Fox Falsely Dubs Alleged White House Attacker As "'Occupy' Shooter"
Fox & Friends claimed that alleged White House shooter Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez had been "tied to [the] Occupy" movement, even calling him the " 'Occupy' shooter." In fact, investigators have reportedly "found no connection between him and the Occupy protesters."
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Fox & Friends Dubs Ortega-Hernandez The "'Occupy' Shooter"
Fox & Friends Graphic Claims Shooter "Tied To Occupy" Movement. During the November 17 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson asked Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin: "It looks like this White House shooting suspect may have tried to blend in with the Occupy protesters in D.C. when he came from out West. So I pose this question to you this morning: What would have happened if a tea party person had tried to do that?" Malkin responded that "there is now conflicting testimony or evidence of whether he was in the Occupy D.C. camp, but apparently, reportedly, allegedly there is somebody within that movement who has confirmed that he was there at the camps." Malkin later noted that "the guy was just completely off his rocker and had nothing to do with any coherent sense of political ideology." But during the segment, onscreen text continued to tie Ortega-Hernandez to the Occupy D.C. movement:
[Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/17/11]
In Fact, Investigators Have Reportedly Found "No Connection" Between Ortega-Hernandez And Occupy D.C.
Washington Post: Investigators "Have Found No Connection Between [Ortega-Hernandez] And The Occupy Protesters." From a November 16 Washington Post article:
In trying to determine why he recently traveled to the nation's capital from the western part of the country, investigators searched the Occupy D.C. campground near the White House but have found no connection between him and the Occupy protesters, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said the motive for the gunfire might have been simple anger: Ortega-Hernandez "hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society," the official said. [The Washington Post, 11/16/11]
Sounds more like a Teabagger, to me.
FOX: 'mic check' your hosers
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TWOP
They are literally trying to shift public sentiment about an organization by knowingly lying about the affiliations of a violent criminal. We know Fox lies and distorts all the time, but it's especially destructive and egregious when they knowingly falsely attribute acts of violence to smear individuals and groups for political gain.
They tried to imply the Gabby Gifford's shooter was some wild eyed progressive. That was false and irresponsible, but this latest attempt takes it a step further by casting a specific organization, in this case Occupy Wall Street, as being responsible.
Fox News has gone way too far with this.
I mean no disrespect, but the wording "gone way too far with this" implies there are times they don't.
If there are any such times, I'm unaware of them.
Maybe in their sports reporting?
Previously they would mislabel and imply the behavior of a criminal as coming "from the left" or assign high profile public figures as those whose rhetoric "inspired" the shooter.
With this latest jump, we've fully entered that realm where Fox news has done exactly what science fiction authors, and totalitarian regimes have exposed us to. They are using the power of their influence over the public to create downright hatred of a group of private citizens by assigning blame to them for what is essentially an act of terror....with absolutely no evidence to support their claims.
It's sometimes hard to see the grades of "slippery slope", but I think Fox just sent us down a significant new portion of that downward slide.
That is possible but he is consistant about what he is reasonable about and what he is insanely delusional about.
I completely disagree. That is dismissive of the messengers, as if one would say, "Oh, those silly people, they don't know what they're talking about. Don't take them seriously."
Those four people and their writers are making statements that are completely premeditated, deliberate, serious. Listen again to Michelle Malkin--she is not "sloppy." She is doing her level-best to present all the talking points she can, agenda-driven, nicely wrapped and tied in a bow. She would only be "reckless" if she were saying that while in the middle of one of the Occupy crowds. Instead, she is in the safe haven of Fox News, in studio, with her tribe.
It is "crap" to a lot of people, but it is gospel to others. I take that seriously.
Ortega-Hernandez (D) if they want Roger to give them an attaboy.
To quote Donald Rumsfeld: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!"
I think Fox has decided to run with that here, and they've taken the absence of evidence linking the shooter and Occupy Wall Street to mean that they're going to imply evidence in it's absence.
This is some really scary dystopian propaganda here. To imagine that in our America, the top rated cable news channel could simply make such claims out of thin air in order to smear a group of citizens they despise for purely political reasons.
I find they tend to like to shoot first, and then just say the person was "Anti-American/Freedom/Trying to take my gun away" crap.
These two guys were insisting that there was a "mastermind" behind the French and Russian Revolutions. That all Unions were apart of a "international conspiracy to destroy our freedoms". And that "The government is involved and helps brainwash the American people".
2 hours of wasted debate, me going into detail, and them using very broad generalizations. Then one of them said "I've been very reasonable and civil with an ignorant liberal like yourself". In which I responded to "Civil? You dismissed every point I've made, you've refused to delve any deeper into a subject then just scratching the surface, and you have repeated called me names. If we were talking face to face, you'd be like people on Fox, who practically scream over anyone with a different opinion."
To which the other one responded "If we were talking face to face, you'd be on the ground cowering after we kicked your anti-American @$$ or we'd have killed you and dumped you in a ditch".
I ended the conversation there with "Violence, how original coming from the right, when you can't win with words, you threaten to beat and kill people. That's not the American way, that's the way of a tyrant. Nice to see you guys on the same level as people like Saddam Hussein." and left the chat room.
Where no one questions but blind obedience is essential.
Where their idea of freedom is you losing yours.
Where republicans attack you because when you question their policies and they know they dont work they see it as a personal attack on them.
Where the truth is gone and pathological lying is the mainstay especially for republican presidents.
Where the one with the most money wins and makes the rules.
Where the middle class is expendable for the most dollars.
Where oil profits matter more than human life.
Where christianity has no ethics and greed rules.
This shooting has Tea Party written all over it.
youtube.com/watch?v=dL7QRluEeEk
I will not cut and paste a link and watch. Please provide a better way next time, if you can.
Secondly, and I mean really, does anyone take Michele Malkin seriously? A hate filled, vitriolic pitbull through and through.
The attitude would be somewhat forgivable if she was every right about anything.
Remember Byron Williams and the cop killing scumbag who both adored Glenn Beck?
Were they Occupiers too?
The idea of a real populist movement not fabricated by oil billionaires really bugs Roger Ailes' puppets and hacks.
What I find particularly interesting is that Fox went out of it's way to promote the Tea Party rallies, grossly over-stated their attendance and all but celebrated their existence. Now, with the Occupy demonstrations, they've gone out of their way to downplay their size, lie about them and try everything in their power to destroy them. Is that fair and balanced? Is that being a news organization? How anyone can still call them that is mind-boggling at this point. The fact is that the Occupy protests completely dwarf the Tea Party events, and it's not even close, but you would never know that if all you watched was Fox News.
Bill O'Reilly recently arrogantly declared the Occupy movement over. On the contrary, Bill. It's Fox News who's done. Sure, you'll still have your stupid little show on that joke of a news channel but you're the ones who have failed. The Occupy movement is growing more every day, despite your channel's best efforts to silence it. You tried to steer a country in one direction, and you succeeded in some parts of the country by getting these Tea Party clowns elected, but that success will be short-lived. You aren't going to kill the Occupy movement. Fox News is insignificant.
Need proof? Just count the number of republicans or right wingers these nut cases have shot at.
When they start shooting republicans I'll listen to their excuses.