Fox News Portrays Health Care Advocates As Violent

This morning in Washington, DC, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, there was a rally held to protest the insurance companies and lobbyists responsible for abusive increases in insurance rates and opposition to health care reform. America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an industry lobbying organization, were meeting at the Ritz.

The rally actually got a little coverage on Fox News. Megyn Kelly’s program showed live streaming video of the health care protest with reporting from Jake Gibson. Suffice it to say that it was something less than fair and balanced.

During the segment Kelly and Gibson made suggestions that the crowd was potentially violent. They talked about arrests and worried aloud about what was going to happen when the health care executives and lobbyists meeting inside the hotel came out. The chyron said

“Police Concerned Protesters Might Storm Ritz Carlton in D.C.”

Of course there was no evidence presented that the police had any such concern and there was no interview with the police. There also were no arrests, contrary to Gibson’s reporting. The protest ended without incident and Kelly failed to note that no storming of the hotel took place.

This is typical of the blatant bias exhibited by Fox News. During months of protests at town hall meetings where Tea Baggers were overtly hostile, loud, rude, and aggressive, Fox News never insinuated that they presented any sort of threat whatsoever. That was true despite their signs that promised they would “come armed next time.” And some were even observed carrying guns.

However, when a couple of thousand people gather peacefully to advocate on behalf of humane health care policies, Fox portrays them as thugs who are preparing to storm the defenseless executives and lobbyists who are just trying to have a quiet meeting in a luxurious hotel.

Fair and balanced? You decide.

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5 thoughts on “Fox News Portrays Health Care Advocates As Violent

  1. Well, well, well. Another lib web site. Dedicated to to reforming the “media” are you Mark? Strange no comments about MSNBC, or CNN, or ABC News or CBS. Gee that is strange. All the focus appears to be on FOX and their commentators. Tsk, tsk. Slanted and biased you are.

    Rachel Maddow, Keith Obernman, good ole Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and the list goes unfortunately on are pathetic and are some of the old guard, core contributors to media bias.

    You and all you lib friends must accept the Democrats are going to get smoked in November and Mr. Obama is a one-termer.

    Oh yes and this whole web site is a pathetic mess. Nice work!

    • First of all, you have not looked very hard on my site if you were unable to find criticisms of media other than Fox. Sure, Fox Is a big target because they are so blatantly biased and unethical, but they ware not alone and I have covered numerous shortcomings of other news organizations.

      Secondly, Maddow and Olbermann certainly have biases, but they do not lie to support them. That is the big difference between them ans their counterparts at Fox. And why on earth are you bringing up Rather and Brokaw who don’t even have network jobs anymore?

      Third, Democrats are likely to lose seats in Congress this year as almost every party does after a presidential election, But I would wager that the loss will be less than the average. I would also happily take a bet on Obama’s reelection in 2012. He is presently beating EVERY prospective Republican in polling, Palin, Romney, Huckabee, you name it. And the Republican Party is even lower in the polls than Dems. So I wouldn’t be so haughty if I were you.

      Finally, thanks for visiting and commenting on my pathetic mess. I think I may change the name of this site to PatheticMess.com. It would still apply just as much to the media.

  2. @R&L,

    Granted, this isn’t the greatest website around. You might take a look at fair.org who regularly takes on these and other media outlets for their conservative bias. Lets face it, they are all corporations and thus they all have their problems with framing of information.

    Granted, the Democrats are having their problems (some would say because they don’t have the courage of their convictions). The only party more unpopular would be the Repugs. If Mr Obama is a “one termer” he has only his own lack of a spine to blame. Bi-partenship doesn’t work when you have one party that is determined to oppose any positive move lest it lead to presidential popularity.

    As for your comment, nice that you make no attempt to address the substance of this post and revert immediately into FOX talking-points mode. Why don’t you actually respond to what has been said in the post? I would venture that you have no defense. Typical right winger, bereft of any positive ideas and hooked to the FOX IV Drip of stupid rhetoric. At least I have to give you credit for actually being here in the first place.

    • What do you mean “isn’t the greatest website around” ???

      I resemble that remark.

  3. I figured I’d have to concede the point. Of course, I don’t care about glitz and expensive web programming in my political sites. I’m sure FOX has the best site money can buy, but I don’t hang out there.

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