Hank Williams, Jr., Gets in Trouble

It seems this guy called Hank Williams, Jr., has gotten himself in trouble for something he said and in fact lost his gig singing before football games or something like that.

Let me say at the outset that I have no bias in this man's favor. I hate country music--so naturally I never listen to it, and at the most I might sometimes know that Such-and-such is a country singer. In this case I didn't even know who this guy was and had to go look him up in Wikipedia. (Turns out I am familiar with some of the songs that his father, Hank Williams, Sr., wrote and which might get sung by Junior.)

Anyway, I have to say that I think that he has been misunderstood. He said that for John Boehner (Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives) and Barack Obama to get together to talk—which in fact they did—would be like Hitler and Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) getting together.

This is not, as was claimed, comparing Obama to Hitler. What was meant was that the relationship between Obama and Boehner is like the relationship between Hitler and Netanyahu (if they ever were anywhere near one another) in that they constitute a pair of adversaries. That is, both pairs similarly are adversaries. (People who have taken the SAT tests are familiar with this sort of "analogy," with this one being able to be paraphrased as "Obama is to Boehner as Hitler is to Netanyahu.)

I've seen in the past this kind of misunderstanding of something someone has said, and I think it's deliberate. I suspect it's someone on TV, maybe someone on Fox News who goes around gleefully saying "So-and-so said such-and such": "Hank Williams, Jr. compared Obama to Hitler!" This is not reporting, it's school-child tattling, and just as malicious. (I know, Williams said this on Fox, but who is responsible for quoting him and/or commenting on what he said and (mis)representing his intention?)

Again, what he said is not saying Obama is like Hitler, it's a comment only on the unlikeliness of a pair such as Obama and Boehner getting together to talk. Now, is the general American public smart enough to grasp this, or is it going to fall victim to the sensationalism of our media?

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein