I am sure that when John Cameron Swayze began anchoring the Camel News Caravan at NBC in 1949 he never in his wildest imagination would have thought that there ever could be a day when a flag covered with dildos and butt plugs at a gay pride parade would become the focus of a television news broadcast. However such was the case on Saturday when a CNN reporter confused a parody ISIS flag with the real deal at a London gay pride parade and "treated" the audience to a detailed analysis, including an interview with a national security analyst, for over six minutes. As funny as that was, it might have been exceeded in inadvertent humor by Vox writer Max Fisher "Voxsplaining" the blunder in which the term "butt plugs" was used seven, count them, seven times.
An embarrassed CNN took down their dildo flag blunder from the web but, fortunately, Mediaite recorded it from CNN and posted the video on YouTube for us to laugh at for all eternity. Let us now look at CNN's coverage of the Isis dildo flag before beginning the Vox butt plugs countdown:
On Saturday, during coverage of a gay rights rally, CNN ran a segment with an alarming message. According to the chyron on the bottom of the screen, "ISIS FLAG SPOTTED AT GAY PRIDE PARADE."
With that intro, let us now begin the Vox "butt plug" countdown starting with the first mention:
The supposed ISIS flag was in fact a parody, bearing outlined images of dildos and butt plugs in place of Arabic script.
The second butt plugs reference raises the humor level when the Vox writer claims it is "painfully obvious" that the CNN audience would easily be able to ID butt plugs:
I wish I were exaggerating here even a little but I am not. CNN dedicated an entire six and a half minutes to covering, in a tenor of total seriousness and extreme gravity, what they said was an ISIS flag being waved at a gay pride parade, when in fact it was readily and painfully obvious that the "ISIS flag" was in fact a joke flag covered with images of dildos and butt plugs.
Forgive me for being shamefully ignorant, Max, but butt plugs are for some reason not on my radar in terms of instant recognition. And now on to butt plugs mention number three:
"An unnerving sight today at a London gay pride celebration: an ISIS flag among a sea of rainbow colors," CNN anchor Suzanne Malveaux announced. The word "unnerving" made several other appearances in the very long segment about a flag of dildos and butt plugs.
What? You still are not sure of what butt plugs look like? Well it is obvious to Max Fisher in his fourth plug of butt plugs:
The flag, I cannot stress this enough, was clearly covered with images of dildos and butt plugs. And was waving at a London gay pride rally.
Fisher is also perplexed that no one at CNN immediately recognized butt plugs (and dildos) for mention number five of the countdown:
Did no one at CNN notice that this "ISIS flag" was in fact covered with dildos and butt plugs, and also was appearing at a gay pride rally, all of which should suggest maybe it was not really an ISIS flag?
Butt plugs along with dildos are a language of their own or so Fisher seems to imply as we reach number six in the butt plugs hit parade:
And, also, they went on, the script on the flag, which on actual non-satirical ISIS flags would be in Arabic, was not in Arabic at all. (It was dildos and butt plugs.)
And last but possibly funniest of all is Fisher's outrage that CNN would confuse "gobbledygook" with dildos and butt plugs:
CNN described the writing on the flag as "gobbledygook." In fact, it was dildos and butt plugs.
Exit question: Will Vox post a followup story to "Voxsplain" in detail about just what butt plugs are?
