Fox News Report on Day Laborers "Hyperbole and Opinion"

by Dave Bennion · 2009-05-19 07:00:00 UTC
Topics:

According to this recent decision (pdf) in a California lawsuit by a group of day laborers against Fox News, when Fox proclaimed there was a "manhunt at the border" and ran photos of seven alleged attackers on the screen on a "Wanted" poster, what they really meant was that a deranged Minuteman was accosting day laborers and giving false statements to the police.  The Minuteman accused a group of day laborers at a migrant camp of assaulting him.  Later, he himself was prosecuted and charged with assaulting one of the workers.

But instead of presenting actual news, Fox News ran a story where the Minuteman put forward his claims on Sean Hannity's show with the caption "Manhunt at the Border."  In the course of the case, "Fox News agreed it would not assert that the alleged statement was true, i.e., that law enforcement officials were conducting a ‘manhunt' for plaintiffs." (p. 23)  Instead, Fox relied on the defense that "the statements were protected as fair comment, hyperbole, and opinion."

Just remember the next time Sean Hannity presents information to his viewers that what you're seeing is not the news, but "hyperbole and opinion."

Read more on this here and here.

Dave Bennion
PREVIOUS STORY:
I Want YOU to Vote ... and Be Deported
NEXT STORY:
Community Members Fight Detention of High School Graduate with a Mental Disability

COMMENTS (43)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.