Sarah Silverman: Fox Is a 24-Hour 'Racism Machine'

'It's all coded, all implied'

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 3, 2010 5:18 AM CDT

(Newser) – Racists in today's mainstream media don't go around praising the Klan, they appear on Fox News saying President Obama was born in Africa, according to Sarah Silverman. "The entire Fox News Channel is a 24-hour-a-day racism engine, but it’s all coded, all implied," she writes in her new book, Bedwetter. "Lou Dobbs used to scream on CNN about ‘immigration,’ not ‘filthy Mexicans.’”

Silverman slams the Tea Party movement and says the coded nature of racism in the right-wing media makes it harder to combat, Newsbusters reports. But Silverman's not the only one taking potshots, reports Mediaite. “Sarah’s anger is understandable having recently lost her television show," responded a Fox spokesman. "We sympathize with her need for attention considering her book is languishing near 300 on Amazon.com.”

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Sarah Silverman arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar party earlier this year. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)

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Not only are the progressive messages out there today more refined and sense-of-irony dependent, but racist messages are more oblique, too. - Sarah Silverman

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Sarah Silverman: Fox Is a 24-Hour 'Racism Machine'