Fox News Sinks To New Low, Reports Satirical Story (from The Onion) As Actual News

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/27/fox-parody/

Fox News Sinks To New Low, Reports Satirical Story As Actual News

On Tuesday, Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends” aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion.

The backstory: Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.

This actual story was then spoofed by a parody site called Associated Content, which made up quotes and details, such as the school’s intention to “create an anti-ham ‘response plan.’”

On Tuesday, Fox & Friends reported these parody quotes and details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!”

Watch a compilation at link~

Fox’s careless blunder made news in the town and “launched an immediate avalanche of angry phone calls and ugly e-mails to the school system.”

In the parody, the ham steak became a ham sandwich. Fake quotes were attributed to Superintendent Leon Levesque, Stephen Wessler of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, and one of the Somali students targeted in the incident. <…>

Following the Fox broadcast, Levesque’s office received dozens of angry phone calls and profanity-laced e-mails, made and sent by people all over the country, who charge the school district overreacted to what they believed from news reports to be a ham sandwich tossed at a Somali student. <…>

“Fox has figured out, from the calls we’ve gotten, that they’ve made a big mistake,” Wessler said.

“This is a wake-up call that the level of hate and anger, among a small population, is vibrant,” he added.

Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others reported the information as fact without checking. The national media, Levesque said, sees information posted online and “uses it as gospel.”

We’ve long known Fox News’ reporting was parody, but reporting parody news is a new low.

[liberal N proud]

1. Nothing on FOX can be trusted anyway

So they might as well be all satire for all I care.

[Ian David]

2. Who's laughing NOW, Fox Noise Channel? n/t

[mainegreen]

3. That mess up made big news here in Maine.

People were not impressed with how the mis-report was taken as fact.
Somali-Mainer issues are very sensitive here. I think a lot of people had misgivings about the group, but they have integrated well into our communities and have breathed new life back into some neighborhoods. I'm glad they're here.

[toddaa]

4. The Onion is a credible news organization

Compared Fox, anyway.

[ellacott]

5. Has Fox responded to this yet

People need to start suing them just like they've done with the National Enquirer

[BlooInBloo]

6. I saw it on Lou Dobbs 1-3 days ago.

[leftofthedial]

7. It's not just Faux, the ENTIRE corporate media

repeatedly airs rumors as fact, stories like this that would have taken about thirty seconds to fact check, opinion (RW opinion anyway) as fact, and repuke press releases as fact.

Yet they refuse to explore topics like 9-11 truth, lies about WMD, illegal wiretapping, treason in the WH, etc. because they can't multisource, cross-verify and get the Encyclopedia Brittanica seal of approval on any facet of those stories.

The corporate media needs to be purged and then regulated into submission.

[ellacott]

9. Completely agree n/t

[jazzjunkysue]

23. Lou Dobbs did it, too. Oops. Your bad, Lou. Tee Hee!

[ToeBot]

8. I would think this is a step-up for them, provided the story was actually funny n/t

[displacedtexan]

10. Here's a screenshot of the video... Just in case it gets pulled.

FOX will probably force Think Progress to take the video down.

[babylonsister]

14. Good idea; thanks. nt

[underpants]

11. Whoops

sorry I DID look. Did a search and everything. My bad.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. "We're not making this up"

True. Somebody else did. Fox merely reported the -- er -- story.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Gossip TV at its finest

Substance free sensationalism is what they do best. Sadly, America eats it up.

[populistdriven]

15. how could their reporters be so stupid?

haahahha he actually says "I'm not making this up" repeatedly, how could their reporters be so stupid? Basic journalism much? In the end Fox News doesn't care about being so wrong with their story because it achieves their goals of fanning their mostly Republican viewers unique triumvirate of racism, nationalism and fear.

[StefanX]

16. Revoke FOX's corporate charter and their broadcast license

I'm serious.

The airwaves belong to the public -- not to Rupert Murdoch. He has a license to use the public's airwaves. If he abuses that license, it should be pulled.

"The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest."

http://reddit.com/info/h7q5/comments

====

Ditto for his corporate charter. Incorporation is a privilege, not a right. If Rupert Murdoch abuses his corporation to endanger the public's safety, we have a legal basis for pulling his corporate charter.

"In theory, a corporation can have its charter revoked at any time, putting an end to its existence as a legal entity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation

"Commit an egregious wrong, and have your charter revoked. In other words, lose the state's permission to exist. It's an intriguing concept, because most of us never think about corporations needing anyone's permission to exist. But they do.

Throughout the nation's history, the states have had -- and still have -- the authority to give birth to a corporation, by granting a corporate charter, and to impose the death penalty on a corporate wrongdoer by revoking its charter."

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1810

[Poiuyt]

17. The parady was not from The Onion, but from Associated Content

Misleading headline

[guitar man]

18. I'll bet a steak dinner

that within a week or less, Faux News runs some talking head roundtable bullshit about how paradoy news sites should be "more clearly labeled" to avoid confusion or some horseshit like that.

[Oilwellian]

19. Lou Dobbs reported on it twice

First he reported it was a ham sandwich which leads me to believe he gets his news from Fox...then yesterday he reported it was a ham bone.

Somewhere in all of the media blubber, the fact that hate and harassment of minority students is lost. Another opportunity lost to discuss the problem and possibly prevent a future Columbine or VT incident.

[Karenina]

20. Hate and harassment of minority students is...

SOP. At some point the American people will have to take responsibility for their airwaves. Or maybe not.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

21. Have they broadcast a retraction? Love how the guy says he's checked it out,

the story's legit because he's seen it on a couple of web sites!
:eyes:

[Rude Horner]

22. Something like this happened a few years ago

when a news parody website similar to the Onion ran a story about a riot that broke out at a Kenny Rogers book signing, when they reported that he would not autograph a female fan's body part. The whole story was made up, but I had read that both ABC and AP reported the news story as fact, without checking into it's sources.

I had heard that the author of the website was trying to make a point that major news organizations report news that they do not fact check.

[DFW]

24. This comes as surprise to anyone?

"Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others reported the information as fact without checking."

If everyone were bothered that Fox reported stuff as fact without checking, there wouldn't be any
more Fox.

What bothers me is that most people who watch that station aren't in the slightest bothered about
that little detail.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Journalism for Dummies

Sounds like The Onion read the book, while Faux decided to ignore it because it was a librul publication.