I was watching Jon Stewart’s takedown of the Fox News coverage of the Ferguson, Missouri outrage. As is usually the case it was brilliantly done. My favorite part was Fox News’ Sean Hannity explaining how he would act if stopped by a policeman and implicitly saying that black men should do likewise.  He said that he would put his empty hands out the window, then get out of the car, pull up his shirt to show that he had a handgun in his waistband and explain that he had a permit to carry that weapon. The look of incredulity on Stewart’s face and his first comment “you really have no f*cking idea do you?” mirrored my sentiments exactly. I suspected but did not have the proof that they were so far gone.  They live in a world not just of fiction, but of science fiction where there is an alternate reality working.

After I had finished marveling at the depths of Hannity’s delusion I began to wonder how he might go about confirming that he was right.  He could ask inner city black males how they think they would be treated if they behaved as he suggested.  Oh that’s right Mr. Hannity probably doesn’t know any inner city black males from personal experience.  Hmm, how about asking some of the police who work the inner city beat how they would respond to a black man or a white man for that matter who behaved as Mr. Hannity suggests. Or better yet why doesn’t Fox News try a little experiment and have actors act out Mr. Hannity’s little scenario in an inner city setting for real cops and see what happens. What, no volunteers.  Well maybe then we could just hire actors to like ABC does with its “What Would You Do” series.  The form releasing Fox News from any damages that may result, might be a tough sell to any actors but some may be hard up enough to take the job.

It occurs to me however that Fox News commentators may be so comfortable living in their delusions (think back to election night last year and Karl Rove refusing to believe Mitt Romney had lost) that the last thing they want is to test them out in the real world. Perhaps some secretly know they are delusions and suspect how such tests might work out. I think that this is what (among a list of things) I hate most about them.  I hate their arrogance that presumes their self righteousness without any evidence beyond their own belief systems or their hypocrisy in knowing what they spout could not stand up to real world testing. At that they are no different from bloggers like me sometimes are.  They however  presume to be journalists, have an audience of millions and a responsibility as journalists to check their facts in order not to mislead that audience. Their failure to do so is leading many people to a view of the world that is so unrealistic as to promise a car wreck further down the road.