Fox news lies about Wisconsin protests
As teachers and students protested for three weeks in the state capitol of Wisconsin in a fight to protect state workers collective bargaining rights, Fox News created their own facts that were far from the truth to push their own political agenda.
From fabricating poll results to broadcasting fake video and spinning stories about reporter abuse, Fox left no angle un-spun. Some of the faces of the Wisconsin protests have included mothers, teachers, and young students, but Fox News described the people fighting for workers’ rights as a crowd of irrational bullies.“I’m sure I’ll get a flurry of emails calling for me to apologize for naming them “thugs and bullies”, but they are – and I won’t apologize for it, but that’s what they are,” said one Fox anchor. In reality there was no bullying going on. That was certainly the case when RT was on the ground in February as the protests were peaking. That has remained the case for those who have closely followed events.“I know for a fact that there has been no violence whatsoever in Wisconsin. Aside from people stepping on each other’s toes accidentally, there just hasn’t been,” explained editorial columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall. Police even issued a “thank you” statement to protesters for being peaceful, but according to Fox News channel, the demonstrators have been an uncontrollable mob. Describing the demonstrating as “profanity, vulgarity and pretty vile behavior,” protesters have been dubbed “not a terribly classy or civil group of people”. The non-existent violence was taken to an extreme with a spin of an alleged attack on a Fox reporter.“That guy just hit me,” the journalist reported in a live broadcast. He seemed to have seen it coming by saying in a separate broadcast, “the hate that you get from these demonstrators. You can see it in their faces.”From a video posted online, it became clear that nothing close to harassment had taken place, but it was too late to stop the infamous Fox spin.“They’re pushing him, they’re shoving him,” one broadcast echoed another. Moreover, the so-called bullies came out to protest in a cold snowy winter. But a more violent protest video featured by Bill O’Reilly had palm trees in the background, turning the channel into a cartoon show.“The brazen nature of this propaganda! It’s tragic that ninety percent of fox viewers will have no idea that that was faked and they will think that it was true,” explained Rall. Another failed trick was to reverse polling numbers to support the party line of the channel and naming teachers who had to take a sick day at school to be part of the fight for their own rights – liars.“That’s no excuse, that’s no excuse for lying to children,” said Fox news talking heads. But the ones doing the lying are actually the faces on America's TV screens. Since the show must go on, the reports spinning facts continue. The teacher said she hates me because it makes her feel good. That’s the situation out here,” said the allegedly abused Fox News reporter.
