By Elaine Magliaro
On Sunday night, WBFF–a FOX affiliate in Baltimore–aired a video of “Justice for All” demonstrators in Washington, D. C., chanting “kill a cop.” Gawker reported that the news station claimed that the video was evidence “of murderously violent rhetoric on the part of anti-brutality protesters…” Gawker said the problem with WBFF’s claim was that the protesters weren’t actually chanting “kill a cop” at all. The WBFF broadcast reportedly said, “At this rally in Washington, D.C. protestors chanted, “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, so kill a cop.” Gawker said, however, that there was video evidence to prove that’s not what the protesters were actually chanting.
Gawker continued, “The current national pastime appears to be constructing elaborate ways of laying responsibility for recent police shootings at the feet of anti-police-brutality protesters.” Gawker added that it was “bullshit”–and that “cynical news media” had been forced “to dig deep into their bag of tricks” in order to shift “blame for broad and escalating distrust of police away from…themselves and onto mostly non-violent activists…”
Here’s what WBFF did: The FOX affiliate in Baltimore “deceptively” edited footage of the protesters’ chant!
TPM:
Gawker originally caught WBFF chopping up footage of a protest chant to sound like incitement to murder police on Monday.
The chant went “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, ’til killer cops, are in cell blocks,” according to C-SPAN footage.
But WBFF cut the audio short and told viewers that the words were in fact “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, so kill a cop.”
The protest was attended by Rev. Al Sharpton. YouTube videos of the misinterpreted chant contain labels such as “Sharpton’s ‘Go Kill A Cop’ March.”
Original C-Span Footage:
Here is an excerpt from the WBFF report:
Brendan James (TPM) reported that WBFF “apologized Monday night for a report it ran over the weekend that deceptively edited protestors to look like they were chanting ‘kill a cop.'” James said the FOX affiliate “apologized both on its Facebook page and in an interview with one of the protestors leading the chant, Tawanda Jones.”
According to Justin Baragona (Politicus USA), “…Jones reacted on Facebook, pointing out that the station had misinterpreted her words. She urged friends and anyone else seeing the post to call Fox45 to complain and ask that they retract the story.” Evidently, Jones is well-known in Baltimore. Gawker reported that she is the “sister of Tyrone West, who was murdered by Baltimore City Police on July 18, 2013.” Gawker added, “The West family’s quest for justice for this crime has been overwhelmingly ignored by the city of Baltimore – after 73 weeks’ worth of ‘West Wednesday’ actions, the family has still not even been given Tyrone’s full autopsy report.” Baragona said that no charges were filed against any of the officers who were present at the time of Jones’s brother’s death. He added that Jones has “been staging rallies since then calling for justice for her slain brother.
SOURCES
Slimy Baltimore FOX Affiliate Caught Faking “Kill a Cop” Protest Chant (Gawker)
Baltimore Fox Affiliate Edits Protest Footage To Sound Like ‘Kill A Cop’ (TPM)
WATCH: Protester Confronts Fox Station That Deceptively Edited ‘Kill A Cop’ Chant (TPM)
Fox Affiliate Deceptively Edits Protest Footage To Show Protesters Chanting “Kill A Cop” (Politicus USA)
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
More evidence of MOBitude!
Wow! This proves it, that not only are we facing the institution, we are also facing their lackeys in the media who are making sure the false narrative becomes the only one. And where is the FCC in here? Either that station and the reporter should be fined heavily or at least a thorough apology should made to be given and newscast.
Elaine,
It is becoming obvious that the powers that be in this country, abetted by the media they own, are committed to a policy of domination by violence. The initial outrage caused by Ferguson, Staten Island and Cleveland excesses, is being co-opted by a meme of “protest makes the police’s job more dangerous”. I’m sad and angry because I think they will succeed. This was a similar propaganda tactic that was used against the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-War Movement and the nascent Women’s Movement. The difference was that ownership of the major media wasn’t so centrally controlled by a handful of rich, conservative corporations and so most Americans had access to other things beside the bombardment of propaganda. Today those Americans whose main view of the news comes from major media outlets are being propagandized into believe that the deaths of these two police officers was caused by protests.
Mike,
I’d hazard a guess that many wealthy people–including those who work for major news media outfits–don’t give a damn about things like stop and frisk. As long as the communities where they live are kept free from crime, why should they care what happens to the people whose rights are infringed upon?
