few weeks ago, Fox ran a story about an irate gas-station owner in Texas who believes that Citgo profits Hugo Chavez more than any other brand. (My understanding is that gasoline is so thoroughly sloshed around by the time it gets to the pump that one can't discriminate.)

  He paid for a billboard with a picture of Chavez with a Citgo logo and the words "Don't Buy Gas From This Ass!"  In covering this event at various points in the news day, Fox waffled about the word "ass."  On one show they both refused to utter it and scumbled the word on  the board.  At another time they showed the word on the board but wouldn't say it. A third time, they did say the word, though in a humorous, apologetic way.

  During the breakfast hour this a.m., however, a Fox entertainment correspondent said right out, "You know the old expression, 'You can't polish a turd'? Well, that certainly applies here."

  No bleep, no comment, nothing.

  JL

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