Fox News Obituary Trashes Kurt Vonnegut
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- čas přidán 13. 04. 2007
- More Fox News Bias at: czcams.com/users/view_play_list...
The Fox News obituary of Kurt Vonnegut airing the day after his death seemed particularly harsh to me, but I may be especially sensitive because I'm a big Vonnegut fan. I've uploaded some clips from the Fox News obituary for you to see and decide for yourself.
FYI, I tracked down the origin of the ancient Greek admonition "Not to speak evil of the dead" to Diogenes Laertius quoting Chilon (pictured at the beginning of this video) quoting Aesop at: www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/d...
The photo of Chilon itself comes from Nicolas at www.greecetaxi.gr and can be found at www.greecetaxi.gr/Philosophers...
A longer version of the Fox News segment (without the introduction from Brut Hume) is currently available on CZcams at • Kurt Vonnegut made fun...
See also volokh.com/posts/1176675311.shtml
To receive a scathing obituary from Fox News is to have succeeded in living a good life.
Truly. To be so opposite of Fox News opinions in order for them to talk like that about you is something to be happier than sad about I believe.
Thatcher: What would you like to have been?
Kane: Everything you hate.
Fox is not news, it is a propaganda outlet
Yes, yes indeed.
Any news channel really
I remember this. Trashing Vonnegut was so low. I mean really, he's one of the greatest American writers. One of the best we've ever produced. Show some respect.
Fox News is a disgusting excuse for a news station. They just don't like him cause his writing is considered "counterculture" as he's known for his satire and dark humor. He was in reality a lovely and fascinating man. He was a brilliant writer and was a POW in WWII. He strapped it on for his country, how could anyone possibly be so ignorant and disrespecful? Absolutely despicable.
+Johnny Rambo
They never once mentioned his military service, fighting in the battle of the bulge or being a POW. Usually 'the troops' are sacred to Fox News' brand of jingoism, and military service is always mentioned in obituaries. Probably he'd be proud to be hated by these anti-human propagandists.
I thought the same thing, Jon Chin. His writings about the bombing of Dresden were devastatingly moving. I guess they don't like people to talk of the horror of wars, just the glory. Impossibly stupid disrespectful obit.
Johnny Rambo Fox News people prefer that their hero’s not be captured. Yeah despicable cretins.
🌸💜
It's pretty disrespectful, but I do think that 1969-Kurt received an email with a link to this Fox News obituary from his friends in Tralfamadore. He laughed so hard that the delayed effects led to his death in 2007, which led to the obituary, which led to the email from the Tralfamadorians, which led to his laughter.....
999TheJoseph HAAA LMFAO Slaughterhouse 5 reference
Outstanding
@@vincecallagher7636 Exactly.
it was certainly predestined.
Brilliant 😂
Wow, how incredibly mean spirited and biased an obituary. Funny, I've never considered Kurt Vonnegut a leftist and I've read most of his books, he always struck me as a modern Marc Twain satirizing the human condition and skewering sacred cows.
Science and logic are the enemies of the political right and fox news
Kurt definitely considered himself left leaning....
@@cjp1599 If anything Kurt was an old school liberal and detested authoritarianism of any kind, and was no fan of hypocrisy and hubris.
"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative" -- Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey"
Vonnegut was about thinking for yourself: it is natural that Fox News would have trouble with this concept.
Vonnegut was about the utter futility of life, how there's no objective basis for values or moral beliefs, but that you should love people anyway (just because).
@@attackfighter Existentialism meets spiritualism. Kafka meets Buddha.
Well, Vonnegut's works are as topical now (if not more so) as they were when written. He will be read and discussed for decades to come.
Who will be discussing Murdoch's, O'Reilley's, Coulter's, and Hannity's contributions to society 50 years from now?
Nobody.
You don't think "author" Bill O'Lielly will be remembered for his ghost written books?
For a man whose words brought tears to my face for the first time in many years, this was disgraceful. His death was less of a heartache to me than one of his works, that being said I was very upset when he passed.
Hell, I was even upset that Jon Stewart wasn't more respectful when interviewing him. (The weren't lingered over or used as jumping off points, in case by small chance you're wondering what I'm being pissy about.)
It's been said that you can take the measure of a man by who his enemies are. In that sense I would take it as quite a compliment to have the semi rabid flag wavers of Fox news give me such a send-off.
Do not go quietly into this good night.
Do not go quietly into that good night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas.
"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."
Young people read Kurt Vonnegut.
Etc.
