Recently, people have taken issue with the fact that pop star Lizzo was the first to play former President James Madison’s crystal flute. Those who found a problem with it tended to be conservative leaning, causing uproar on both sides of an extremely bipartisan country. Fox News decided to report on it, penning an article titled, “ Watch: Lizzo Plays Former President James Madison’s Crystal Flute and Twerks in D.C.” This title seems messy, but that is purposeful. Fox News is conservative leaning and is commonly known to frame articles based on its proximity to outrage media. The title including, “And Twerks in D.C.” was to entice more people to click, or to take the conservative side that doing something considered distasteful in the conservative community while playing the former President’s flute was unacceptable. They wanted to show that they’ve picked a side before the viewer can even read the article: Lizzo playing James Madison’s flute is not only bad, but newsworthy, therefore something you should care about. The article is extremely short, and gives little to no history about the flute, or commentary about the situation. The author served mainly to highlight the jokes Lizzo told and her cadence when playing, stating she “Blew twice, then wiggled”. By solely focusing on these things it paints the narrative of Lizzo disrespecting a piece of history and the idea that this old flute was something the general population should care about. Most of the vitriol targeted at Lizzo was fueled by racism and other forms of bigotry, but this Fox News article does what many conservative journals often do, omit evidence to cause outrage, because truth hurts.
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/watch-lizzo-plays-former-president-james-madisons-crystal-flute-and-twerks