2017 Feb 21^st

Sometime around 1690 there was an Oxford student named Tom Brown whose combative and snarky disposition got him in trouble with the university dean, a Dr. Fell. Brown was called in by the dean and he expected to be dismissed but the dean gave him a chance to remain at Oxford if he could extemporaneously translate a Latin passage from Martial. He wrote:

I do not love thee, Dr. Fell

The reason why I cannot tell

But this I know and know full well

I do not love thee Dr. Fell.

Tom Brown passed his test and was able to stay at Oxford but he did not graduate. He moved to London where he developed a reputation as a rake and a libertine and died at 41. Dr. Fell became famous but hardly anyone now knows why.

I happened upon a Fox News program called “Fox and Friends” this morning. This program has been mentioned favorably by Donald Trump as a departure from the awful, awful fake news reported by the “mainstream media.” The morning’s program on Fox focused primarily on “hate.” There is certainly a lot of hate, and no little disgust, about. The hate described by Fox and Friends was the result of masses of people protesting against Trump’s policies, particularly his immigration policies.

There were other causes as well: Trump claims that the press (Fox News excepted so far) is the “enemy of the American people.” Trump’s invective has been a considerable benefit to the press; the New York Times, the Washington Post and even the Wall Street Journal have seen a splendid increase in subscribers since Trump began his “let’s all hate the dishonest media.” The problem for Trump and the Fox folks is that while the media isn’t popular a very large portion of the population is really disgusted by Donald Trump. Trump got the vote of just 26 percent of the eligible voters in this country and he and his cronies want to call that a mandate. His popularity is now below 40 percent; he is in big trouble but he prefers to play golf and listen to his fans applaud him.

Fox and Friends do not mention Trump’s hate; they only want to talk about the hate people have for Trump. Their motto is “We report; you decide” but it is clear that Murdoch, the station owner, wants only certain information reported; this will probably bias the decisions people make who listen to this station. It is not working perfectly; Shephard Smith and Chris Wallace have begun to stray from the party line. This might continue and more backbone could appear among their reporters.

Dr. Fell was immortalized 337 years ago by a snarky Latin scholar at Oxford. If we run the clock ahead an equivalent number of years to the middle of the 24^th century, can you imagine an equivalent nursery rhyme existing about President Trump? Neither can I.