Fox News: "Pepper spray is a food product essentially"

[Zostrianos]

Again, Faux News stops at nothing to spin events their way. When commenting on the recent pepper spraying of peaceful protesters, they called the peaceful sit-in a crime (in a "liberal" campus), and dismissed the danger of pepper spray as just a food product:
http://gawker.com/5861688/its-a-food-product-essentially-fox-news-starts-spinning-pepper-spray-cops

‘It’s a Food Product, Essentially’: Fox News Starts Spinning Pepper Spray Cops

Tonight, Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly got to talking about a UC Davis police officer's appalling use of pepper spray on nonviolent protesters over the weekend. Guess what direction the conversation took!

If you guessed "needlessly deferential to authority and dismissive to the suffering of protesters," you guessed correctly!

"I don't think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police," O'Reilly says, "particularly at a place like UC Davis, which is a fairly liberal campus." God forbid! We'd never want to question Lt. John Pike's decision to generously and indifferently dust peacefully sitting protesters with pepper spray from only a few feet away. Especially given that Davis is, you know, a liberal campus! And, gosh, even if we were going to Monday-morning quarterback the police, shouldn't we remember, as Megyn Kelly tells O'Reilly, that pepper spray is "a food product, essentially"?

Now, look, Kelly and O'Reilly aren't saying the cops did the right thing! God, no! "I agree [the tape] looks bad," Kelly says. It's just that the protesters were sitting in a place where they weren't allowed to sit, so it's kind of their own fault! And in any event what right do we have to judge a cop for spraying a simple food product on the faces of a bunch of liberal college kids doing something criminal? You know? Maybe he was just trying to feed them?

I'd love to see what O'Reilly and the other scumbags at Faux News would say if they got some "food product" on their face. I hope someone volunteers to show them what it feels like.

[R_P_A_S]

The argument that the police felt threaten is comical.. How can you feel threaten when you are armed with guns, pepper spray, batons and protective riot gear???

The students have neither.

[socialistjustin]

Yeah its fucked up to say that, but what else should we expect from Fox? It would be news if they said any different really.

[RedZero]

For added lulz:


Megyn Kelly on mustard gas: "It's a hot dog condiment, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on nuclear weapons: "It's a microwave dinner, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on tasers: "It’s static cling, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on rubber bullets: "It’s a pencil eraser, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on Guantanamo: "It's a Caribbean vacation, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on waterboarding: "It's a water park ride, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on homelessness: "It's urban camping, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on Jerry Sandusky: "It's mentorship, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on zip-tie handcuffs: "It's a Live Strong bracelet, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on stress positions: "It's like yoga, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on fingernail extraction: "It's a mani-pedi, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on genital mutilation: "It's a Brazilian wax, essentially!"
Megyn Kelly on Auschwitz: "It was a three-star hotel, essentially!"

[RedGrunt]

The argument that the police felt threaten is comical.. How can you feel threaten when you are armed with guns, pepper spray, batons and protective riot gear???

The students have neither.


He fucking walked OVER the students. Like wtf, you surely felt threatened.

[socialistjustin]

The best part was when O'Reilly implied that the cop should feel threatened because it's a Liberal campus. The Liberals did what they always do, chanted "shame on you". Powerful stuff that would have any cop reaching for the spray.

[Sasha]

aNYobXLCUhY

[Jimmie Higgins]

1) I'd love to hear what they called it if some protester or student used normal (not the 10x natural pepper strength police) pepper-spray on a cop. My guess: assault with a potentially deadly weapon.

2) I hope more of the right-wing takes up this rhetoric - maybe we can get to see some of them try it live on television like when right-wingers were water-boarding themselves to argue that it wasn't really torture.

3) Lol RedZero's post!

Megyn Kelly on waterboarding: it's a throat lozenge essentially

[ВАЛТЕР]

Sorry, I just had to post this here lol:lol:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/377082_141077552665792_121408401299374_195644_9438 15095_n.jpg

[Zukunftsmusik]

Stupid Fox being stupid, as usual. Although I normally think newspapers and tv stations here in Norway aren't as, well, stupid as Fox, I must say I got quite angry at the biggest newspaper here in Norway (liberal, of course) for their angle on the same case. Or, the problem was in fact that they didn't make a case out of it, they just had this picture of a protester getting pepper spray in her face and mouth, with a comment below saying something like "she won't need that much spicy food from now on" or whatever. I mean, this was police brutality and instead of writing about it, you make fun of people getting hurt?

[kashkin]

The insanity is strong in this one. No seriously, how do people still take Fox News seriously? Sure, they support bourgioes interests, but they are absolutely insane, they don't sound appealing at all to fence sitters. Unless of course the purpose of Fox News is to preach to the choir to maintain dogmatism.

Also, do many working class people in the US listen to Fox News?

[ВАЛТЕР]

Also, do many working class people in the US listen to Fox News?

Having lived in the US I can say that Fox News is generally well received by the white working class, who are often times right-wing reactionaries. Many of them only believe Fox News and claim that the others are the "liberal media" while they claim Fox News is a fair source of information. It is extremely frustrating.

[kashkin]

That's too bad, but what else should one expect with such reactionary propaganda everywhere. I hope the austerity measures help people realise the material realities of our world (not that I support pushing austerity on workers, just that some good could come out of it).

[Invader Zim]

Heavy handed and illegal police actions defended by the republican arm of the media; who'd have thought it.

[Rainsborough]

And I thought the media over here was bad :scared:

[agnixie]

And now the kitchen committee's knives and gardening tools are a weapons cache.

[Welshy]

And now the kitchen committee's knives and gardening tools are a weapons cache.

I saw this picture on Reddit.

http://i.qkme.me/35cjor.jpg

How have the peace-police been responding to this?

[Drowzy_Shooter]

This corn's a little bland. Timmy, pass me the pepper spray :thumbup1: :laugh:

[agnixie]

I saw this picture on Reddit.

http://i.qkme.me/35cjor.jpg

How have the peace-police been responding to this?

No idea yet. I figure at this point they'd have to be stupid to not realize that the cops and media will jump on anything. I swear at this rate they've screamed enough that if a cop got shot for real it would sound like the boy who cried wolf.

[S.Artesian]

Next Congress will approve its use in the school lunch program as a vegetable.

[Comrade Funk]

Having lived in the US I can say that Fox News is generally well received by the white working class, who are often times right-wing reactionaries. Many of them only believe Fox News and claim that the others are the "liberal media" while they claim Fox News is a fair source of information. It is extremely frustrating.Most Americans don't even watch nor care about FOX News/MSNBC/CNN.

[Zostrianos]

I read somewhere that Fox News is actually the most watched news channel in the US. That's pretty scary...and explains a lot.

[S.Artesian]

Never underestimate the venality, the viciousness, the nastiness of the US petit-bourgeoisie.

[Yazman]

Sorry, I just had to post this here lol:lol:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/377082_141077552665792_121408401299374_195644_9438 15095_n.jpg

Funny, but it counts as spam as such posts aren't allowed in Politics. Gonna have to warn you for this one :( Don't do it again.

[Invader Zim]

Funny, but it counts as spam as such posts aren't allowed in Politics. Gonna have to warn you for this one :( Don't do it again.


You have got to be kidding. The image makes a vital point regarding the misrepresentation of a tool and tactic of police repression by the conservative US media. Just because something exists in visual form, and employs satire, does not mean that it does not make a valid political point that actually adds to discussion. What the image states is an accurate reflection of reality and directly relevent to this disucssion - so it is not spam. You should revoke that warning and apologise to ВАЛТЕР for unnecessarily behaving like a jobsworth.