So it goes.
"So I'll say it for them"
this blew my mind. How awful.
Vonnegut was a great great man, may he rest in peace.
Slaughterhouse Five was an amazing novel.
I would consider it an honour to be trashed by Fix News. And I bet Mr Vonnegut would have approved.
Obviously a very biased take on Vonnegut. Very ignorant and unprofessional of them. Vonnegut is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. If anyone has even seen an interview with him they would know that he was actually a very pleasant guy and quite interesting. RIP.
The fact that Fox felt the need to trash him shows how afraid they are of his views even after his death. That, my friends, is a tribute.
My senior year of school was when I learned how to analysis literature. Never has a class changed me. We had to read a Vonnegut piece whose name I can't recall but it was about a set of parents watching their kid get killed on TV and then forget about it seconds later when the father received electric shocks from a collar of some sort. My teacher told me that based on my taste that I might like Vonnegut. I went to my library and rented the only Vonnegut they had, Breakfast of Champions, and I feel in love with Kurt's writing. That book led me to read Slaughterhouse, Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle and many others. No writer has blew my mind like Vonnegut with maybe the exception of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Such crappy report from Fox. Vonnegut will be remembered forever, unlike Fox.
Do you find it coincidence that JFW did commit suicide but noone talked trash on his fulfilling attempt, yet they portrayed Kurts failed attempt as a flaunt in his post death face?
The name of the story you read about the parents having to watch their kids get killed on tv is “Harrison Bergeron”
You were reading the short story, "Harrison Bergeron."
On a more vindicating note, James Rosen , the "reporter" behind this obituary got fired in 2017 for sexual harassment. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
"Failed at suicide" is such a disgusting line, I can't believe they saw no problems with keeping it in the broadcast
I never knew about that and it's really upsetting. I don't care who it is, but you should be respectful of them after they've passed away. Vonnegut was an amazing writer. Breakfast of Champions was one of the first books that I ever truly enjoyed to read.
That was some serious arrogance. I love how right wing publications are so compassionate and forgiving
*sarcasm*.
Fox News viewers never even touched a Vonnegut novel, they’d rather misinterpret 1984
If Fox trashed so hard, his books are a MUST
Sadly, Fox news will have the greater impact.
He was a truly gifted writer, whose work always felt more like a conversation with a wise man then then the bargain bin sci-fi they try to make him out as
The man had great humor, knew when and how to use it, truly rare human.
I just read his book "A Man Without a Country" yesterday. It's a very enjoyable and very human work, just a lovely book. How anybody cannot admire this man, be they left or right, is beyond me.
vonnegut is and will be remembered throughout history. who'll remember any fox news 'reporter' in 20 years time??
I really enjoyed listening to Vonegut and Heller together talking about their experiences. I am a Conservative . I like Fox News . I may not have approved of every spin Vonnegut put on things buy I enjoyed the Humor even if it may have touched on being at My expense. I liked Slaughterhouse Five. And always wondered about how factual it was relating to his own real life family. At the time ( back in the 1970’s ) I knew the War experiences were true and just figured He was exaggerating or using artistic License regarding any indiscretion’s against family member’s privacy.
"And, so it goes."
"At the end of 2017, Rosen left Fox News after multiple accusations of sexual harassment from coworkers. He worked at Sinclair Broadcast Group through December 31, 2021 and then joined Newsmax as its chief White House correspondent." - Wikipedia
This is truly horrific
One of the great American writers of the 20th century
Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers of all. And I'm not even American, but a Russian. He possessed and unmatched gift of humorous observation and of describing doomsday scenarios in a way that made one laugh. His writings remind me of ironic Jewish humor of Babel, Singer, Malamud, and Jackie Mason. At the same time, even his funniest writings contained an enormous amount of philosophical insight which, apparently, was simply too delicate for Fox News to grasp. Screw FOX. RIP Kurt.
God, that was obscene. Vonnegut was, as you said, a literary giant. His works are powerful and influential; I've never forgotten the birds chirping away after a battle in Slaughterhouse Five. Nothing to say about war but "poo-tee-weet." A simple phrase that highlights the amazing wastefulness and incomprehensible events inherent in war, and said with such simplicity and power. Attacking a corpse is not news; attacking the corpse of a great writer to fulfill a political agenda is sick.
