Fox Nation Invents Smear That Van Jones “Threaten[ed] Violence”

It's no surprise that Fox News isn't fan of former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones. The network made it a full-time job to discredit Jones during and after his tenure in the White House -- to the point where Jones' lawyer sent Fox a cease-and-desist letter demanding Fox stop repeating its “sensational and inflammatory” attacks on Jones.

So it should come as no surprise that Fox is still manufacturing smears of Jones. The latest comes from Fox Nation, which posted a September 29 appearance by Jones on MSNBC's The Last Word under the following headline:

Fox Nation headline

Of course, Jones said nothing of the sort.

Jones' “October offensive” comment is clearly a reference to his effort to “build a counterbalance to the tea party” and “take back the American dream and to rescue America's middle class.” Here are Jones' actual comments from The Last Word:

JONES: Well, first of all, I think everybody should hold onto your seats. October is going to be the turning point when it comes to the progressive fight back. You can see it coming. When Warren Buffett comes out and says, look, we've got to do something to raise taxes and do better by America, and you've got these young kids who are going out there on Wall Street.

You called it, you said, you got young people, they're good kids, they've graduated from college. Some of them have gone over there and fought wars and come back and can't find a job. There's a generation of Americans looking around saying, “What is the American Dream going to look like for me?” They're going to be standing up.

We are a part of something called the American Dream Movement. We're having a huge summit on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Come -- you can go to rebuildthedream.com and find out more about it.

We are going to build a progressive counterbalance to the tea party. Eighty percent of Americans agree with everything that you say on this show, but we have no voice. We know that jobs are more important, and this phony, made-up deficit stuff they talk about. We know that people who have done well in America should do well by America and start paying America back in the form of more fair taxes.

People who benefited from the bailouts and from the tax breaks should start paying America back. They're doing great.

Everybody else is suffering. That is 80 percent of the majority. And we're going to now have a voice.

And you're going to see an American fall, an American autumn, just like we saw the Arab spring. You can see it right now with these young people on Wall Street. Hold onto your hats. We're going to have an October offensive to take back the American dream and to rescue America's middle class.

What's even more hypocritical about Fox Nation's smear is that Jones' promotion of his effort to “take back the American Dream” pales in comparison to Fox's relentless promotion of the tea party protests of 2009 and 2010. Fox even produced a “revolution” comparison itself:

Fox Growing Revolution

Later, after posting what was clearly an inflammatory and fabricated accusation that Jones was threatening violence, Fox Nation resorted to a familiar method of correcting its journalistic malpractice: It added a question mark:

Fox Nation Headline 2