“As long as the communities where they live are kept free from crime, why should they care what happens to the people whose rights are infringed upon?”
Elaine,
Exactly.
Elaine,
I saw this earlier and was going to write it up, but got busy and didn’t get to it. Glad you did. This kind of propaganda effort needs the tincture of sunshine.
The FCC has suspended licenses for less.
What is the FCC complaint process? Who has standing to complain, just the listeners in the broadcast area?
Oro Lee,
I would think that Tawanda Jones might have standing.
Had posted this on one of your earlier threads Elaine,and my feeling is still the same.Fox is stoking this thing and I don’t think they realize how some people can really get hurt behind this BS.
That saying” what comes around goes around “has a reason for being.
Since we are talking about Fox read this with no liquid in hand,do not want be responsible for making someone choke with laughter:
“Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was so incensed by the shooting of two New York City police officers that he interrupted his vacation Monday night to phone into “The O’Reilly Factor” and call for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (D) resignation”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-oreilly-demands-bill-de-blasio-resignation
WBFF apologizes for misleading edit on videotape of protest chant
http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82373370/
Excerpt:
The Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate aired the misleading video in the wake of news of two New York City police officers being murdered by a gunman from Baltimore.
News and social-media reports surfaced Monday denouncing the misleading edit and showing the original C-SPAN video versus the edited one.
Rather than comment when reached by phone Monday, Bill Fanshawe, general manager of Fox45, referred The Sun to a statement posted at 4:46 p.m. Monday on its website.
“Fox45 is apologizing for an error made on Fox45 News at Ten last night,” the statement said.
“We aired a clip from a protest in Washington, DC where we reported protesters were chanting ‘kill a cop’. We received a phone call from Tawanda Jones, who is in the video, who informed us that the chant was actually ‘We won’t stop….We can’t stop…. ’til killer cops…. are in cell blocks’.
“We here at Fox45 work hard every day to earn your trust and bring you fair and comprehensive news from around the country. Although last night’s report reflected an honest misunderstanding of what the protesters were saying, we apologize for the error. We have deleted the story on our webpage and we offered to have Ms. Jones on Fox45 News at 5:00 tonight for a live interview. We had a constructive conversation with her earlier today and she has accepted our invitation and will join us for a live interview at 5:30.”
Baltimore FOX Affiliate Apologizes for Fake Protester Video
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/23/1353790/-Baltimore-FOX-Affiliate-Apologizes-for-Fake-Protester-Video
Excerpt:
I find it very hard to believe that this was an “honest misunderstanding” on the part of the FOX affiliate. Especially since it is well known that their parent network, FOX News, actively directs its affiliates to report their local news from the same conservative perspective as the national network. Plus, lets consider what goes on in a news studio when examining footage for airing. What you see on the air has probably gone through about 10 to 15 sets of eyes before being broadcast. You mean to tell me that no one in that studio realized that what was being said was not what is being reported? In a word…BULLSHIT.
But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the woman in the video was actually saying “kill a cop”. Remember when Sarah Palin depicted various politicians that she didn’t like in crosshairs (including congresswoman Gabby Giffords)? Remember when Sharon Angle spoke of “second amendment remedies”? Remember when Glenn Beck said that Barack Obama hates White people? The right-wing didn’t seem quite so worried about backlash from so-called hate-speech back when they were the ones doing it, even when it resulted in violence. Yet now they’re worried that “hate-speech” in all these protest (a.k.a. the acknowledgement that police racism actually exists) may possibly result in violence against cops. Funny how that works.
The bottom line is FOX News tried to spin a false narrative and got caught. Now they’re doing damage control trying to cover their asses and calling it “apologizing”.
More like “apologizes for getting caught”.
Any doubt that News Corp. conducts a concerted campaign of disinformation and propaganda now? Anyone?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-racial-issues-america-is-divided-both-black-and-white-and-red-and-blue/2014/12/26/3d2964c8-8d12-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html?hpid=z4 “Only 1 in 10 African Americans says blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment with whites in the criminal justice system. Only about 2 in 10 say they are confident that the police treat whites and blacks equally, whether or not they have committed a crime.
In contrast, roughly half of all white Americans say the races are treated equally in the justice system and 6 in 10 have confidence that police treat both equally.
