On Monday, Fox News’ “the O’Reilly Factor” broadcast a segment about the workers’ rights demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin, that used a level of paranoia and falsities seemingly inspired by the John Birch Society. O’Reilly asked correspondent Mike Tobin if the protesters were “professional leftists” or just normal people. Fox News then played b-roll of a demonstration getting ugly — that clearly wasn’t a demonstration in Wisconsin. How do we know? There were palm trees in the background. Note to Fox: Palm trees don’t grow in Wisconsin.
Best of all, Fox used classic Orwellian language to defend its use of the palm-tree b-roll: The network claimed on www.Mediaite.com that “O’Reilly clearly identified the videos as collectively coming from ‘all over the country’ (and not Wisconsin).” Reporter Mike Tobin also lied that he was punched by a protester on Friday. The truth is he was merely patted on the shoulder. See for yourself. “Fair and Balanced” yeah right.
