Monday, August 17, 2020

What Fox News Didn't Tell You (And Their Video Doesn't Show You) About the Portland Truck Driver Incident



Even though Fox News claims to show you "graphic video" of the "Portland truck driver being pulled from his truck and brutally beaten," the actual video doesn't show you jack squat? 

At least, at the time I posted this.  In fact, though it tells the story (that actually doesn't make much sense) - the video itself doesn't show the incident at all;  it shows the protests and tear gas, as per usual - period. 

That's the problem with right-wing news - their readers never critically think and ask questions like, "Wait, where is the supposed 'graphic video" of the beating?   And WHY was the man's truck crashed in the middle of a city street?"

That was the first question I asked when I read these headlines.

I guess that thought never occurs to their readers?  

They just readily accept a version of a story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, the way they tell it.  And does it matter that the video doesn't show what they say it does?

(Well, Fox News Viewers aren't known for their attention span, or even reading the actual articles, just reading headlines - so I'm pretty sure they'd not watch the actual video lol.)

Now, The Daily Mail (The Fox News of Britain), had a similar headline, but at least there's one small sentence near the bottom that quotes bystanders claiming the truck driver first had tried to crash his truck into protesters - which is what I already suspected happened, because it's becoming a common tactic of the far right/Trumpers - crash your car into protesters. 

Their video shows you the man sitting on the ground, and one guy trying to kick the guy (with someone holding him back) - with no video footage available of what had happened just prior. 

Apparently,  the truck driver was pulled from his truck and told to sit on the ground and wait for police to arrive - which you can hear, in few of these clips. 

However, police were busy marching and throwing tear gas elsewhere.  

I'm not sure what happened next, if there was some sort of verbal exchange, but it did end with the man beaten (with some trying to hold the beaters back.)

I doubt I would beat someone for trying to intentionally crash their car into me, I'd wait longer for police and ignore what he said until they got there - but I could certainly understand why people would. 

I'm not saying that beating a man is okay, ever - or that groups of people don't abuse their power/strength in numbers and decide to just bully and beat some random person, often the most vulnerable people in our society - in fact, that was the entire point of Lord of the Flies.

However, this particular story does make more sense, if it's true that the truck crashed while trying to run into protesters, and then they dragged him out of the truck.  


Because many trucks and cars were going by - why that truck, and what caused the crash? 


Though it's still a bit early, and has yet to be confirmed, the explanation given by bystanders would answer that question - that the truck driver had first tried to drive his truck into protesters, he was pulled out and told to stay seated until police arrived, and after verbal altercation, violence ensued.

And as I said, driving your truck into protesters has become a very common tactic from the far right, in the past few years.



Again, like I said below, what is most amazing to me, however, about modern right-wing news, that on the very same page, when it's Belarus protesting Lukashenko's lies, Fox News tells the truth about mostly peaceful protesters being the victims of police brutality in Belarus - and nobody notices the blatant hypocrisy? lol. 

Oh, and by the way, Putin endorsed Lukashenko, over the weekend.

Well, of course he did - that kind of fraudulently elected/dysinformation/dictator-authoritarian leadership is right up his alley.

I'm waiting for Putin's puppet, Trump, to do the same ;)

He certainly hasn't condemned it.  Or said anything at all about Belarus. 

That is because he's too far up his own election arse, trying to attack the USPS to prevent voting by mail and desperately spreading dysinformation to try to win again, instead of being a country and world leader, as per his usual. 

Once again, authoritarian dictatorship-type rule - regardless of right or left politically 0 is  violent by its very nature and will only result in further violence - this has been the case historically, every single time. 


That's the problem with right-wing news - their readers never critically think and ask questions like, "Wait, WHY was the man's truck crashed in the middle of a city street?"

That was the first question I asked when I read these headlines.

I guess that thought never occurs to their readers?  

They just readily accept a version of a story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, the way they tell it  lol.


PS/Update:  8:37 p.m.

As I mentioned when I wrote this post, myself, and apparently commenters at Fox News, noted the video they featured showed nothing at all. 

I just checked back - and sure enough, they have changed the video, making no mention whatsoever of having done so.

However, the video still begins after the man was pulled from his truck (allegedly after trying to crash his truck into protesters) or being told to stay seated until police arrived before the beating began - and the video DOES show people trying to pull the one guy trying to kick him back. 














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