Foxy Lady
- Ray DeGraw
- Sep 13
- 7 min read
September 13, 2025
Here I come baby! I'm coming to get ya! Prophetic lyrics from our dearly departed guitar sleuth, Mr. Jimmy Hendrix. But I'm not talking about a heartbreaker, a lovemaker or a foxy lady. I'm talking about none other than the Fox News Network. That's right, they are coming to get ya! Anybody who knows me well enough will be shocked to learn that I actually used to watch Fox News. Yes, crazy, I know. But let me explain myself.
It was in the days and weeks following that horrible day when a group of terrorists hijacked four planes and did what they did. I was 24-years-old. A young do-gooder full of pithe and vinegar. Like most Americans at the time, I was angry. I was sad. I was devastated. I was shocked that we got caught with our pants down and weren't as invincible as we thought. Think about it, box cutters and planes fully filled with jet fuel and innocent people. It brought our nation to its collective knee.
After growing up through Dessert Storm and seeing the carnage and the fire power our mighty armed forces could bring, I wanted swift and violent justice. I wanted to see whoever was responsible for this to be drawn and quartered. I wanted to see villages razed to the ground. I wanted to see the middle east turned into green glass. I was seething, I was furious, I wanted something to be done immediately. But there was nothing. At least, not at first. All the news outlets kept telling us was to be vigilant, be strong and let's figure out who was responsible. CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC...they all had the same message. Be patient, let's not rush into anything...this as we could see the ash cloud rising from the city from a six story pile of rubble.
Every day after work I would rush home to tune in, hoping, praying, wishing to see war ships launching jet fighters and obliterating those responsible. But no. All I saw everyday was the same thing. Be patient. Stay vigilant. We can't just start bombing shit to solve our problems. Fuck that, I want to see buildings exploding. I want the world to know that you don't fuck with the United States of America. Then, one day, by pure accident, and not being able to find the remote, I happened upon this little known network called Fox News. And you know what? They were saying what I wanted to hear. And as each day passed, I watched more and more. These guys knew what was up!
As the weeks went on, we started to get a clearer picture. Those responsible were hiding out in Afghanistan in the mountains. The fight began. Troops began arriving and we slowly and methodically began flushing out all the rebels. Bin Ladin was our main target and we were pursuing him to the ends of the earth. But damnit, the mother fucker proved elusive. Again, I began to grow impatient. And as I flipped back and fourth to watch coverage, it was the same all over again. The regular news outlets were saying the same old things. But not Fox, they were calling for more and more firepower to the region. And then, all of a sudden, the narrative began to change. Somehow this became Iraq's fault. Curious, I thought, but let's see where they are going with this.
The Bush Administration all of a sudden wanted to go after Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Why? The terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon. And they were hiding in the Afghani mountains with the terrorist organization known as al-Qaeda. Why are we going to go to war with Iraq? This was the first thing that Fox News started selling that made me start questioning what I was watching. But, to give them credit, they found a way to sell it. You see, Iraq was taking advantage of us overambitious Americans wasting time and resources in the mountains and they were building weapons of Mass Destruction!!!! They were going to strike us down in our moment of weakness and distraction. And what we needed to do was take the fight to them! Bush would say, we'll fight them over there so that we don't have to fight them here. To paraphrase the former president.
I raised and eyebrow, but hell, I still wanted revenge. I wanted the world to know, you don't fuck with the United States. You kill 3000 of ours, we kill 300,000 of yours. Sick, I know. I am ashamed I once felt this way. But I know I was not alone with these thoughts. Again, the rest of the news media was calling bullshit to this. And my Democrats were as well. Yes, I was still a Democrat through all this. But I was starting to lean, I was starting to question why they were so hesitant to obliterating those responsible for horrors of that ill fated September day. As time continued to move on with very little and very frustrating results, I became a proponent of going to war again with Iraq. Let's go topple that regime once and for all. Let's finish what we started back in the early 90's. What was poppy Bush thinking anyway when he called the tanks back? Junior would set things right.
