Fox News reporter acknowledges ‘an important reason to criticize myself and my company’ | The Raw Story
By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, October 3, 2011
Fox News has, in recent days, been doing their best to disparage members of the “99 Percent” activist group that kicked off the “Occupy Wall Street” protests … But this is a new low.
In a never-broadcast interview that surfaced online Monday, Jesse LaGraca, a protester at “Occupy Wall Street,” rhetorically attacks Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins, only to have Jenkins admit: “You have an important reason to criticize myself and my company.”
The protester, whose interview was filmed last Wednesday and cut, but later picked up exclusively by The New York Observer, was speaking about the role of Fox News in promoting right-wing conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck.
Jenkins had told him he was being given an “opportunity” to “put any message you want out there,” without manipulation.
“Take for instance when Glenn Beck was doing his protest, and he called the president a person who hates white people and white culture,” LaGraca said. “That was a low moment in Americans’ history, and you guys kinda had a big part in it. So, I’m glad to see you coming around and kinda paying attention to what the other 99 percent of Americans are paying attention to, as opposed to the far-right and fringe who would love to just destroy the middle class entirely.”
Jenkins replied: “Alright, fair enough. You have a voice, and an important reason to criticize myself, my company, me. What else? Let me ask you this: In fairness, does this administration, President Obama, have any criticism as to the financial situation the country is in now?”
LaGraca replied that he, and many others, would like to see more “Jesus stuff” — as in, “feeding the poor and health care for the sick.”
“I find it really entertaining that people hold the Bill of Rights up while they’re screaming at gay soldiers, but they just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that a for-profit health care system doesn’t work,” he concluded.
Far from exposing an unseen side of the “Occupy Wall Street’ demonstration, the unaired interview exposes a new side of reporter Griff Jenkins, who just two years ago was quite literally cheerleading protesters as he traveled cross-country with the Koch brothers-funded “Tea Party Express.”
“I don’t know about you Greta, but it seems like this groundswell is pretty legitimate,” he said of the conservative activists, calling them “the America that Washington forgot.”
It seems likely that Jenkins would call the “99 Percent” something else entirely.
This video was cut from a Fox News report for On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, later published by The New York Observer.
To watch the video, click on the title above
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