The Angriest News Team on Television
Don Broderick, an angry white male who works for Fox News, drove into a Central Park bicyclist with "psychotic intent" last week and dragged him four blocks. What is it with Fox News's angry white (plus Geraldo) guys?
Broderick is just a lowly news writer at the news network, but his dangerous alleged antics last week hardly constitute the first time that a Fox Newser has exhibited difficulty keeping the lid of civility on his barely restrained rage. From Shepard Smith's eerily similar tale of ramming a pedestrian with his car to Bill O'Reilly's legendary outbursts to Geraldo Rivera's pugilistic streak, a common thread runs through the network's mostly white staff. Maybe it's due to the stress of working for Roger Ailes, a maniacal militarist who demands total loyalty and perfection. Maybe it's because Fox News' aggrieved, rage-fomenting editorial stance attracts aggrieved, rage-filled people. Maybe it's because Ailes likes to hire entitled jackasses who think its OK to run people over when they are inconvenienced. Whatever it is, bitter and barely hinged people who really liked Michael Douglas' performance in Falling Down are overrepresented at Fox News. Here are some of them.
Bill O'Reilly
What can you say? There's the mic-cutting, there's the time he fucked it and did it live, there's the time he called us "despicable, slimy, and scummy," there was the time he threatened to hit Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and break their fingers off, and—jesus, just watch this.
Glenn Beck
He's angry, and sad, and laughing all at the same time. Which is clinical. Doesn't he remind you of Susan Powter?
Brian Wilson
In 2005, when he was the network's congressional correspondent, the "bizarrely angry" questions Wilson was barking out during a Howard Dean photo op caused the Washington Post's Mark Leibovich to wonder if Wilson—whom he didn't recognize—was a GOP staffer. When Leibovich asked Wilson who he was, the Fox Newser shouted back: "Who the fuck are you?" Then he stalked down a Senate hallway shouting obscenities.
Shepard Smith
Recently, Shep has been the sole voice of reason on Fox. But back in 2000, while covering the Florida recount battle, Smith rammed his car into a fellow reporter who was attempting to reserve a parking spot for her colleague. He "shouted some profanities at her and basically just struck her, striking her at the knees, which threw her up on the car," a Tallahassee cop told the St. Petersburg Times. He was charged with aggravated battery with a motor vehicle; the charges were later dropped.
Geraldo Rivera
He's not white, but he's still angry! He's said he would spit on Michelle Malkin if he saw her, and challenged Ketih Olbermann to a fight, calling him a "pussy" and threatening to "make a pizza out of him" (pizza?).
Russell Rhodes
The morning anchor for Tampa Bay's Fox affiliate doesn't technically work for Fox News, but he does work for Roger Ailes, who runs Fox's stations. So we consider it relevant to the matter at hand that in January, Rhodes was pulled over in a parking garage for driving recklessly. When he got out of the car, his pants were undone, and he tried to run away from the cop three times and refused to hand over the keys, forcing the officer to "take him to the ground." He was arrested for DUI and resisting arrest.
Aaron Bruns
Trafficking in the depraved sexual abuse of children is angry, right? Aaron Bruns, a Fox News producer who was "embedded" with the Hillary Clinton campaign last year, was arrested in February on charges of possession of child pornography. Just about 10 years after he was arrested in Michigan for distributing child pornography.