Fox News Desperately Trying to Portray Madison as a War Zone
Fox News reporter Mike Tobin went on Bill O'Reilly's program Monday night to talk about the evil, violent union thugs who beat everyone up all the time. This is the same Mike Tobin who claims he was "hit" by protesters inside the Wisconsin Capitol a few days ago, which the magic of the Internet has since shown to be a questionable assertion. Still, Tobin sticks to his argument: Unions = Endless violence, everywhere. Bill O'Reilly, for his part, wonders "who's behind the chanting." Perhaps the Muslims? That's our guess.
And to emphasize the gory massacre that is Madison, the program then switches to some footage of a guy, a "union thug" presumably, shoving another person, with palm trees in the background. There are no palm trees in Madison, Wisconsin. Okay, maybe a few, as a northern university town's kitschy in-joke about how cold it is. But these are not those would-be palm trees. These are palm trees from Sacramento, from where the footage is taken. This is the footage that Tobin and O'Reilly use in their segment about the state of perma-violence in Madison, so that's a bit misleading.
But it's not the worst thing Fox News' producers have ever done. They were probably trying to show, you know, Union violence: It's spreading like wildfire across the country! Lock up your virgins! The point is, *obviously* don't watch Fox News if you expect the most accurate and empathetic coverage of public employees' union protests.