Anti-War Protesters Have Every Right to Yell "F**k FOX News!"

Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 6:36 AM on August 25, 2008.

The DNC is barely under way in Denver, but protesters are already making themselves heard.  Their message: "Fuck corporate media!" and "Fuck FOX News!" 

That's the response FOX's Griff Jenkins receives when he throws himself into a swarm of marching anti-war protesters.  Jenkins plays incredulous well in this clip, asking over and over again why the protesters don't believe in freedom of speech—the irony of ironies, considering these protesters are exercising their first amendment rights with every step they take. 

As Jenkins is drowned out by a "Fuck FOX News!" chorus and disappears among a sea of middle fingers flipped at the camera, he cries out, "That's just not necessary."  Au contraire, Mr. Jenkins.  These calls are entirely necessary, considering FOX has served as the propaganda arm of the Bush administration for the last eight years. 

FOX has been Bush's biggest cheerleader in his war with Iraq.  FOX joined the corporate media in drumming up support for the war, preying on a vulnerable nation by drawing the false connection between Iraq and 9/11 and touting the administration's so-called "evidence" of WMDs.  Even as other corporate outlets realized their awful mistake when evidence proved the administration had no justification to go into Iraq, FOX offered no mea culpa.  Instead, the network continued to pretend the war was succeeding, when the reality was it had become a brutal quagmire that continues to this day.  But FOX didn't stop with Iraq.  Oh, no.  For more than a year now, the network has been war-whooping over Iran as well. 

FOX is guilty of war- and fearmongering, spreading the administration's lies at every turn, and smearing those who try to set the record straight.  So "Fuck FOX News?"  I'd say these anti-war protesters get the message just right.  

Tagged as: media, iraq war, free speech, fox news, first amendment, iran war, corporate, griff jenkins

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.