A Fox affiliate in Baltimore aired a segment on Sunday showing footage from a “Justice For All” demonstration in Washington, D.C. in which it edited a chant to sound like protestors were shouting “kill a cop.”
“At this rally in Washington, D.C. protestors chanted, ‘we won’t stop, we can’t stop, so kill a cop,'” the WBFF broadcast said.
But the full footage, flagged by Gawker on Monday via C-SPAN, revealed that the chant was “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, ’til killer cops are in cell blocks.”
The protest was attended by Rev. Al Sharpton. YouTube videos of the misinterpreted chant contain labels such as “Sharpton’s ‘Go Kill A Cop’ March.”
TPM reached out to WBFF’s news director for comment on Monday, but received no response.
In a Facebook post published Monday afternoon, the station addressed the discrepancies between its report and the raw video, and said it would invite one of the protestors on air Monday evening to “discuss the video and recent violence in New York City.”
Last night on Fox45 News at Ten we aired a story regarding the increased risk in being a police officer in light of recent grand jury rulings and the shooting deaths of two police officers in New York City. We aired part of a protest covered by CSPAN that appeared to have protesters chanting “kill a cop”. We spoke to the person in the video today and she told us that is not what she was chanting. Indeed, Tawanda Jones, says she was chanting, “We won’t stop ‘til killer cops are in cell blocks”. We invited Tawanda to appear on Fox45 News at 5:00 and Fox45 News at Ten tonight for an interview so we can discuss the video and the recent violence in New York City. She has kindly accepted and we will bring you that tonight.
Here is the original raw footage, via C-SPAN:
And here is an excerpt from the WBFF report:
I think Fox is going right up to the ¨Shouting-FIRE!-In-A-Crowded-Theatre¨ exception to the First Amendment. At the very least, it’s unconscionable.
They want a protestor to be sabotaged on live TV and questioned about every damn thing said or done in every protest. They don’t want to address why they made shit up to make it look worse.
They do want things to blow up it seems. It certainly would boost ratings.
So who again exactly is promoting dangerous rhetoric? And why exactly are they inviting her on to discuss the recent violence in New York?
They didn’t even admit they were wrong. This is a setup.
The f’in losers are going to make her look like a dirt bag. She should show up with her lawyer demanding to know why they edited her words!