File FCC Complaint: WBFF Fox 45 News inciting with lies
December 23rd, 2014
Time for a complaint to the FCC, this is too serious to go unreported. Here’s the FCC Complaint page, scroll down to “TV File Complaint” and hold WBFF Baltimore accountable.
What’s at issue? WBFF Fox 45 in Baltimore both edited a protest chant and said in a voiceover that the protesters were saying “so kill the cops.” And that’s a lie. And no, it’s not an innocent one. I’ve done a few years in radio, know about editing, and the chant was repeated and repeated, and they had to work to falsely report it, both in editing of the chant, and in the voiceover. Innocent mistake? NO! WRONG! It wasn’t just once, but TWICE! Someone had to edit it and someone else did the voiceover, and I’d guess that someone else told them both how to do it and what words to use.
Here’s the original FALSE report and note they tie it in to the police assassination in New York:
Shame, shame, SHAME! File a complaint with the FCC:
The WBFF Fox 45 embedded code doesn’t work, so here’s THEIR PAGE ON THIS AND “APOLOGY”, and their link to the WBFF interview: Fox 45 interviews Tawanda Jones . There’s a comment section — be sure to tell them what you think! WBFF stresses that this was an “HONEST error” (emphasis is theirs) but as Tawanda Jones notes, how is that possible? The chant was repeated over and over and over. They did a voiceover. Tawanda Jones, I hope you’re shopping for a heavy hitting attorney to sue them and shut this down.
A compilation of the pieces of this story from TPM:
TPM: Baltimore Fox affiliate edits protest footage to sound like “Kill a Cop”
This is their roundabout admission from Facebook:
Last night on Fox45 News at Ten we aired a story regarding the increased risk in being a police officer in light of recent grand jury rulings and the shooting deaths of two police officers in New York City. We aired part of a protest covered by CSPAN that appeared to have protesters chanting “kill a cop”. We spoke to the person in the video today and she told us that is not what she was chanting. Indeed, Tawanda Jones, says she was chanting, “We won’t stop ‘til killer cops are in cell blocks”. We invited Tawanda to appear on Fox45 News at 5:00 and Fox45 News at Ten tonight for an interview so we can discuss the video and the recent violence in New York City. She has kindly accepted and we will bring you that tonight.
That’s not adequate. When they’ve reported such inflammatory lies, how can something like that ever be retracted? Something like this, particularly because the false notion that protestors are wanting to “kill cops” has to be loudly and publicly stopped, with strong action by the public and regulators, with monitoring and correcting each and every instance that protesters are branded, and a lawsuit or two by every protester falsely “quoted” and labeled. SHAME! This is false propaganda, abuse of media power at its worst.
December 24th, 2014 at 9:54 am
Fox 45 news should be held accountable for false reporting.Please investigate this situation.