This made me really sad. I love his books. He has always been a favorite of mine. I do feel the commentary is insensitive and disrespectful, especially so close to Kurt Vonnegut's passing. I'll always treasure Kurt's Vonnegut's legacy. His ironic sense of humor, his compassion, and yes, his "quirkiness" make him an enduring hero to me, and surely to his family and friends. He remains alive in the hearts of all who cherish him; he inspires through his creative expression of humanity.
Somebody's mother once said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Said mother also might have added, "If you are a news corporation and simply must saying something lest you be left out of the 24-hour loop, then do a quick blurb on the deceased listing their accomplishments and death and leave it at that. Do not, however, backhandedly drag a guy through the mud just 'cause you don't like his books. Pretend, for that minute, you're better than that."
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference."
Ah, Fox News is on. Click.
"people who insult those most recently deceased, especially those who have marked society in good tone, have no honor in their heart" - I forget who said that
Just this Monday at my grandaughters high school graduation the class Validictodianquoted and spoke about KV, he,s impacted this century too! As far as the statement regarding novelists creating new works after 50, most of his work in the last 20 years has been Non-Fiction, I loved "Man Without a Country" His comments about "War for OIl' are most appropriate.
There is no great "conservative" art or literature. The truest art form of comedy which requires cutting to the bone of truth is impossible for conservative ideology. Rock throwing is not as funny as surgical precision. A feather in Vonnegut's cap to have Fox's weak effort. One only has to see their hagiography of Roger Ailes. Zero mention of the sex scandal ousted him.
Our modern day Mark Twain, witty, serious, and germane even now. You can't touch him. For the literati, for the 'common man', and of course, way above the fecal matter of Fox and their dumbed down friends. I loved this guys books, his toughness, and he actually fought in WW2 unlike virtually everyone at Fox, and of the course the president who had a heel spur and thought American soldiers were 'suckers'... Kurt Vonnegut was no sucker; and boy could he write. 'So it goes..."
I've loved of Kurt Vonnegut ever since my dad introduced me to him, he was a great author with brilliantly humour.
Vonnegut's writing had loads and loads of point and points to make.
The most basic one in Slaughterhouse 5 was, that the overlooked horrors can be greater than the publicized ones... somewhat like comparing driving fatalities in the US (overlooked) to the fatalities of Sept. 11 2001 (very not overlooked.)
Also, his daring to assert that the schoolgirls who were boiled to death in the water tower during the firebombing, were not guilty of being on a culpable political side, was very significant.
They should have been more honest and just said: "We here at Fox News have always hated Kurt Vonnegut. We're glad he's gone and hope everyone forgets about him." Troglodytes.
My apologies: calling FN troglodytes is an insult to troglodytes.
Just his drawing of an asshole in "Champions" opened my mind to soaring literary possibilities. He helped me realize reading and writing did not mean just textbooks.
That final note left me speechless. I wouldn't have thought even FOX would go so far as to so gleefully attempt to discredit him in relation to his children! It really grinds my gears that the reporter felt he had the right to speak for them.
@zennreikispa Do you mean The Daily Show with Jon Stewart?
@benyakrick
That was one of the things that never ceased to amaze me about Cat's Cradle. You spend the entire book knowing exactly what will happen. You're confident about the end of the world, it is imminent, and yet, not only do you still feel surprised about it, you realize how content you are with the end of the world, as though the story shouldn't have gone any other way. His work isn't depressing. I always finished a Steinbeck feeling miserable, but finish a Vonnegut with a wry smile.
"Vonnegut said, 'I hope they don't say this about me...' so we'll say that about him. In an obituary.
As a great admirer of Kurt Vonnegut from Scotland I was entertaining this piece of tripe as a kind of ironic homage up until that disgusting 'failed at suicide' line. Absolutely despicable behaviour.
IF Vonnegut were around, he would not have cared what Fox News said about him, and he most certainly wouldn't have aspired to have his life's work earn him the label of "Great American writer" from a television source like Fox News. In fact, Vonnegut would probably laugh at the fact that someone somewhere is offended on his behalf.
How is it that I had missed Fox's dismissive obituary?
Oh, that's right- I avoid Fox News.
@Hank3four General Mattis: “I have earned my spurs on the battlefield. Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor. ... The only person in the military Mr. Trump does not feel is overrated, that’s Colonel Sanders."
Wow Fox News, I didn't think you could do it but you set a new low for yourself. Congrats.
Blaming Faux News for disrespect, bad taste, and bad journalism is like blaming a garbage can for stinking.
