Think Progress caught Fox News using old campaign footage of a McCain/Palin rally from 2008 to make it appear like the crowds she's drawing on her book tour are larger than they are.
This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us.” But the pictures that the network chose to display on-air appeared to be old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign. Individuals in the crowd are seen holding McCain/Palin signs, and others are holding pom-poms and cheering wildly. “There’s a crowd of folks,” an enthused Jarrett observed, referring to the old footage.
Media Matters followed up that report with more facts to support the claim, which in my mind should be called a HOAX.
Earlier, Think Progress caught Fox News showing what was clearly footage of 2008 Sarah Palin campaign rallies but claiming that it was video of "huge crowds" attending Palin's book tour.
But in case the McCain-Palin campaign signs and tee-shirts clearly visible in the footage Fox aired aren't enough to make Fox apologize, here's further proof.
Here's a screenshot of the footage of one of the rallies that Fox's Gregg Jarrett showed today and claimed was "just coming into us" as part of the book tour:
And here's a photo posted last year by Florida TV station CFNews 13 of a November 1, 2008, Palin rally in Ocala, Florida:And here's a video of that same rally that TPM posted way back in 2008 -- when it actually happened.
Fox News is not operating like a news organization. In the FCC it states:
“Hoaxes. The Commission's prohibition against the broadcast of hoaxes is set forth at
Section 73.1217 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R. § 73.1217.This rule prohibits broadcast licensees or permittees from broadcasting false
information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if: (1) the licensee knows
this information is false; (2) it is foreseeable that broadcast of the
information will cause substantial public harm; and (3) broadcast of the
information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm
FOX News is passing on "false information" to the public. This must end. They were busted by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show when Sean Hannity used the same technique to make it seem like a tea party rally was bigger than it actually was. And you know Hannity was told to apologize by "legal" over the "Hoax" he tried to get away with. Inadvertent footage doesn't end up on a network show. That's a bogus explanation.
I think it's time we started to take action and the first step is to file an FCC complaint report here. Please join me here and at CrooksandLiars.com to expose these "Hoaxes" by News Corp.