The Occupy Wall Street Interview Fox Didn't Want You To See
October 03, 2011 2:57 pm ET by Karen Famighetti
On Friday, a segment on The O'Reilly Factor featured producer Jesse Watters speaking with protesters at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration and concluding that they are the "sludge" of "every single left-wing cause" put into a blender. The segment was clearly intended to cast the protesters in a negative light.
Watch the video:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201110030019
The video shows Fox correspondent Griff Jenkins interviewing Jesse LaGreca at the protest. LaGreca is member of the Occupy Wall Street movement and in the video speaks articulately about various issues including the media's focus on minor issues such as Obama's birth certificate rather than the important issues facing the country, the difficult conditions faced by the middle class, and Fox News' role in putting the spotlight on Glenn Beck and his comment that Obama is a "racist."
The New York Observer reports that the interview was filmed on September 28 for On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, but it doesn't seem to have aired.
So, to recap, Fox News chose to air a video composed of snippets of Occupy Wall Street protesters speaking, giving various reasons for their presence at the rally, and then concluded that there was no unified reason for the protest. It neglected to air a video of one of the protesters making a lucid, reasoned argument for change and equality and holding Fox accountable for its behavior. Fair and balanced, as usual.
On a similar note, while Fox has been deriding the Occupy Wall Street protests, it heavily promoted Tea Party protests in 2009. For more on this, see here.
| 
