FOX NEWS- The
Network for NeoNazis.
Edit: Fox Carolina Affiliate: Local News for NeoNazis
Folks, this story is bigger than I thought. And you're going to have to spare any typos I make, because I'm writing this up as quickly as possible before I get on a plane for holiday travel to be with the family.
Here we go. For starters, here's the original post I wrote for
TheDailyBackground.com:
This afternoon, a story has surfaced about a local FOX affiliate running a one sided piece which praises and advertises a site known for its members white supremacist and anti-Semitic viewpoints. At first it didn't seem like a particularly big story (hey, it is FOX, and it's just a local affil after all), but its gained legs. Here's a quick roundup of blogosphere coverage:
ThinkProgress ran the original story along with a video of the piecel news for "white activists" (their words- not mind *shudder*).
Blair Watch then followed up on the story here.
CrooksandLiars then picked the story up here.
Now, ThinkProgress has posted an update including an interview with the reporter who wrote the original FOX story. Choice quote:
[the FOX reporter] told Think Progress that she is unsure whether or not she will be doing a follow-up piece and is waiting to hear more from the "local community." When asked why she didn't include some voices that were critical of StormFront, she replied she did the story exactly as she was told to and that officials at the network were very pleased with her coverage.
You can read ThinkProgress' update here, and watch the original FOX piece (now pulled from their website) here.
Okay. Now that we've got some background on it, here's some updates:
The story was originally broken by
jesus general
RAWSTORY just broke that the local FOX AFFIL. is in fact a MEMBER OF STORMFRONT.ORG, the racist site in question- which they ran an advertisement of on primetime. RAWSTORY's article can be found
here.
But there's more...
You see, it's not just STORMFRONT.ORG which this racist group hosts. in fact, it turns out that STORMFRONT.ORG also hosts many OTHER HIGHLY RACIST SITES:
crooksandliars reports on
this part of the story
here. it seems that STORMFRONT.ORG also hosts the website
http://www.martinlutherking.org/, a website which calls MLK a traitor and a cheat and a liar. some truely horrible pamphelts on it are marketted to kids to print out and show their classmates around MLK day.
Let's take a moment to remember that FOX promoted this site. okay that's a long enough moment.
But there's more...
IT turns ous that they also host a site called crusader.net-- which redirects to stormfront. BUT. crusader.net (which proudly bears the words "Hosted by Stormfront White Nationalist Information Center") has the following atrocious texts on it, amoung others (list
here):
-
THE ENTIRE TEXT OF HITLER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY "MEIN KAMPF"
-"
Debunking the "Violence Against Women" Myth"
-
"Women for Aryan Unity The Aryan Struggle"
- a reworked edition of JOHN LENNON'S "IMAGINE"- which goes thusly:
Imagine there's no Niggers
It's easy if you try
No crime around us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living without fear...
Imagine there's no Jews
It isn't hard to do
No-one killing the unborn
And no pornography too
Imagine all the people
Living free of sleaze...
Imagine there's no faggots
I wonder if you can
No need for protecting kids
A brotherhood of normal man
Imagine all the people
In Hetero-normativity...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
and let's take another moment to remember that this is the site which fox news promoted. okay that's long enough.
that's about all i can write for now. i'm heading to visit relatives shortly. BUT- i'll leave you with the following:
-it's time to dig up some more dirt (there's plenty to be found, trust me). feel free to find some choice quotes from their white supremecist
library.
-it's time to
FORCE that FOX NEWS AFFILIATE TO RUN AN ON AIR PIECE PUBLICLY APOLOGIZING FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF THIS HATE FILLED WEBSITE.
CONTACT information for the FOX NEWS affiliate which ran this:
Fox Carolina WHNS.
http://whns.com/
(864) 288-2100
Fox Carolina is located at:
21 Interstate Court Greenville, SC, 29615
(I-85 and Pelham Road)
Phone: (864) 288-2100
Fax: (864) 297-0728
whns@foxcarolina.com
Tami Birckner, the reporter who ran the original story:
tami.birckner@foxcarolina.com
All right. time for me to leave on my vacation. Arlen Parsa, from
TheDailyBackground.com signing off. Happy whatever you celebrate.
UPDATE
All right. I just arrived at my hotel room, and logged on to see this diary on the reccomended list- with more than a few people offering some constructive criticism (which I appreciate by the way). I changed the title to include quotes, as was reccomended.
As for whether or not this is a story or a non-story, I have the following to say.
I did personally consider the fox story a promo. My reaction was the following: Either 1, this reporter did not do ANY background checking on a site she ran a story about- being a horrible reporter (because if she did- there would be NO way she could possibly in good consience run a story like that without mentioning the juicy bits. GOOD reporters look for conflict, controversy. GOOD reporters trust their instincts if they feel there's more than meets the eye). OR- she knew there was more to it, and either didn't want to know any more, or did know more, but didn't report it. Either way, if the piece did turn out like it did, because she was a bad reporter, or a really bad reporter, it doesn't matter in the end.
They ran a horrible story, and they should apologize or run a followup piece or SOMETHING. I took what was said on the stromfront ring of websites very personally. I come from a mixed race family, and it was incredibly hard to read what was on those sites. I'm sure people will think I'm just taking sloppy reporting too personally, and that's probably true- to an extent. But I think even if it was just amazingly, conviniently, almost impossibly bad reporting some action needs to be taken.
And with that said, RAWSTORY has more on the scoop. It seems that a FOX News radio and tv host has been linked to STORMFRONT's racist MLK site. Read mroe
here.