Fox ignored Kanye West’s antisemitism and used his music during Bears-Cowboys broadcast

Balenciaga, Adidas, CAA, Gap, Vogue and Peloton are among the companies that have dissociated themselves from Kanye West in the wake of his antisemitic remarks. Bournemouth and Texas A&M also stopped using his music. But Fox is not inclined to do the same.

During Sunday afternoon’s coverage of the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears on Fox, the network chose West’s song Flashing Lights as bumper music before a commercial break. Fox has not issued a statement on the decision, but it’s hard to imagine it was a mistake.

Of the many companies & organizations who distanced themselves from Kanye West's music this week, Fox was apparently not one of them. pic.twitter.com/oRarq1HZMD

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 30, 2022

West (seen above during the Super Bowl this February), who now goes by “Ye,” has been impossible to ignore in the news recently. Major corporations continue to disavow his antisemitic comments, which included threats that he planned to go “death con 3 on Jewish People.” The gross tweet by West, which was later removed by Twitter for violating its rules, seemingly intended to reference DEFCON 3, a high state of nuclear alert from the United States Armed Forces. (But not the strongest state of alert; that would be DEFCON 1.)

Using West’s music during their NFL broadcast gives off the impression that Fox is standing by the rapper as nearly every other person and company is trying to disassociate themselves from him. In addition to the above-mentioned corporations that dropped West, LeBron James’ The Shop: Uninterrupted recently scrapped an interview with the rapper citing his use of “hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.” Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown both also recently ended their relationships with West’s agency Donda Sports.

If the music selection was an error by a producer who’s been living under a rock in recent days and weeks, then Fox should have issued a statement immediately. But Fox’s silence on the issue after nearly 24 hours have passed speaks volumes.

The baffling music choice also comes in the wake of Fox repeatedly running a “Citizens for Sanity” commercial throughout the Major League Baseball Playoffs, an ad that projects racism and depicts Latino immigrants as “drug dealers” and “sex traffickers.” Despite outrage from baseball fans, the controversial ads have continued to air on Fox during the World Series.

[Awful Announcing on Twitter; photo from Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports]