Is "Wheel of Fortune" too "Woke" for Fox?
Oh, no. It was eventually going to happen… the dreaded “political” post.
Have you ever noticed that all the contestants on “Wheel of Fortune” appear to be the same height?
This is because, behind the scenes, they are standing on adjustable risers. Called “Scully Boxes” (in previous decades, simply called “apple boxes”, which is what they were), the boxes or risers adjusted for the height disparity of the two main characters on the television show “The X-Files”.
Before we delve into the incongruous “wokeness” of this situation, let us take a look at long-time host of the show, Pat Sajak.
Sajak has a consistent history of a pushing a right-wing agenda. For decades, he has advanced causes rejecting certain aspects of the teaching of American history, is a firm climate change denier, and served as a member of the board of the Claremont Institute.
Among other activities, the Claremont Institute has fuelled the denial of the 2020 election results. To put this in context, the institute’s president, Ryan P. Williams, has said that its mission is to “save Western civilization” from the threat he believes is inherent in the progressive movement. In 2021, Claremont senior fellow Glenn Ellmers wrote in The American Mind, that the United States is being destroyed by internal enemies and that a “counter-revolution” is necessary to defeat the majority of the people who “can no longer be considered fellow citizens… Most people living in the United States today—certainly more than half—are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term.”
In addition to hobnobbing with Clarence Thomas, Sajak has lamented that “political correctness and other notions” have “watered down” some of history’s “more significant people and significant events.”
He became Chairman of the Board of Hillsdale College, a Christian institution in Michigan, which disregarded accepted standards in responding to sexual assault and neglected to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In 2014, Sajak tweeted “Damn the career consequences! I’m hereby proclaiming my heterosexuality!”
This was followed by tweets such as “I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends” and “I suggest grabbing bunches of those plastic produce bags and taking them to the checkout stand.”
But let us return to “wokeness” and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). Despite being unable to find any documented quotes from Sajak and others involved in the show “Wheel of Fortune”, I am quite certain that they would not be champions of DEI.
Part of my humble, and perhaps simplistic, understanding of DEI would include the notion that, whilst we should all be on an equal footing, some of us need a boost in order to reach it — as with the risers on “Wheel of Fortune”.
I wonder whether Sajak and his ilk even considered the ironic “wokeness” of these studio props?
It may also be noted that Sajak has been photographed happily in the company of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Either they are the same height, or someone was standing on a riser.
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