Cliven Bundy’s sons have joined a group of militia, who may be armed, in seizing and occupying a federal building. But Fox News is, predictably, downplaying the threat of violence and the outrageousness of the behavior of their former BFF’s sons.
From The Oregonian:
The occupation came shortly after an estimated 300 marchers – militia and local citizens both – paraded through Burns to protest the prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison on Monday.
…In phone interviews from inside the occupied building Saturday night, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy, said they are not looking to hurt anyone. But they would not rule out violence if police try to remove them, they said, though they declined to elaborate.
That sounds to me like an actual threat to police. Fox has been whining about the supposedly dangerous "anti-police rhetoric" of #BlackLivesMatter but “fair and balanced” Fox whitewashed the threat (pun intended) here:
Among (sic) Bundy and one of his brothers, Ryan Bundy, told The Oregonian they aren’t looking to hurt anyone, but would not back down if police try to remove the group from the property.
Do you think Fox would have said "not back down" instead of "not rule out violence" if #BlackLivesMatter was holed up in a federal building, blatantly threatening to harm police? Nah, me neither.
More from The Oregonian:
“The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,” Ammon Bundy said.
“We’re planning on staying here for years, absolutely,” he added. “This is not a decision we’ve made at the last minute.”
Neither would say how many people are in the building or whether they are armed. Ryan Bundy said there are no hostages, but the group is demanding that the Hammonds be released and the federal government relinquish control of the Malheur National Forest.
FoxNews.com picked up the quotes above, which apparently came from The Oregonian. But – funny – Fox left out the part about possibly being armed.
For comparison, let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at how Fox turned African American protesters into Blacks Behaving Badly:
Recently, FoxNews.com highlighted threatening behavior during Chicago protests over the killing of unarmed African American Laquan McDonald by police - even thoug Fox acknowledged that, “Protesters largely honored calls for restraint …with few arrests reported and only brief disruptions to city traffic.”
City officials and community leaders had long braced for the footage of the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged with murder earlier Tuesday. They feared the kind of turmoil that occurred in cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after young black men were slain by police or died in police custody.
Shortly after the video’s release, protesters began marching through city streets. Several hundred people blocked traffic on the near West Side. Some circled police cars in an intersection and chanted “16 shots.”
… Later, along Michigan Avenue, at least one person was detained, which led to a tense moment as protesters tried to prevent police from taking him away. Some threw plastic water bottles at officers and sat behind a police vehicle, refusing to move. Officers pulled them away, and the vehicle sped off. The Chicago Tribune reported that at least three people were detained by police, while one officer was taken to an ambulance with minor injuries.
We look forward to seeing how Sean Hannity, the champion of racist Cliven Bundy’s threats toward law enforcers in Nevada, condemns this behavior. Or not.
And that reminds me of another funny thing. Fox acts as though the single most important tactic in fighting terrorism is to name it. But I can't find that word anywhere in the article.
In fact, it's hard to find the article at all on FoxNews.com, even though it's supposedly the top trending article right now.
Here's the top section of the home page, as I write this. Not a word about the Bundy terrorism.
Fox buried the story at the bottom of the "Latest News" section of its homepage.
Maybe Fox is waiting until it can figure out a way to blame President Obama.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