Then, to quash the media's concerns, to answer the Democrats questions and to educate those few Americans who dared question our plans for "Shock and Awe", it was time for Colin Powell to put on a show. In front of congress, and broadcast on just about every television channel at the time, he laid out the intelligence reports that would prove once and for all why we had to pull our resources out of the mountains in Afghanistan and topple Iraq. I looked forward to it all week, and I even took off of work to watch it. And then...Nothing. It was a big 'ole fucking nothing burger. It was absolute nonsense. Pictures of buildings, manufacturing sights, hospitals...all which were ultimately ruled, with no evidence whatsoever, as factories where Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction. They were just fucking satellite images of buildings!
I was disappointed, shocked...I shook my head in disbelief. I took a day off of work for this shit!? As the pundits returned to their desks to digest the information, or lack thereof, they didn't question a bit of it. Not one bit! "Well, there you have it! What are we waiting for!? Send in the bombers post haste!" Holy crap, I was watching state run television. I tuned back to the other stations to hear what the bobble heads had to say. They were all aghast at what Colin Powell had tried to sell them. What a bunch of shit. Of course, you all know what happened next. We did ultimately go to war with Iraq. Estimates showed between 100,000 and 1,000,000 Iraqis ultimately lost their lives in the conflict. So, Bush and Fox News and most Americans got the "revenge" they wanted. Even though Iraq had nothing to do with it. I still endure the guilt of all those lost souls because I, at one time, wished it.
Our country has never been the same since September 11th. More and more people watch Fox News and buy every second of crap they spew. There are many who say we taught the terrorists and their sponsors a lesson, but I find that amusing. The terrorists won that war, and we continue to fight it...but amongst ourselves. Here in the United States, were are not so united any more. We tear each other apart limb by limb whenever given the opportunity. It's right vs. left. Conservative vs. Liberal. Republican vs. Democrat. Left wing media vs. Right wing media. Nobody knows what to believe any more, as our news sources have become completely unreliable and biased. Our news feeds only deliver to our doorsteps the news we want to read, not the news we NEED to read.
Just think how bad it is. We have gleefully (at least half the country) elected a convicted felon, a man who tried to overthrow the United States Government with the coup of January 6th, a man who has bankrupted at least six of the companies he started with his Daddy's money, a man married three times who fucks pornstars while his wife is at home breastfeeding their first child together...and we treat him as if he's a God. The religious right has even pondered if he was sent by the good Lord himself to save us all. And Fox News, they don't argue it.
A few days ago a conservative by the name of Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a lone gunman while speaking at a University in Utah. This is somehow being blamed on the Democrats and the "lunatic left" as Donald Trump put it. Fox News is gladly helping spread that narrative. One day I won't be able to write a story like this. No doubt there will be a knock on my door and I will never be seen or heard from again. But since I still can, I needed to write this. I needed people to know, that I too have been hoodwinked by the Fox, and there is no shame in admitting that. My plea to you is to use common sense. Don't be afraid to raise your eyebrow, to say your piece when you hear something that you know just can't be true.
I once loved this country more than anything. I was proud of it, I bragged about it to my friends over seas. Now, I find myself hoping my wife gets a transfer and we have to leave it all behind. I live with a constant feeling of dread. All brought about by a news channel I accidentally tuned into a quarter of a century ago. I sure do miss the days when the TV only had 13 channels and I spent most of my time outside playing in the neighborhood. We never sat around saying, "hey did you hear what the president said today?" We would have slapped somebody upside the head for bringing something like that up! Maybe one day, we'll find ourselves back outside, fishing, playing stickball...our biggest concern being who are we going to get to buy us beer tonight? Oh, how I miss the innocence of those glorious days.
And, as an update to this story, we have still not found a single weapon of mass destruction in Iraq.
I've made up my mind. I'm tired of wasting all my precious time. You've gotta be all mine, all mine. Ooh, Foxy lady.
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