SF Chronicle Sanitizes Stephen Fowler Hateful Elitism on 'Wife Swap'

NewsBusters ^ | February 21, 2009 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past month, then you must know that the most hated man in America is none other than Stephen Fowler of the ABC reality show, "Wife Swap." To get up to speed on Fowler's antic's, check out this video of some of the highlights from that show. Among the many "charming" utterances from this British-born San Francisco character are calling the wife from small town Missouri involved in the swap, Gayla Long, a "dumb redneck" and "lower class." In addition, his attitudes reflect a distinct leftwing anti-Americanism. Fowler finds it "humiliating" and "objectionable" to sing the national anthem. He also mocks Gayla Long because her sons want to someday join the military. And all this is just skimming the surface of Fowler's incredible rudeness which included telling his own kids to not even speak to Long.

All this caused a firestorm of reaction on the web including even a StephenFowlerSucks.com blog. However, despite the immediate notoriety of Fowler in the blogosphere, Fowler's hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, neglected to publish a story about their most "distinguished" citizen for weeks. When an article was finally published, the Chronicle neglected to go into any real detail of Fowler's hideous behavior. Check out their highly abridged version of what happened written by Justin Berton and all you can figure out is that Fowler may have been just a bit impolite:

[tanuki]

Now THAT’s a cave dwelling!

[tob2]

I saw that episode. Fowler certainly was the most horendous husband ever on that show. If he finds America so bad, let him take his family back to England. Didn’t think much of Fowler’s wife either.

[tob2]

Don’t know but any show where a husband realizes how much he loves and misses his wife when the swap proceeds can’t be all that bad.