In what Fox seemingly considers an important story today, the team working on the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid has changed some words in the song Kiss the Girl. The changes are meant to ensure that the idea of consent is represented in the children's movie, a move that Fox has lamented as wokeness.
Fox News and Fox Business have devoted at least 4 segments to the changes.
On Fox News @ Night, anchor Trace Gallagher introduced the segment by claiming that “some of the songs in Disney’s live-action reboot of The Little Mermaid are getting a major rewrite, all in the name of woke ideology.” An earlier tease for the story had him cringingly joke that the lyrics “up where they walk, up where they run” might be changed to “up where they woke.”
Fox reporter Eric Messersmith mocked the idea of including consent, noting, “The modern version would be, ask the girl for specific and clear consent, ask her how long the kiss should be, what kind of kiss it would be -- then it would be OK.”
In Varney & Co’s second segment on the story, the chyron read “Waking up to wokeness” as Fox radio host Jimmy Failla and Fox Business host Stuart Varney bemoaned the changes to the movie in what Varney said was “one of my favorite stories of the day.”
Responding to the change in lyrics, Failla stated, “You know what [kids] don’t want? Identity politics in the middle of their cartoon.” He added, “If your kids' worldview is being shaped by The Little Mermaid, you have a little problem.” This is a bold statement from a person appearing on a supposed business television channel to speak about the problem he has with a children's movie.
Supposed “news” show America’s Newsroom also deemed it important to cover the story, introducing its segment with the chyron “‘Little Mermaid’ lyrics get ‘woke’ update.”
In the very serious segment, Fox Nation’s Abby Hornacek analyzed Ariel’s body language, deciding that she signaled enough consent with her actions that the lyrics didn’t need to change.
This is just the latest salvo in Fox’s crusade against wokeness, which the network has made a scapegoat for a litany of its concerns, including Xbox’s power-saving mode, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a change in M&M’s candy mascots, and Lego’s new characters.
And now, according to Fox, consent is woke. Just think about that for a minute.