But white Americans are hardly homogenous in their views about these issues. While 2 in 3 white Republicans say minorities and whites are treated equally in the criminal justice system, only 3 in 10 white Democrats agree with that view. Similarly, while more than 8 in 10 white Republicans say they are confident that police treat blacks and whites equally, half as many white Democrats share that opinion.
View Graphic
Non-whites, Democrats doubt justice system
The Post-ABC survey was undertaken after a grand jury in New York early this month declined to indict a police officer in the July chokehold death of Eric Garner, who was stopped on Staten Island for selling cigarettes without a license. That ruling followed a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict a white officer in the August shooting of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson.
The poll was completed before the Dec. 20 killing of New York police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu by gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who referenced the Brown and Garner deaths on social media before he acted. The killings came amid rising racial tensions in New York after weeks of protests over the decision not to issue an indictment in the Garner case.
Those killings have sparked widespread sympathy for the families of the two slain officers and outrage over Brinsley’s brazen act. But they have also heightened racial tension in New York and deepened preexisting strains between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City police union.
In the Post-ABC survey, there were areas of common ground across the races and among whites of both parties. Overwhelming majorities say they would support requiring police officers to wear small video cameras whenever they are on duty.
Similar majorities of blacks, whites and Hispanics say they would support a policy requiring an outside prosecutor, unconnected to the police, to investigate any case of a police officer killing an unarmed civilian.
But those two responses were exceptions to the pattern of division on most other questions. There is a 2-to-1 gap between whites and blacks on whether police are adequately trained to avoid the use of excessive force, and slightly larger differences on whether the police try hard to maintain good relations with varied community groups and whether they are h
And while 6 in 10 whites see the Ferguson and Staten Island killings as isolated cases, 3 in 4 blacks say they are a sign of a broader problem in the treatment of African Americans by police.
The lack of indictments in the Ferguson and Staten Island cases produced sharply negative reactions among African Americans surveyed, but whites reacted differently to the two cases. In a separate Post-ABC poll last month, a majority of whites said they approved of the decision by the Ferguson grand jury, but a plurality of whites in the new poll say they disapprove of the decision not to hand up indictments in the death of Garner (49 percent disapprove, 38 percent approve).
While the recent events have highlighted the differences between whites and blacks in their perceptions, they have not resulted in a significant change in those attitudes. For more than two decades, African Americans have been far more negative in their assessments of whether there is equal treatment of minorities and whites in the criminal justice system, with the overwhelming majority of blacks saying no.
Throughout that same period, with limited exceptions, a bare majority of whites have consistently said the system treats all races equally. In the latest survey, 6 in 10 Hispanics shared the view that the system treats minorities differently from how it treats whites.
Partisan differences among white Americans are a more recent phenomenon. A 1988 survey by the Associated Press and Media General found a 13-percentage-point gap between white Republicans and white Democrats in their assessment of how evenhanded the criminal justice system was.
By the fall of 2007, that had tripled to a 36-point gap, and it has stayed in that range since, with more white Republicans saying they think blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment and more white Democrats saying the opposite.
The growing partisan differences among white Democrats and Republicans over issues of race and justice coincided with the deepening red-blue divisions in the country that have affected attitudes on other issues, perceptions of political leaders, assessments of the state of the economy and the hardening of voting patterns.
Political partisanship and ideology play a stronger role in white Americans’ views on these issues than almost all other demographic and regional factors, according to a statistical analysis looking at the impact of many factors at once.
Higher-educated whites and those living in areas with larger black populations are more apt to doubt that minorities are treated equally in the justice system. But these factors are far outweighed by political considerations. When holding these and other demographics constant, conservatives and Republicans continue to be far more likely to say whites and blacks receive equal treatment in the justice system.
Here are some examples of the differences among whites from the latest Post-ABC poll:
●Eight in 10 white Republicans say the killings of Brown and Garner were isolated incidents, while more than 6 in 10 white Democrats say they are part of a broader pattern.
●Over half of white Republicans say they approve of the grand jury decision not to indict in the death of Garner, but only a fifth of white Democrats approve.
●Almost twice as many white Republicans as white Democrats say they are confident that police are held accountable for misconduct, and twice as many say they are confident that police are adequately trained to avoid the use of excessive force.”