A Fox News producer has been caught red-handed cheerleading teabaggers at the DC Teabagfest a week ago. Her superiors have allegedly disciplined her.
Video is here.
Bryan Boughton, Faux Nooz Channel's Washington Bureau Chief, told the Huffington Post,"The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined."
What form of discipline has Faux meted out? Thirty minutes in Bill O'Reilly's shower with a falafel and some hummus?
The video reveals a blatant attempt by a Faux producer to influence the event being covered. That is as outrageous as the NBC exploding trucks that O'Reilly and other right-wingers like to dredge up from time to time. In fact, to the extent that it is an attempt to convey a more impressive political event than would otherwise have occurred, it's worse.
This is blatant news distortion.
As public trustees, broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news. Broadcasters are responsible for deciding what their stations present to the public. The FCC has stated publicly that "rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest."
Faux News is a cable channel, not a broadcaster, but it holds FCC licenses for the facilities used to beam on-the spot coverage of events to production facilities. And Faux broadcast stations use some Faux News footage from time to time. That may have happened here. If so, the offense is multiplied.
So much for "Fair and Balanced."
Update: For those who would like to file a complaint with the FCC, go here. Select, "Broadcast (Radio and Television), Cable, and Satellite Issues." Click Next. Choose, "Unauthorized, unfair, biased, illegal broadcasts (does NOT include Obscene, Profane or Indecent material)." Click Next. Click on, "Online Form." Fill out the resulting form. Supply the url: http://is.gd/...
Give 'em Hell!