Fox News Fabricates Photo Of Gunman In Seattle ‘Autonomous Zone’
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Legal journalist Mark Joseph Stern noticed on Friday that Fox News added a man carrying a military-assault rifle into images of Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) -- a police-free area currently occupied by protesters against police violence.
Fox News featured the images on its website without any mention that they had been altered. Moreover, the images placed the exact same gunman in two different photos. In one, the gunman's left arm had been weirdly cut off in a straight line from the shoulder to the elbow.
Fox claimed that the image of a shattered window in the CHAZ was taken this week, but it seems that was actually taken on May 30.
Fox News, a totally normal and respectable media outlet, digitally manipulated photos of Seattle’s “autonomous zone… https://t.co/ztFyZEJhmn— Mark Joseph Stern (@Mark Joseph Stern) 1592061227.0
"Given how vigorously Fox News personalities have argued that men toting assault weapons in public are not inherently threatening," Stern wrote, "it's curious the outlet digitally inserted a man toting a gun to make the autonomous zone seem more threatening and scary."
Fox News eventually issued the following editor's note:
A FoxNews.com home page photo collage which originally accompanied this story included multiple scenes from Seattle's 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' and of wreckage following recent riots. The collage did not clearly delineate between these images, and has since been replaced. In addition, a recent slideshow depicting scenes from Seattle mistakenly included a picture from St. Paul, Minnesota. Fox News regrets these errors.
Here are some reactions to the news of Fox's photoshopping from Twitter:
@mjs_DC @ShreddedTweets5 When this is all over @foxnewsnight needs to be shut down and dismantled. They're not news, they're propaganda.— Antifa Larry M. Retzlaff (@Antifa Larry M. Retzlaff) 1592071731.0
@mjs_DC Flashback: Editing chants to say "Kill a cop". https://t.co/RUGOAKuJ9Y— LibertyIsStillALady (@LibertyIsStillALady) 1592064492.0
@mjs_DC Flashback: Fox - Muslim no-go zones a lie: https://t.co/7l1rIFPAKD— LibertyIsStillALady (@LibertyIsStillALady) 1592064576.0
@mjs_DC This goes beyond the issues of ethics alone. This was a planned attempt to incite one group of people. It i… https://t.co/DrpfHfVX81— Ryan Hurst (@Ryan Hurst) 1592066107.0
@mjs_DC And not only is he “floating in the foreground” but he doesn’t move at all and has the very same stance and… https://t.co/r5D4MHiM2j— suspersists (@suspersists) 1592076226.0
@mjs_DC @theneedledrop Ive made better looking youtube thumbnails than this. Who did they hire to do this and who c… https://t.co/pkxA5ltRVh— BeachWave Media (@BeachWave Media) 1592074027.0
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