Fox is doing it's level best to portray OWS as a coven of demented hippies. Jesse LaGreca was interviewed by them several weeks ago and fortunately there was another video camera which captured the full interview which I gather never aired.
Since Jesse LaGreca has another diary about Fox, I thought I should mention my own experience with the Fox Fair and Balanced way of presenting the news.
I too was interviewed by Fox. If anyone can get this up on You Tube, please send me a link and I'll embed it. If you care, I'm very close to the beginning, and my four seconds (edited from 7-9 minutes), begin with me saying, "this is long overdue . . ."
Update: Thanks to Angie in WA State for the You Tube.
I was at OWS on October 10th and happened to run into Ainsley Earhardt, one of the Fox hostesses who was doing a piece on OWS for Sean Hannity's show. She was deliberately interviewing the most outrageously garbed people she could find. I watched this for a while and finally said, "why don't you Fox people ever interview people like me? Do I look like an unwashed hippy?" She said, "I'd love to hear why you're hear." She asked me to come with her while her technicians got new batteries.
As we walked across Zuccotti Park, she allowed that she sympathized with much of what the protestors were advocating. Here's where it gets strangely interesting. Ainsley said I needed to know what a great guy Sean Hannity is, that if I ever met him, she knew, she just knew, I'd love him. And most important, that I should know that Sean grew up dirt poor and everything he has, he's earned. This is literally what she said. The clear implication being, anyone who has lost his home or his job, or his healthcare, is guilty as charged.
I spoke to Ainsley for around 7-9 minutes. Matter of fact, Ainsley was so impressed with me and what I said about OWS, that she asked how I could be reached, because she thought Sean would want to interview me for his radio show. I gave her my card, and she said she would be in touch. Never heard from her again. I'm not at all surprised, they don't want people like me on Fox.
So I did the interview fully expecting that none of it would be used. I was dressed in business attire, wearing fake diamonds in my ears, looking pretty damn middle class. My hair is not streaked the colors of the rainbow, and most shocking, I was coherent and explained--in some detail--why so many Americans were supporting OWS.
I talked about the uninsured, people being thrown out of their homes, students graduating with huge debt and no job prospects, the terrible income inequality in the United States, huge unemployment, and how having a thriving middle class is essential for our democracy.
Ainsley then told me (didn't ask me, she told me), that all the people who live around Zuccotti Park were complaining about the drums, congestion, etc. and what did I think of that? I said "Ainsley, that is such a crock of hooey. Everybody knows this is a totally commercial area, there are exactly zero residential buildings in the vicinity of the park."
None of what I said made it to Mr. Hannity's program, except the 3-4 seconds you can see.
Here's my challenge to Fox or any employee willing to email me my full interview. If any of this is wrong, if I didn't give a long and thoughtful response to the questions Ms. Earhardt asked, I will publically apologize.
Sean Hannity, as we all know, is small man, with a small mind. If I'm wrong Sean, produce the full interview, and I'll apologize.