Im addicted to these videos
in the mid 60's i was just a confussed american kid, delivering the daily bulliton (sp) at an army base in wurztburg, west germany. i didn't get paid 'money" for the delivery..i got what all kids wanted, free movies for life. i had a card that let me see any movie anytime as many times as i wanted, but after the first minute of slaughter house , my life has never been the same. i stopped caring only about myself
Here we are 11 years later and Fox is being boycott by its own demographic and I just read Bluebeard for the first time last year and it was one of the best works of fiction I've ever read sooooo to answer your question: Fox will be forgotten long before Kurt.
Well I didn't start reading Vonnegut until the 21st century. I quickly became a huge fan and started buying his novels and short story collections. Being a bit of a bookworm, I'm sometimes asked for book recommendations; my first recommendation is always Vonnegut. I fully intend on turning my Vonnegut collection over to my children some day; so in my sheltered Ohio existence, Kurt Vonnegut has had an exponentially larger influence in this still young century than Fox News.
Such self-righteous indignation from a group of people who openly opined that perhaps Dick Cheney should either be denied a heart transplant or perhaps die during the operation.
Pot, meet kettle.
@TerryWilsonCom As an Australian, I am sorry for being from the country that raised this man.
I wonder why, of all things, Fox News forgot that Vonnegut was a decorated military veteran who was a POW in WWII. I mean, don't they love our soldiers?????
This is the Mark Twain of our generation. Time will bear this out.
Fox had video of Anna Nicole Smith wearing clown make-up and proposed that the context of it was that she was insane and on drugs and not that she was simply having fun with her children, they aired this with their bent perspective on it the day after she died.
@itachiitachi1946 You haven't heard the term Ancient Egypt before? We use it a lot. You tend to only hear the term used about country who do have actual ancient histories.
It's no surprise. Fox's great hero Diaper Don said this of Senator John McCain: “He’s not a war hero,” said Trump. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
i can only imagine the enhusiastic obituary they are planing for noam chomsky.
kurt vonnegut was a great man.
his death saddened many people
but he left such a legacy behind him , no one can take that away
Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries following a fall at his home and died in Manhattan on April 11, 2007. Fox News trashed him the next day.
So it goes.
"So I'll say it for them" is what VONNEGUT said in his speech. Fox was QUOTING him.
@Squid Face,
No, the words "So, I'll say it for them" came from James Rosen when he said: "Vonnegut, who failed at suicide twenty-three years ago, said thirty-four years ago that he hoped his children wouldn’t say of him, 'He made wonderful jokes, but he was such an unhappy man.' So I’ll say it for them." Also, James Rosen was not referring to a Vonnegut "speech" but to a Vonnegut interview in Playboy in 1973. Here is the full quote from that interview:
“I know this much: After I’m gone, I don’t want my children to have to say about me what I have to say about my father: ‘He made wonderful jokes, but he was such an unhappy man.’” See bit.ly/2LReBuD
I hope that helps clear up your misunderstanding and
thanks for commenting :-)
I couldn't agree with you more. Kurt Vonnegut is an understated absolute cultural icon for America, or at least from my point of view he is. I'm Irish and unfortunately in Ireland (actually........not just Ireland) people perceive America and its citizens in the light that FOX news casts. I don't and it's thanks to the likes of Vonnegut for setting me straight.
i'm convinced that not one major news network is capable of reporting true journalism to the public without inserting their own opinions.
it doesn't matter if someone agrees or disagrees with someone, they should stick to facts instead of trying to make names for themselves.
*High five*
*Brofist*
*Brohoof*
Please, take your pick.
@jennyohno79 The point I was making is that if somebody decides to call someone else illiterate, they'd better make sure their chickens are in order. It SEEMS like a simple concept.
He said not as bias. That doesn't mean no bias at all. So sit down and enjoy the show.
That's it. I'm starting a MoveOn petition to demand that Fox News should pull a "Larry Summers" and withdraw from show biz owing to acrimonious liberal opposition, and I might as well add the Tea Party Caucus for good measure.
R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut
@TheEnviousdominous: Evidence or just blind assertion?
It is a shame that both sides attack eachother mercilessly. Focusing on what makes eachother different, cognitively speaking, from another, rather than realizing what they leave behind.
A Greek Proverb Says:
"A Nation grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in."
hve you ever been there ??
Kurt was an original thinker and humorist, a national treasure. He was also an American soldier who put his life on the line for the U.S. (as opposed to Fox News commentators who take the path of Nazi propagandist Goebbels and avoid military service).
After the Iraq war began in 2003, Kurt spoke at the U. of Ohio (Columbus). He said, "The difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was democratically-elected." (ref. to 2000 election fraud).
