Chris Rock called out institutional racism. Leonardo DiCaprio called on Americans to lead the way on climate change. And Joe Biden simply showed up. This year’s Academy Awards had plenty for conservatives at Fox News to hate. And the hosts of Fox & Friends did not disappoint.
The outrage began early when host Steve Doocy introduced a clip from DiCaprio’s acceptance speech, describing the actor as “an environmentalist who has taken jets all over the place, oddly.” The hosts proceeded to condemn DiCaprio for flying back and forth from New York to Los Angeles and spending time on “super yachts.”
“What’s your green footprint on something like that?” Doocy, a well-documented climate change denier, asked, echoing the criticism that has been hurled at former Vice President Al Gore.
Later in the show, the hosts welcomed Deadline.com’s Dominic Patten to give his take on the big moments of Oscar night. Not only did he say DiCaprio “contributed to climate change with that hot air speech of his about the environment” but he also found a way to make fun of Vice President Biden, who introduced Lady Gaga’s powerful song about campus rape.
When the theater full of stars gave Biden a standing ovation, the vice president joked, “I’m the least qualified man here, tonight.” Fox opted to play that clip in isolation without including the remarks he made about the sexual assault epidemic on college campuses. “Why was he even there?” Brian Kilmeade wanted to know.
Fox & Friends decided to outsource its outrage over Chris Rock’s opening monologue to frequent guest Kevin Jackson, of The Black Sphere, who called the comedian’s jokes “tragic.”
“It was fun, though, watching a group of white racist liberals get put back on them the things that conservatives face every single day,” Jackson told Kilmeade. “At the end of the day, you can’t say that Hollywood is racist. Blacks have been getting awards in proportionate numbers for the last couple of decades as the actual stats show. So at the same time I’m watching these very sanctimonious liberals suffer, I also know that it’s not good for the country that we go through this.”
Despite the fact that Jackson admitted he hasn’t watched the Oscars in years, he said Rock delivered one of the “worst performances” he’s ever seen from the awards show.
Kilmeade mostly agreed with Jackson and seemed to enjoy watching Hollywood liberals get put in their place by Rock. “They are the ones that are always condescending and condemning of the rest of us,” the host said. “And they are, perhaps, the worst offenders.”
There was one moment of the show, however, that the Fox & Friends hosts appreciated, and it was when The Big Short writer/director Adam McKay urged viewers not to “vote for candidates that take money from big banks, oil, or weirdo billionaires.”
“It sure sounds like he’s taking a shot at a Democrat and not just any Democrat, Hillary,” Doocy said a bit too gleefully.
Of course, McKay has made no secret of his support for Bernie Sanders. But he opted to make a statement that could be seen as a critique of Hillary Clinton or any number of Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, a “weirdo billionaire” who takes money from himself.
As of mid-afternoon on Monday, Fox News has wisely decided not to acknowledge whatever it was their own Stacey Dash was trying to accomplish with her bizarre cameo on the Oscar telecast.