NBC tries to make NASCAR fans looks stupid, doesn't work

I see NBC is up to their old tricks. Last Sunday at the NASCAR Martinsville race, NBC tried to make NASCAR fans seem bigoted by dressing up someone to make them look Muslim, in order to get a reaction out of them "redneck racing fans" This "Muslim", with a hidden camera inside to record everything that would happen, walked up and down the aisles, ordered food, and basically made every effort for people to notice him.
NBC hoped this would turn into an ugly scene where NASCAR fans would be hurling invectives at the man, throwing things at him, and maybe even starting fights, all in an effort to prove that NASCAR fans would lower themselves and show their racist side. Well, I'm proud to say it didn't work.
I am a NASCAR fan, and have been for 20 years, and let me tell you, that the fans are some of the nicest people I have ever known. For NBC to dress up someone like a Muslim, trot him around a race track to see if the fans would react to this, shows that NBC is a cheap, sleazy outfit. If you remember back in 1993, they rigged a car to explode to show how dangerous they were. When that little scheme failed, NBC was embarrassed and apologized. Now, I expect the same thing here. What they did here is totally inexcusable. Congratulations NASCAR fans for not taking the bait, and to NBC, shame on you.

http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/opinion/04/06/cross.nbc.dateline/

that was his rant

This is a story I picked up on the web. Outrageous!!!

what a coincidence

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Welcome to DU

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Ever heard of Ann Coulter?? case closed.

or faux news.

that we installed?

Freedom already marched there.

And when it got there, it said, "We want to execute Christians."

Oh, yeah.

Mission Accomplished my ass.

Welcome to DU and enjoy your stay.

Thanks.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Leave NASCAR alone

we get passionate, we like to wear t-shirts and hats with our favorite driver - we like to hoot and holler for our favorite drivers... but you don't have to lump us all into the same category. I'm sure there are some NASCAR fans that I wouldn't like to spend time with, but for the most part they are your regular, blue-collar, good-hearted people just looking for some entertainment and distraction. The same could be said for "American Idol" fans or "Dead Heads" or take your pick....

Might I borrow your perfumed handkerchief? I seem to have left mine in the carriage!

:rofl:

just a bunch of idiot drivers going around in circles going nowhere.

BUT just because I don't like NASCAR or any type of vehicle racing doesn't mean that others are stupid because they do.

Now professional wrestling is a different thing.

in an unflattering light. Sheesh.

The fawning coverage given to NASCAR is becoming tiresome.

you must also know many NASCAR fans. The ones I know are just regular folk - alot of them Dems and many are open minded.

Anyway here's to Robin
:toast:

that NBC wasn't only going to a NASCAR race - they were going to several areas/events to try the same thing. I don't hate NASCAR, but I think NASCAR is massively overreacting to this story.

I like going to Mid-Ohio better - less expensive than a NASCAR race, more room to roam around and better access to the drivers and cars in the paddock area.

but I'll take your word for it and look forward to going some time.

:hi:

Most Americans - even redneck white Christian conservatives - are going to treat the people they encounter with what they feel is civility & respect, no matter what color they are or beliefs they hold. THESE ARE THE ENCOUNTERS WHICH MSNBC WILL IGNORE.

But you know there's going to be ONE asshole who will cause problems. He'll get a 3-hr special.

It took nearly 40 years for NASCAR to become accepted, and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Better that the scandal plagued so-called 4 major sports.

in majority for their grouping. I don't see what NBC would have been trying to accomplish here. Most NASCAR fans and most American Muslim voters are Bush fans.

*shrug*

Prior to 2004, they were prety evenly split as to which way they'd vote. In 04 though, a whopping 90% voted for Kerry.