There's no substitute for honesty. RIP Kurt.
@Kirkzzy What raised this man wasn't your country, it was Mammon. No need to apologize.
Let's see some of those reporters deal with what Kurt Vonnegut had to deal with in his life, and then look at his ideas again. Honestly,these closed-minded fools at Fox News should have no business being the public face of a political party if this is how they act towards people they dislike.
On Kurt Vonnegut last appearance on the John Daily Show, John asked Kurt, what should we do and he replied something of the sort " behave by the words of Jesus". (paraphrased) . I will always remember Kurt's suggestion.
Vonnegut has been my therapist for some time now.
How does something like that happen? Can someone explain to me (I'm in the UK) how come people still watch channels/programmes like that?
@darrensilverman73 Would you mind posting a citation for that? I haven't heard anything about polls regarding specific voting groups and "less-read" qualifications, and this sounds like an interesting, though legally and socially questionable premise. Although literacy rates for registered voters seems like a more plausible study, it would not carry the same weight in an argument. Please reply when you get the chance, I am interested in taking a look at these studies.
GREAT JOB - GREAT WORK ON NOT JUST REPORTING AND UPLOADING BUT EDITING ETC. THANKS FOR THE WORK. I'll spread this wherever I go online which covers many many places so to speak. IRC,tumblr,twiitter,my bloggin', ..... Thanks, man.
the machines did everything so expertly they were finally given the job of finding out what the highest purpose of the creatures could be. The machines reported...that the creatures couldn’t really be said to have any purpose at all. The creatures thereupon began slaying each other, because they hated purposeless things above all else...
Your last question was really too easy. The masses do not read anymore. If you took a poll the vast majority of people would not know who Kurt Vonnegut was. Maybe 1% have read a Vonnegut book cover to cover. So, the TV news station will have have more impact going forward. I just watched the documentary on Vonnegut’s life by Robert Weide. It is excellent. In theatres Nov of 2021.
we’re still reading vonnegut...2018 still relevant!
OMG. WTH was that? Who wrote that copy?
Look up the Eulogy Song by the chaser's war on everything, it caused massive controversy in Australia for pointing out the flaws of Princess Dianna, Steve Irwin and many iconic Australians on the basis that they were disrespecting people who couldn't defend themselves.
Maybe not speaking evil of the dead makes sense when loved ones are still in mourning, but to speak of or about someone after their death differently than you would have when they were alive is equally if not more offensive in my eyes, dying does not make you a better or worse person, nor should it sanctify what you do when you're alive.
I don't like Fox news by any stretch, but I can't really see any fault on the basis you're going after them if they had such a ridiculously slanted view on this writer beforehand. Still, WTF Fox news... y u so cray-cray
Sadly - extremely - more sheeple in the U.S. watch and / or listen to faux news than read these days. Which kind of sums up what's wrong with this country. Kurt Vonnegut is one of, if not, my favorite writer. Slaughterhouse Five being my favorite book. Appalling would be a gross understatement to describe faux's 'coverage' of Kurt's passing. "So It Goes"
Who ever wrote that hateful piece is just evil hearted. Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most thought provoking writers of our times. To trash a man by picking all the tragic moments of his life like that is a sick use of journalism. They spoke of him like they would about Saddam Hussien or someone hated.
The most cowardly thing to do in all of the universe is to shit-muth someone after his death. Dusgusting. When he's no longer around to defend himself. Don't believe a word of it. I don't even like it when people bad-mouth people who they don't know, and never met, like celebrities.
I'm currently reading Cat's Cradle right now, and I must say, it is very well written. I am just disgusted at how aggressively Fox News is bashing him in this obituary.
I remember that. They totally trashed him for a couple of days and said nothing intelligent or insightful about his writing, which should have been the focus. Very mean-spirited.
To the question posed at the end of the video - Kurt Vonnegut. Still.
"Only the weak are cruel." ... Erich Fromm
You know, I never think that Fox News can piss me off more than they do on any given day. But this video takes the cake. Kurt Vonnegut irrelevant? No one within the Fox organization seems to have ever read any of his books, probably because they considered him an elitist leftist author. Slaughterhouse Five was published in 1969, so how they can say he was irrelevant by the 70s is ridiculous. That remark about his failed suicide attempt was repugnant, and Fox owes an apology to his children.
*Enters faux news bias playlist*
*Playlist contains 192 videos*
Me: Hah! Can't say I'm suprised!