What in the world happened in Zanesville, Ohio yesterday?
In one evening, this town of 25,000 saw a Tea Party, an entirely separate protest with a 70 foot hot air balloon and a Koran-burning extremist undertake a three county "chase" and stake-out of Rep. Zack Space.
You can thank Fox News, who was there every step of the way.
First, the most audacious part of the story, the antics of "Coach" Dave Daubenmire. In the words of a blogger on Daubenmire's own site:
Coach Dave and a handful of dedicated citizens chased Zack Space across three counties last night in an attempt to secure a face to face meeting with their Congressman. [...]
For three hours the group waited for someone from the Congressman's office to speak with.[...]
The entire event was filmed by FOX NEWS NATIONAL and will be shown Friday from 6-7 EST on FOX REPORT with Brett Baier.
Apparently, Fox News spent hours covering Daubenmire's antics across Ohio countryside.
Before they went, did Fox spend even a single minute looking into Daubenmire?
Here's Daubenmire leering at a child, who is staring at a fetus he has out for display on the streets of Columbus.
Here's another picture of him burning a freshly-ripped Koran:
Just today, the Columbus Dispatch reported this reader reaction in an article about another of Daubenmire's planned stunts:
A central Ohio resident who read similar language in a newspaper advertisement for one of the Hebron meetings was alarmed and e-mailed The Dispatch that it sounded like a militia mobilizing to take down the government.
Yes, he's not only a man of actions, but of words. Earlier this year, he wrote of President Obama:
With his silver tongue, and his mulatto ancestry he was able to lure away enough-middle-of-the roaders to carry him on his magic carpet to the highest office in the land. [...]
But let there be no doubt, he is the marionette that the communist puppet masters had been grooming for years. A true Manchurian Candidate he was the perfect hand-picked front man programmed to do the communist’s bidding. With the help of the socialist media, the socialist labor unions, and the socialist entertainment industry he was swept into office with the bogus claim that he was America’s first "black" president. He was the first president "of color," to be sure. But the color is red, not black.
Fox News in particular should have been interested to read the rest of Daubenmire's article from March. Daubenmire goes on to lay out his entire game plan. Speaking about Tea Parties and 912 meetups, he says they:
...may garner media attention, it may invigorate those that attend, but in the long run, without an established, focused plan of attack these events will not accomplish what the well-intentioned attendees pray will happen. [...]
Take the focus off of Obama and begin to apply pressure to the person in your district elected to represent you! Demand he make a choice. He will either stand with the people (who are gathered outside of his office with signs and megaphones) or with America’s first red president. Divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book… [...]
If you have any influence in any of these rallies, please change the location and begin to congregate outside the offices of your Congressional Reps. Make appointments with them the day of the rally. [...]
Force them to publicly choose between the red President and red blooded Americans.
This isn't a case of Fox News pointing a camera for a minute at a lunatic assembled outside at an event they were already covering.
No, Fox apparently sent a camera crew to a town of 25,000, an hour away from a major airport, then followed a racist, Koran-burning lunatic "across three counties", and sat outside while he harassed Rep. Space at a private fundraiser for three hours.
The kicker?
"I’d just like to talk to him," said Daubenmire. [...]
Later, Space offered to meet with two of the group, without the media present.
Daubenmire rejected the offer, and said they would wait until Space came out.
Daubenmire's only interest in putting on the most audacious show possible, and Fox News is enabling the most extreme of the extreme.
Incidentally, this isn't the first time that a Fox outlet has gone to extreme lengths to enable tea partiers attempting to embarrass Rep. Space.
Just three days ago, a Cincinnati Fox affiliate sent a camera crew on a round-trip of over 5 hours, to go to Rep Space's Zanesville office. Was there a major announcement on tap or a ten thousand person-strong Tea Party welling up?
No:
Two men, Ron Elble and Tom Montgomery, had intended to drop off a letter to Space's Zanesville office complaining about the congressman's lack of conducting a town-hall forum on the issue here.
Instead, they were surprised to meet Space and sat down with him for about an hour and a half, Elble said.
Ask anyone who has ever worked in activism or public relations what the odds are of a TV crew spending AN ENTIRE DAY on any story, particularly if the story is two anonymous citizens dropping a barely controversial letter off to a not particularly well-known elected official.
Space said while he was surprised by a news crew from Fox 19 Cincinnati who were also at the office with the men, he sat down with all of them.
"I thought it was just two guys coming, and there ended up being like six or seven people," Space said. "So I went and got doughnuts and coffee and we sat down. We had a good conversation."
[One of the protesters] Montgomery, a long-time insurance agent who deals with health insurance, also said it was a good meeting.
As the Cincinnati station has not aired this footage, one can only assume it is also destined for the aforementioned 'Fox Report' set to air tonight at 6.
Will Rep. Space will be displayed as magnanimous and reasonable, as both the protesters and the local media describe?
Or will the "fair and balanced" reporting of Fox show something else entirely? Stay tuned.
Cross-posted at ProgressOhio.