Fox News claims NPR wants to ‘cancel’ Tom Hanks over Tulsa op-ed
Tom Hanks remained uncanceled on Tuesday despite a push by Fox News to say he had been, in the latest episode of a brewing controversy over how history is taught in America.
Online and on air, Fox News focused on a column by Eric Deggans of NPR, written in response to the actor’s wellreceived New York Times essay about the Tulsa race massacre and other atrocities and headlined: “Tom Hanks Is A Non-Racist. It’s Time For Him To Be Anti-Racist.”
Hanks’ essay focused on how he was not taught and did not know about Tulsa, in which as many as 300 people were killed in 1921 when a white mob destroyed a prosperous neighbourhood known as Black Wall Street.
The piece was published amid commemorations including a visit and speech by Joe Biden. Hanks appealed for changes to the way history is taught in schools and by the entertainment industry.
“These are wise words,” Deggans wrote. “And it’s wonderful that Hanks stepped forward to advocate for teaching about a race-based massacre – indirectly pushing back against all the hyperventilating about critical race theory that’s too often more about silencing such lessons on America’s darkest chapters.
“But it is not enough. After many years of speaking out about race and media in America, I know the toughest thing for some white Americans – especially those who consider themselves advocates against racism – is to admit how they were personally and specifically connected to the elevation of white culture over other cultures.
“But in Hanks’ case, he is no average American. Or average Hollywood star, for that matter.”
Deggans said he was not calling
Hanks racist. “But … in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a white police officer, I spent a lot of time investigating the difference between being non-racist and being anti-racist. Antiracism implies action – looking around your universe and taking specific steps to dismantle systemic racism.
“So I am saying it is time for folks like Hanks to be anti-racist.”
Fox News, however, decided that Deggans was calling Hanks racist, and was calling for him to be “cancelled” – excluded from mainstream culture for holding views deemed unacceptable by the left, a shibboleth of the American right.
An article on the Fox News website noted conservative indignation, quoting Tom Bevan, the founder of RealClearPolitics.com, who wrote: “No good deed goes unpunished. Tom Hanks writes op-ed urging coverage/ teaching of Tulsa massacre. Black columnist says, yeah, but when are you going to apologize for making a career out of ‘amplifying ideas of white American exceptionalism and heroism’.”
On-air talent weighed in. News anchor Bill Hemmer discussed the column with contributor Joe Concha. Deggans, Concha said, “deserves all the criticism he gets. And here’s the thing, Bill. NPR, Deggans and perpetual protesters – no matter what Tom Hanks does, it will never be enough.”
Hemmer said: “Well, if he was looking for attention, he’s getting it – but being white in America apparently has a lot of pitfalls.”
Progressives responded. The actor Rosanna Arquette said cancelling Hanks “won’t happen. He’s beloved and a good man and these insane despicable lies about him from lunatics will never stick because they are indeed lies. Fox spews lies daily.”
Deggans said: “Fox News associating my column with cancel culture is disingenuous and inaccurate. And now I have a new deluge of Fox fans who haven’t read my column objecting to something I haven’t said.
“I think it’s obvious that one of the world’s biggest movie stars can make any film he wants to. But my point was that, if he wants to help solve the problem he identified in his own essay, then he can and should take action to do it.”
Hanks did not immediately comment.
The White House has published its first ever national strategy for countering domestic terrorism five months after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol in Washington.
The framework released on Tuesday by the national security council describes the threat as now more serious than potential attacks from overseas but emphasises the need to protect civil liberties.
Anticipating Republican objections that Joe Biden could use counterterrorism tools to persecute supporters of Donald Trump, the strategy is also careful to state that domestic terrorism must be tackled in an “ideologically neutral” manner.
It cites examples such as “an antiauthority extremist” ambushing, shooting and killing five police officers in Dallas In 2016; a lone gunman (and leftwing activist) wounding four people at a congressional baseball practice in 2017; and an “unprecedented attack” on Congress on 6 January.
“They come across the political spectrum,” a senior administration said on a media conference call. “We acknowledge the shooting at the congressional baseball, the attack on police officers in Dallas, just as we acknowledge the attack in Charlottesville and the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
“So it’s not motivating politics or ideology that matters for us or, more importantly for the strategy and its implementation. It’s when political grievances become acts of violence and we remain laser focused on that.”
The strategy, to be formally announced by the attorney general, Merrick Garland, on Tuesday, follows an order from Biden on his first full day in office for a review of government efforts to address domestic terrorism, which is described as “the most urgent terrorism threat the United States faces today”.
An expert assessment of the threat provided by intelligence and law enforcement, a summary of which was released in March, found that its two most deadly elements are white supremacists and anti-government violent extremists.
A senior administration said: “Further, it found that violent extremists who promote the superiority of the white race have the most persistent transnational connections and may be in frequent contact with violent extremists abroad.
“However, it’s important to underscore that the study provided to us by ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] did not find a robust nexus between domestic terrorism and foreign actors. This is largely today an inside-out problem, not an outside-in problem, although we do know that our adversaries are seeking to sow divisions in our society.”
The strategy consists of four pillars: efforts to understand and share information regarding the full range of domestic terrorism threats; efforts to prevent domestic terrorists from successfully recruiting, inciting, and mobilising Americans to violence; efforts to deter and disrupt domestic terrorist activity before it yields violence; long–term issues that contribute to domestic terrorism that must be addressed to ensure that this threat diminishes over generations.
The prevention aspect includes a focus on working with big tech companies such as Facebook, which has been strongly criticised for allowing rightwing hate groups to thrive and coordinate, including ahead of the 6 January insurrection.
An official said: “We as the government see different things from what any particular tech company might see, Any particular tech company often knows its own platform very well but the government sees things such as threats of violence across platforms … The process has already begun between the government and the tech sector and it will continue.”
Biden’s budget for fiscal year 2022 includes more than $100m in additional resources for analysts, investigators, prosecutors and other personnel and resources to thwart domestic terrorism.
The government says it is improving employee screening to enhance methods for identifying domestic terrorists who might pose “insider threats”. The defence, justice and homeland security departments are pursuing efforts “to ensure domestic terrorists are not employed within our military or law enforcement ranks and improve screening and vetting processes”.
The strategy does not take a position on whether there should be a new statute criminalising domestic terrorism, leaving the question to a review by the justice department.
Despite its plea for neutrality, a White House fact sheet does cite key Biden legislation – the American Rescue Plan, American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan – as providing “relief and opportunity” that can help counter long term distrust in democracy and its ability to deliver.
It adds: “Government will also work to find ways to counter the polarization often fueled by disinformation, misinformation, and dangerous conspiracy theories online, supporting an information environment that fosters healthy democratic discourse.”