This happnes a large amount of times. Many channels other than NBC do things like this concerning all types of issues. If I were to use your line of reasoning Oprah Winfrey is a racist; she hates white people. I could argue that she also hates black people. Tyra Banks hates good looking people, skinny people, white people, and biracial people. The Channel FX just hates everyone. News channels just do things like this to see how people react. For anyone wondering what to second thru fourth sentences are about this is my point. If you remember Opra Winfrey did a show where white and black people dressed up as the opposite race, strapped themsleves with hidden cameras and walked around Chicago. Tyra Banks recently did a show where she dressed up in a fat suit and walked around a ritzy street in Los Angeles. During the show she also went on about three dates. One of the guys was white, one of the guys was black, and one may have been biracial. All of the men for fit looking men. Finally, FX is doing a series where two families dress up as the opposite race and live for a while as the race.

I think some fans of NASCAR are just a little too sensitive to what others may think about them. Most likely NBC put the muslim in a NASCAR event in that it was one of the only places, especially sporting events, where the majority of the fans are white and possiblly lean to the right. I think NASCAR is fine, but they allowed Bush to wrap himself in the NASCAR flag and claim he and NASCAR had the same values. NASCAR should not blame anyone if people now believe that fans of NASCAR do not like muslims.

NBC put a muslim at a race, because they thought it would be a story if NASCAR fans went after this guy, calling him every name in the book. They believed that NASCAR fans are good old boy, racist pigs, who would have loved nothing better than to air a show demeaning NASCAR and its fans by showing a muslim getting attacked. It was a setup pure and simple. They read the TV ratings and see that NASCAR is gaining popularity, so they top brass decided to air this stupidity in order to show how a certain segment of society treats muslims.
If NBC wanted to prove a point, they could have done this several other ways instead of setting up NASCAR fans to try to provoke an incident. NASCAR fans didn't take the bait, and I'm proud of them for it. You say NASCAR allowed Bush to wrap himself up in the NASCAR flag for votes, well, you don't remember Bill Clinton doing the same thing at Michigan in 1992, or Ronald Reagan at Richard Petty's 200th NASCAR win in 1984. Shame on NBC for pulling such a ludicrous stunt, to try to provoke an incident. The person who thought this stupidity up should be fired!!

My post is not bullshit. Also, you failed to negate any of my points. The point still remains this happens a large amount to many people. Most likely NBC was just doing what other people have done for years. At least once a year some tv personality decides to don some type of suit (fat, black, white, female, or male) in order to see how people will treat them. If I follow you logic everybody hates everybody. Like I said NASCAR is one of the most non diverse and seemingly conservative sports. Not everybody goes to NASCAR events and not everybody watches NASCAR events. Therefore, it is probably better to go to a NASCAR race to see how white people will react to muslims. Whether you like it or not it seems that football, basketball, and even baseball seems to have more diverse fans. If you go to any of the afore mentioned sports events you will see people from every culture. You will see Japanese, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, men, and women. It seems that if you go to a NASCAR event you will mainly see white males and white females. In addition, it seems that the white females would be a little lacking.

Yes, presidents other than Bush have gone to events involving NASCAR and if people on all those occasions had decided to say that NASCAR represented the views of those presidents then it would still have been NASCAR's fault. However, you are failing to look at the point that Bush did not just go to one NASCAR event he wrapped himself in the NASCAR flag. He claimed to be a major NASCAR fan. You may remember that Bush, during the campign, made a major trip to NASCAR in which he went all out and had his motor cade go onto the track. I have heard that some of the NASCAR fans did not like that Bush was there, but to some degree they may have just been angry that their race was being delayed by Bush. Even though Bush only stayed at the race for about fifteen minutes he then flew his plane (Air Force One) over the race track. Bush blended himself with NASCAR and they did nothing to stop him.

Did they do it because they were trying to help dippy or because they thought it would be in their best interst?

Too many times the higher ups spoil events when the fans paid to see the event not the side shows. Events are long enough without adding the side shows.

Just because NBC was "doing what other networks have done for years", doesn't make it right. This is the type of yellow smear-like journalism, has no place in a supposed news organization. If you want smear like tactics, listen to Limbaugh or Coulter. You say auto racing is not diversafied, and conservative, well you may be right on not being diverse, but it is no longer all conservative. Yes, most of the people who go to NASCAR are to the right, but even that is changing. As the sport moves away from the traditional southern roots, it has become more liberal. No, not everyone goes to NASCAR, but everyone doesn't go to football games either. Let me ask you a question, how many black hockey players do you see? Not many. How many black soccer players? How many white players play basketball? Again not many. I didn't see NBC go to those venues, and dress up a muslim to get fan reaction.

Lastly, it is not NASCAR's problem to solve if Bush, or any other president wants to wrap himself up in NASCAR's flags. Hillary Clinton claimed to be a Cubs fans, but when the Yankees won the 1998 World Series, Clinton wrapped herself up in the Yankees flag, and declared that she always was a Yankees fan. Presidential candidates go to NASCAR events because it draws a lot of people. The venues are sold out just about everytime, and they get valuable face time. Bottom line, what NBC attempted to do is slimy and sleazy, and they should be vilified for it, and not praised like a lot of DUers want to do.

I made many arguments that you could have tried to negate. You just realize that if you adknowledge what I said in my posts you have to admit that what NBC did was not yellow journalism. Actually, there are a good number of black athletes who play soccer and the fan base of soccer is much more diverse than NASCAR. One of the largest groups that watches soccer is Mexicans or Mexican-Americans. Also there are many white atheletes who play basketball. You cannot find a team in the NBA that does not have a number of white players. Furthermore, you probably cannot find many team if you can find one at all that does not have at least one white guy starting. Beyond that even if you want to argue that white players do not play basketball, basketball is still more diverse than NASCAR. There are many countries represented in the NBA including Germany, France, China, Spain, The Virgin Island, and Serbia-Montanegria. NASCAR is nowhere nearly that diverse. In addition, there are many muslims who play in the NBA. Finally, there is a black hockey player. That is why NBC did not go to those ventures. Because NASCAR unlike these other event is not that diverse. Whether you like it or not NASCAR is still a mainly white male sport.

The same things goes for the Yankees. If people had decided to hate the Yankees because Clinton claimed she was a major fan and the Yankees sat around and said nothing about it and enjoyed the ride than that would have been on them. You NASCAR fans need to just suck it up and move on. Finally, this has probably been done at other sporting events, but those fans just did not care and did not need to pat themselves on the back. If this had happened at any other sporting event the fans would have just say oh well, who care and them moved on. NASCAR fans just need to move on.

It's about a network trying to make news instead of reporting it. And with that, I'm moving on

I'm sure they got exactly what they wanted from this segment and would not have aired it had they gotten a different reaction.

I also believe that they were inspired to do this by that black man in the UK who did the same thing last year (or the year before). The guy dressed himself up as a white man (like that Eddie Murhphy skit from SNL) and went to the dog track one day. The next day he went as he normally was, without wig, makeup, etc. -- a black man. He interacted with skin heads. He said that he was treated even better the day he was not disguised as a white man.

Or at least to my knowledge, they didn't. And yes, NBC would do something like this to embarrass NASCAR. Look at the car "explosion" way back in the early 90's. A segment aired about a car that would explode when it crashed, but NBC added little explosion sticks to make the effect stronger. when the car manufacturer found out, NBC had to retract the story. A heavy embarrassment for NBC.

I saw someplace (but I can’t remember where and can’t find it now, so I’m not swearing to it) that this is the last season for NBC to televise NASCAR events so that could have been some of the motivation. If we can’t have them then we'll try to hurt them.

In fact, NBC has been a target of the right wing's ire of late, because NBC has been opposed to war for about the last 15 months or so, ever since GE realized that endless war is driving the economy into endless shit.

This is not meant as a personal judgement--you may be a nice human being--but I do not really enjoy your threads very much. They sort of rub me the wrong way. What NBC did is standard journalism. A whole book---"Black Like Me"--was based on it. And the fact that they aired the segment means that NBC was unbiased. Plus, they were celebrating the fact that NASCAR dads are real Amnericans, tolerant, humanitarian, good hearted people---which probably would make Rush mad as hell. He would prefer that dads at home see racism as something standard and follow the herd mentality.

So, I can see how the report would drive Freepers up the wall, but most DUers would find the NBC story cause for celebration. It means the recent attempt by the RNC to recycle Nixon's Southern Strategy is

DOOMED TO FAIL.


(ha ha ha)

Which is what I kind of expected was going to happen.


Very inflammatory thread title, btw. Great way to punish NBC if one had a grudge against that network. Now, who has been denouncing NBC? What's his name again? O'Liely?

Then don't read them. Pure and simple. And that crap about what NBC did being standard journalism is pure garbage. NBC did this for one reason, to make NASCAR fans look like a bunch of racist scum. I certainly do not find the NBC story cause for celebration, in fact I find what they did downright deplorable. I do not have a grudge against the network. If CBS or ABC, or Foxnews did the same kind of story, I would be just as pissed.
The title was intended to be inflammatory. It shows that NBC, or any other network, can't get away with being sleazy. If O'Liely, as you call him, repoted this story, and was outraged, I would have supported him on this one 100%

to sic the FBI on NBC?

snip

Bruton Smith, theTexas Motor Speedway owner, said the FBI will be here paying attention this weekend to see if NBC follows last weekend's NASCAR sting operation at Martinsville, where the network brought in Muslims for the Nextel Cup race and followed them around with hidden cameras to judge racism in the stock-car racing crowd.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835231172&path=%21sports&s=1037645509200

They'll take NBC's money, but not the scrutiny that comes with being a "major sport."

And after this year, NASCAR won't be taking any of NBC's money. ABC and ESPN are taking over the second half of the racing season from NBC. Maybe just as well. Why would NASCAR want to associate itself with a sleazeball network like NBC??

And what gives NASCAR the right to order around the FBI?

All that stunt did was lose NBC the last little credibility it had.

NBC said that the NASCAR race was only one of several locations where Dateline would go to gather footage and information.

It still sucks though what they did.

100,000 Bush-loving, inbred right wing nazi yahoos watching cars go round and round in a circle, sucking in gas fumes while supporting the destruction of the environment from all the pollution. Those Muslims should be offended by being in their presence.

Looks like your the one sucking on the gas fumes. Kills what little brain cells you have left. I'll take NASCAR fans over idiots like enough already, any day of the week.

many folks who ARE liberal enjoy Nascar too... (and some birds too... my cockatiel LOVES Nascar too)

"For NBC to dress up someone like a Muslim, trot him around a race track to see if the fans would react to this, shows that NBC is a cheap, sleazy outfit. ...."
....because of course, no actual Muslim in his right mind would go near us good ol' boys.....

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen....

I am: a die hard liberal, Democratic officeholder, former national co-chair of the Green Party, anti-war protest organizer, Democratic precinct chair, chair of my local chapter of the Progressive Democrats, Democratic State Executive Committee member, board member of several national, state, and local social justice organizations. I am also a sunday school teacher, father, husband, licensed professional, native southerner, and NASCAR fan.

Pretty much blew that stereotype out of the water.

People on the left who stereotype are no better than people on the right. When you say NASCAR fans are a bunch of backwoods country bumpkins, how is that different than some of the blather coming out of Rush, Hannity and O'Rielly when they are spewing their hatred and stereotyping?

We can't be bothered to try to educate people here. People have their own reasons to hate NASCAR. I've been a NASCAR fan for 20 years, and will always be one. If people want to be ignorant and stereotype NASCAR fans, go ahead. it's you loss, not mine.

They think that just because slightly more people voted for Shrub in the last two elections (and, in many Southern states, the margin is about 57 to 43 percent - not a great difference), causing our winner-take-all electoral system to give these states to Shrub, then ALL Southerners are stupid, backward, racist and redneck.

It's the fallacy of this board. It's not OK to be racist or sexist, but you can put down a Southerner without question.

Then they wonder why Republicans keep winning the South and the mid-West. It's not because of racism or sexism - it's because Southerners and mid-Westerners don't like being talked down to as though we were some bad child.